More babies for Mama Lucy!

So yesterday we drove down to the Austin Pets Alive! clinic to pick up four more orphaned newborns! Two sets of two!!

Unfortunately two of the babies didn't make it. They were transported from out of town and the person who brought them in didn't give them any kind of heat source. They also went without food for four hours. One of the babies was already fading on arrival to the clinic and she passed shortly before I took the rest of the babies home. Her brother fought to last a little longer, but about an hour after we got him home he stopped breathing. Both babies were warm and comfortable at the end.

The other two however are doing fantastic! They have been named Gul and Gaile, and have made themselves quite at home with their new mama and siblings. They're quite a bit smaller than Lucy's babies, but they'll catch up quickly! They're on some antibiotics as a precaution because both the Austin Animal Center and the Austin Pets Alive clinic can't guarantee that there aren't some germy bugs flying around. The antibiotics will just make sure that neither of the new babies comes down with anything. Both new kittens are nursing really well and are fighting off the bigger babies for their spots on the nipple.

Mama Lucy wasn't fazed at all by the new arrivals; in fact she was trying to get to the new babies before I even got the carrier open! She started licking and cleaning them and carried them into the nest herself. Yet again all I can say is Good Job Mama!

Happy Birthday Babies!

Mama Lucy gave birth to the F3 litter today: Fawkes, Fae, and Figg!

Three babies!

We're not sure yet if there are more to come but we have three healthy babies so far! 

Baby 1 was born at 11:27 and weighed 94g

Baby 2 was born at 12:01 and weighed 117g

Baby 3 was born at 12:27 and weighed 113g 

Mama Lucy: Kitten movements!

Let's see if I can get this to work:

Mama Lucy: still waiting for kittens!

So Lucy is still not quite ready for labor to start. The kittens are moving around almost constantly inside her, and she can't quite seem to get herself comfortable anywhere. She's eating well and is extremely playful despite her huge baby belly. 

I tried to get a few videos of the kittens moving inside her. It's a big hard to see because of her fur patterning but I can definitely feel it when I rest my hand on her!

Cat Pregnancy and Labor Signs

I found this fantastic post by a Bengal cat breeder; great information on what to watch for and what to expect when your cat gets close to her time!

Dropping
Stomach will seemed to have dropped into a lower position. The queen may appear to lose weight and hip bones may become more prominent. The bulge will seemed to have moved from her sides down lower more under her.
(see picture below)

Boiling
I have noticed that almost in almost all of my queens that the day of or the day before they give birth, there is a boiling movement of the kittens. This movement looks almost exactly like a pot of boiling water. If there is not this very obvious boiling movement, I always say “nope not ready, the kittens aren’t boiling yet”. I think the boiling movement comes from the kittens moving down closer to the pelvis because of the contracting of the mother.

Restless
The queen will move a lot. Because she is uncomfortable with the contracting, she will toss as turn every few minutes. She will not sleep for long periods of time. If she sleeps for 12 minutes at a time or longer, I know that she will not be having them that day. If you can tell your cat is not comfortable, check to see if she is contracting.

Nesting
Most queens will start to look for nesting spots about a week or so before delivery and will always be looking for better spots right before delivery. They may even change their mind about where they want to have the kittens during delivery. Usually though if a queen goes into her box and stays there, the pushing faze is about to start.

Eating
Usually about 2 -3 days before she gives birth, her appetite will pick up and she will eat like a pig. Sometimes the appetite drops off the day of delivery, but not always. I have noticed though that the majority of queens get this hungry stage a few days before delivery.

Separation anxiety
Usually a few days before she delivers, she will get separation anxiety from me. She will not want for me to leave the room and will cry until I come back.

Contracting Her contractions will get so strong that she will not be able to remain still throughout them. You should also be able to visibly see and feel her contractions. You will see her sides rise up in a hard ball, or kidney shape or a sideways V shape. When you see the kittens start kicking a lot, usually right after you will visibly see the contraction start. If you lay your hand on her side, you will feel the hard ball rise up. It will stay that way for a minute or two and then slowly recede. As she gets closer to the pushing faze, her contractions will get longer, stronger and closer together. I like to time contractions. I start from the beginning of one and time it to the start of another. I also like to time each contraction to see how long each goes. When the contractions get anywhere from 2-4 minutes apart and stay that way, the queen should be ready to go into her pushing faze. (see picture below)

False toileting
For a lot of queens the sensation of the kittens pushing on her rectum feels like they have to have a bowl movement. If your queen trys to make a bowl movement in the litterbox but cannot go or only passes a little bit of mucus, you can be sure she will be going into the pushing faze very soon (probably with a few hours).

Lactating
Experienced queens can lactate up to 2 weeks before delivery but first time queens usually don’t lactate sooner than 24 hours prior to delivery.

Thanks to the owner of http://www.littleleopardcats.com/laborsigns.html for the helpful information!

Kitten Season is upon us! Or just about....

Hi kitty lovers! I've had a nice long break over the kitten off-season since my last pair were adopted right before Thanksgiving. The bottle baby nursery was able to close shortly after, and the ratio of fosters to kittens flipped. There were WAY more fosters than kittens, so we all got on a waiting list to be notified if/when more babies showed up.



On Sunday evening I picked up Miss Lucy, a gorgeous torbie kittey who is VERY pregnant. This will be my first ever pregnant mama, so I'm very excited! Unfortunately since she came in from a shelter in Houston we don't know anything about her. She's somewhere in her last two weeks before her labor, but that's about all we can tell. The only reason we know that is because we can see the kittens visibly moving inside her, and they only start to get really active like that shortly before the end of the pregnancy. 

Miss Lucy is an absolute doll, and starts purring the minute a hand touches her to pet her. She's got a lovely setup in our master bathroom/closet and seems to have made herself right at home, claiming one of our bathroom rugs as her favorite nap spot. 

She gave us a good surprise yesterday by going into a false-labor; She seems to be having mild contractions, possibly because of how much the babies are moving inside her. Despite the discomfort she's still a goof-ball and wants to play a lot! She's snubbing the kitten chow, but is constantly eating her wet food. 

I'm already so fond of this super sweet mama! This is going to be a great start to this year's kitten season.