Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
A friend of mine found a pregnant cat at her door several months ago, loves the cat but cannot keep the kittens. I've decided to take all five. They're weaned now, litter box trained and eating solid food. It's going to cost me a fortune, but I don't care. I'm retired and am in love with them already; she's bringing them over at 1:00 today. I'm so happy! Look how beautiful they are:
It looks like they may have blue eyes! Wonder if they will stay like that.
These are my friend's pictures; I'll have better pictures later.
Five cats. Questions:
1. Of the five, how would you characterize each color? and
2. She says she can't tell whether they're male or female (and someone else tried, also). Is that typical of babies (born March 9th); and
3. Names? Kind of hard to name them without knowing their sex; and
4. Is the eye color likely to change? and
5. Mom is long hair, wonder what sort of mix they are?
I tend to give my cats people names; I'm thinking Annie, Charlie, Suzie, Maximus, Jennie...if you've had similar looking cats, I'd love suggestions. Mom:
Congratulations on your new family! At six weeks old they are still quite a bit too young to be taken away from their mother though. 8 weeks is the minimum age and 10 or 12 is better. Ask your friend to keep them for a few more weeks.
Since you have a group with both males and females you should plan to have the females spayed by the time the are four months old. The males can wait a bit longer, as long as the girls are done first.
Plan to feed them a healthy wet (canned) diet.
Don't use clumping litter until they are at least six months old.
You must kitten proof your home, the same as you would for a baby.
Be sure you have lots of elevated spaces and scratchers!
Here is a link with some great nutrition and diet info on cats, written and maintained by a vet who specializes.
Maybe you need to change privacy settings on your album? It shows under your name that you have one album but when I click on it, it says there are no albums to display.
And I second what catsmom says. I hope your friend will hang in there with the kittens just a little longer. Mother's milk is the best, their immune systems will get stronger, and also you'll have fewer behavioral issues if they go to the School of Mom a little longer.
Kittens should stay with their mom until they are a minimum of 7 weeks old and ideally longer than that, opinions vary but many suggest 10 to 12 weeks so that they can learn important cat behavior, such as using the litter box.
At that point determining the sex should be fairly easy. Check with the vet about deworming (can be started now) and vaccinations. Check with a local rescue or private shelter to find out about low cost spay/neuter. You can usually get at least the first set of vaccines (including rabies if they are old enough) at the time they are fixed.
Thanks for being willing to help this youngsters - I hope you can manage to not suffer too much from cute kitten overload.
your links not working. but you knew that...
I too agree they are too young to leave mama-worth the wait for two more weeks.
have some toys, scratching posts set up and even a tower or two. get them used to having their nails clipped. the younger you start the easier it will be to do it. at this point you just need to get barely the ends or get them used to having their feet messed with..under o circumstances even think about declawing them and of course have them fixed at the proper time.
indoor only I hope!
wet food only- no dry kibble.
congrats. I would love to have 5 new kittens but sure my hubby would be out the door with his suitcases if I even suggested it. Two dogs and 2 cats and 2 kids are enough for us here.
Changed the album to public (thanks). Either the cats go to me today or they're going to go to a shelter, so there's no choice. OF COURSE I wouldn't declaw them. Goodness.
Maybe you could "borrow" Mom for a couple of weeks. Going to check the pics now!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
