Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Munchy and Nala

Munchy almost never sits still, and when she does, she usually moves towards me straight away when I try to sneak a pic. Finally, she was lying still! But then Nala spotted the cam...


Not helping here, Nala! :D




This pic looks cute but is quite sad actually... when kittens are taken from their mum (or found alone, like these, they were all found around 5 weeks) when they're too young, it can result in certain behavior. Nala suckles on the other kittens, and if there's no kitten nearby, her own paws. She continues with it for a long time, and this isn't so nice for the other 2, so I notice that at times they move away from her. The other day she was going for her own paw at my lap, and went on for around 30 mins, with a few small breaks here and there. I tried various things, bottlefeeding her (but they don't fully understand the bottle anymore and chew on it), giving her kittenmilk, a soft, fluffy blanket on a SnuggleSafe (heatpad), but nothing is working. She's enjoying those moments, but it's behavior caused by the lack of her mum, and that just breaks my heart :(
I do know that there's examples of cats that show similar behavior while they did stay long enough with their mum, but in general, this is typical behavior for kittens that were taken from mum too early, and Nala does it quite extreme in my opinion. There's a lot more behavioral issues linked to the early separation of mum, but luckily I have adult cats and other kittens, so they can help each other and make up a bit for their loss.

The reason I'm posting this, is because I'd like to share a bit of information besides cute kittens :) Kittens really need their mum. We can't replace what their mum and siblings offer, no matter how hard we try, and they have plenty to learn from them that we simply can't teach them. So if you ever find a litter of kittens, don't just take them away, assuming mum is gone! Unfortunately this happens quite a bit. People mean it well, but often the mum is still nearby, simply afraid to come closer when there's humans around. Contact your local animal shelter, animal ambulance or animal support group, and ask them for advice. There's methods to get both the mum and the kittens, and then they can be taken somewhere safe as a family ♥



Nala pretty in a basket :)





Munchy shows she still can't sit still... :D


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