Little Paws, Big Steps

Some major milestones for the kittens today. The first happened this morning - every single one of them pooped on their own, most at least in the general vicinity of the litterbox, though only a couple actually hit it. Still, it was clear they all had the right idea, just insufficient equipment to work with (more on that later).

The second happened at the first feeding. After a week of futilely placing gruel in their dishes only to dump it out virtually untouched later, I got the idea to just put down some plain canned food on a saucer without mixing in the KMR. Cindy immediately started eating it. I repeated the process for their afternoon meal, and this time, everybody but Tiny dove in. Four out of five ain't bad! They'll still need some bottle-feeding for at least a couple more weeks, but this was definitely a major step. They even ate some gruel from the dish tonight.

Tiny had a little milestone of her own. She's been somewhat withdrawn compared to the other four, often just sitting in the corner with her back turned kind of hunched over. She hasn't seemed sick, just sad like she knows she's the runt and feels a little left out. Today she had a lot more energy, and was even jumping up and down in the tub trying to get attention. She also ended up with the cutest picture of the day.

I am happy to report that the kittens are now kid-tested. They spent much of the afternoon with my 10-year-old nephew. He kind of spoiled them a little, apparently! When I got home tonight, they clearly expected to be taken out of their tub and played with some more. When I didn't oblidge right away, a couple of them took matters into their own paws! First Cindy, and then later Sam, finally figured out how to scramble out of the tub. So, now, I'm putting that large box one of my new kitchen appliances came in to use as a soft, inescapable landing spot in case anyone else decides to go "overboard" tonight!

In celebration of their new-found ability to eat and go to the bathroom on their own, I got the kittens a couple of presents tonight. One is a muffin pan, which will be their food dish for the foreseeable future. It's an easy way to give each kitten a separate dish, with some spare ones for water and dry kibble, while leaving room in the tub for other items--such as their new "litterbox". The little salad dish I was using just wasn't big enough for five kittens. So, I got them a bigger pan. It still won't hold all five of them at once, but at least maybe two or three can get in at the same time. I wish I could take credit for the muffin pan idea, by the way, but I can't. I saw a picture on a message board a while back of someone feeding a litter of puppies this way. Great idea. Of course, the kittens didn't line up quite as nicely for a picture like those puppies did!

The kittens had their first weigh-in today. Yes, unfortunately, I'm just now getting around to doing this. My house is undergoing major remodeling, and I was only now able to find where I'd packed away the food scales! As expected, Cindy was the biggest at 13 7/8 ounces, followed by Sydney at 12 7/8, Sam at 12 3/4, Scruffy at 10 5/8 and Tiny at 9 3/8. Unfortunately, I forgot to weigh them until after they'd pigged out on their new canned food diet!