Mom got trapped!

Tuesday evening, the same day that I got these 2 kittens, I heard that their mom got trapped afterall! I think nobody expected that anymore, but we would of course try to reunite them. Mom was stressed though, and because the shelter staff couldn't stay the whole night to keep an eye on them (even if she'd accept them at first, she might've rejected them during night afterall), they figured to let her relax a bit and try the next morning. And if she would accept them, would she still give enough milk? Based on the looks, that seemed ok to them I think, but you never know of course. Now I don't take in adult cats, and even if I did, meeting each other here probably wouldn't be the best idea, so unfortunately the kittens had to move yet again... :/ But more on that later, lets continue Tuesday's story first :)

I didn't keep track of time, but it wasn't long after they arrived that I already learned the bench wouldn't work for us, even if I'd add a box or some, so I took one of my travelling cages instead. It opens at the top, and the sides are closed completely, so I hoped that would give them the cozy home they needed badly. And that did the trick :) But oh boy, then they got hungry... So tiny, but what a sound! The other foster home was right about them letting you know when they are hungry, that's for sure! Poor things! I rushed to make a bottle, but especially the male struggled with it, he just wanted his mommy and drink with her, he didn't want that bottle! I used a syringe to get some milk into him (verrrry carefully), and then he calmed a bit and was more okay with the bottle. But all in all, the feeding took a lot of time, and they came for food a little too often that day, and every time the male was all upset and I had to use the syringe first most of those times. I was a little worried for the nights at that point, and especially he can be so loud! On the bright side, I did get them to poo on their first day, yay for that :D That's something mom usually does, she massages and stimulates them to pee and poo, and cleans it all up, and it's something you have to take over. Last year I had issues with the poo-ing of those bottle-fed kittens, and I was worried I was doing something wrong and that it might happen again. So it was a huge relief that these 2 showed I was doing fine for them! Oh, the joys in the life of a foster home, haha :O

At some point during the night, I woke up myself, and I decided to take a gamble and made them a bottle. The kittens were asleep, would they accept my bottle if I'd wake them up? That's when I realized why bottle-feeding the male was hard, I think he was simply way too upset and hungry by the time he let you know he was hungry! My heart broke a little, poor kitten :( They pretty calmly drank the entire bottle, played a little on my lap after, and that repeated itself very early in the morning, with me waking up first and feeding them. I'm so glad I learned on their first day already what works for them. I don't want to risk letting them come for food, I'll try to be ahead of them instead! The male still gets a bit worked up over the bottle, he isn't as good with it yet (his sister often quickly gets it in her mouth in the right way to drink well), but hopefully there's no more wasting energy on loud meows and getting all upset.

Right, meeting with their mom then... The shelter's manager picked them up yesterday morning, and she already said that the mom was really scared. Unfortunately she didn't accept them, from what I understood she even seemed a bit scared of them and kinda tried to disappear into a wall, poor creature :( The kittens climbed over her, but even though they search for nipples all the time, they apparently didn't really search on her, so they must've sensed it as well. I think the staff then tried to help them with that, and then mom started slapping the staff members instead. They're very experienced, and they felt this wasn't going to work, so yesterday afternoon, I got the kittens back again. Unfortunately that again took them out of their rhythm, so last night I wasn't in time with the bottles on 2 moments, but during night it all sorted out again and since then, they've been doing great with the rhythm I'm going for now. Their mom got neutered the next day, and got placed back where she came from the day after. I hope she'll feel all better and safe again real soon!

So waking them up instead, and keeping them in my travelling basket all the time, with a towel over the top, is working out the best so far. Now it's a matter of finding a nice rhythm, give the male more time to learn the bottle, and slowly remove the towel from the travelling cage, so they can take in more information from the outside. But because they got separated from their mum on Saturday, and went to a crisis foster (and possibly the shelter before that), then moved again on Tuesday, then had a fail meeting with mum on Wednesday, pfff... All that moving and different people handling them... That's a LOT to take in when you're so tiny! So I figured to take it easy now with them, make their lives about food, sleep, and cozy spots, and that's going well for us now. And in between all that I'm taking naps and doing the laundry, haha. Especially the girl is learning to just let go of her pee without stimulation, so yesterday they peed over my pants twice, not to mention the towels! I think I'll be adding a kitten litter box within no time :D

To give you an idea on their size, last night I weighed them (at 2.5 weeks), the male was 299 and the female 266 grams. Their 2 siblings in the other fosterhome were weaker, and that shows in their weight as well, those were 240 and 255 grams yesterday. I'm curious to see what mine weigh later today! I'm of course keeping track of their weight and poo moments, and hopefully that weight will go up nicely :) One final thing, before I end my Wall of Text (what can I say, a lot has happened in the past few days :$ ) and move on to the pics, the males private parts are doing a lot better! When he got here, it was all sooo swollen and big and I guess that must've been sore :( They both search for nipples a lot, and well, his sis found something to grab on to, ouch! The shelter has had a similar situation (or maybe situations) before, and they went for something innocent yet badly tasting, and that did the trick. So after his bottle he gets some vinegar on his parts, and that seems to work for these 2 as well, the swelling is going down, phew!


Here they are in their temporary home, a travelling cage. They also have a little blanket, heatpad and plush toy, but this was right after I cleaned it again after a little pee accident, and they still had just a towel

Female

Tiny as they are, they know where the exit is, and will try to climb out when I'm near. As the male shows here!

Male

The female searching for a nipple

They can go from active and drinking to fully asleep in a matter of seconds :)

The male playing with his own paws :) I need to find names, haven't even thought about that yet, but just male and female sounds so wrong, they're so little but they already have a real personality!

This blanket is the only thing that they really approved for suckling so far, but it isn't suited for that at all :( A lot of fluffy bits come off so easily, I don't want to risk getting any of that stuck in a belly!

Midnight drinking

And playing :L