Five Eyes Today

One of Betty’s eyes opened today.  Binky is still sans vision.  Bono and BonBon seem to be integrating vision and motion: Bono was staring at his paws intently yesterday.  Today they had a lot of visitors and a lot of holding.  Next week, I’ll give them a little time in the under-table area, with more travel space than the crate.  Then, they get a substitute mom while I’m away.

BonBon sometimes has issues with nursing: he gets some down the wrong way and sounds bubbly for a while.  I’ve had some other kittens who habitually swallowed wrong for a while, sometimes they’d sneeze it out.

Bonus video: you can hear the purring.  They’re a pretty happy bunch.

 

 

Peeking

Despite Betty being bigger, having the almond-shaped nearly open eye look, and losing her cord first, it is little BonBon who has the first eye open.  I’m leaving the carrier with a little more light coming in now.

 

Wakeup Call

Usually, they sense the air change when I remove the towel draped over the carrier and open it.  This time, it took several touches to wake them up to mob mode.  Temperature and scent must be guiding them, because they do come to me before eating and often return to the crate after.

 

Facetime

After feeding them and cleaning them, I let the kittens snuggle with me lying down.  Even blind and not very good at walking, they know that cats belong as near to the face as possible, possibly inside the mouth.  I’m sure they’d love to have me use my mouth to clean them, but it’s not going to happen.

They continue to gain weight.  Betty and Bono have been swapping the role of heaviest.  But even Binky, always the smallest, is 141 grams, up from 107 on Friday evening.

 

Growth!

Everyone is finally eating well, and it’s showing in their growth.  Betty dropped her umbilical cord yesterday and BonBon went cordless today.  Someone (or more than one) had a poopsplosion after the 2 a.m. feeding, but they are all gaining well now.  They have been working on purring:  after eating they purr loudly, along with the usual squeaking and muttering.  BonBon still fights off the bottle with his legs, but not with as much conviction and his mouth is not clenched.

 

Feeding Issues

Betty and Bono are the big kids, and eat pretty well most of the time.  BonBon clenches his mouth shut and flails away at the bottle, fighting it off.  Once I get it in his mouth though, he sucks (he didn’t much yesterday).  Binky is worse, although there is less flailing, and he’s just barely starting to suck now.  Betty had a couple of bloody poops last night, so I took them all in.  She seems fine other than that, and there guess is just that her digestive system is working extra  hard: if it continues, I should dilute the formula.  Binky and Bono are not dehydrated, despite their poor eating skills.

More poop notes: I’m not sure about Betty, but am sure that every one else’s first poop was meconium, meaning they had not pooped ever before.  That and the fact that Betty, now presumably 6 days old, is the only one to have lost her umbilical cord, and the vet thinks they may have been only 1 or 2 days old on Friday, instead of 2 or 3.

Betty is still a bit of a mystery.  When Berkeley Humane was contacted about this litter, they were told 3 black kittens.  What arrived were 4 tabbies, 3 admittedly very dark on their backs.  The dark boys had consecutive numbers that whatever group found them assigns to all new clients, and Betty was a different number.  Also, she is the only one whose eyes are starting to show an almond shape: not open yet but getting more ready.  She may be gestationally older or even from a different litter, but not much older.

 

Postprandial Post

And here’s a daylight video of them milling about after a meal, and a cleanup.  Their umbilical cords are so long they get in the way with butt wipes, but the cords will be gone soon.  They are pretty good eaters, and BonBon is good at the complete processing.  They mostly sleep until I wake them for a feeding–then there is a lot of panicked squeaking.

The Nexus 7 I got takes HD video so it’s huge files, but it works better in low light and close up than my old camera.

 

The B’s Are Here

At maybe 3 days old, they’re between 107 and 125 grams (roughly quarter pound each).  When the shelter phoned me, they knew of 3 kittens, but when they received, it was 4: Bono, Betty, Bon-Bon, and Binky.  The kittens look different from each other (yay!) but similar enough.  They still have their umbilical cords.  They are starting out a lot healthier than the Ks who preceded them, but each litter has its issues.  I will be touring with the fiddle club in 3 weeks, so they’ll be with someone else then, but for now, they’re mine.