A nest of kittens

This is a stray cat we’ve called Della – she’s made herself quite at home with us and has found a good place to have her kittens.   We like our residents to have as much freedom as possible, so while we keep the pregnant ladies confined to quarters, they are not kept in pens but have the run of a large stable block.    If they don’t have enough room to move around they often have birthing problems, so exercise is obviously as good for feline pregnant mums as it is for people.   It’s a natural environment and they can climb and sit on hay bales and they can go outside in the runs if they want some fresh air.  If we let them have complete freedom the reality is that they would find somewhere really secret to have their kits.  That would be fine except we wouldn’t see any of the babies until they were out of the nest and nearly weaned.   By then they would be hissy-spitty wild kits and it would be very difficult to catch them and even harder to tame them.   So long as we can get to the kits we can give them a fuss and teach them that human’s aren’t so bad.   Especially when they bring kitten pouches and fill dishes with Babycat!    Cats kept in groups also have the chance to make friends and socialize.   If there are any feuds we separate the antagonists very quickly.  Mostly the cats get on well, they sometimes criticise each other but usually they like to gossip and chat about what’s going on.

The only puzzling thing about Della’s litter is that there are rather too many of them and some are the wrong size.   When we saw another cat in there with her we realized she had kittened in a friend’s nest and they are multi-suckling.    This is a frequent occurence when cats are friends.   Some of the kittens are older and bigger but the tiny tots are still getting their share of the milk bar.   How many kits are there?   We didn’t want to disturb and aren’t quite sure – two greys, a calico, a tortie, a white, another calico….. I give up!    It’s best not to handle new borns in case the scent of them is changed and mum decides she doesn’t want them any more.   The bigger ones can be nursed but the littlies had better stay close to mum for a while.

We’re always hungry!    A bag of cat biscuits would be lovely – buy in our online shop – pay by paypal.   Many thanks.   [donate]