Babies!!

[Bkitty]

My hubby just called me and went out on the river to do some night fishing. He stumbled upon a sac of half drowned kittens-3 of them. He rescued them and is on his way home. He says they are fiesty and wet and look hungry. They look to be about 4-5days old. I ran to Petco and bought bottles and milk replacement and a cage. Im am going to have my hands full nursing them. Please what else is there that I need to know? I hope I can save them and then get them a good home. My heart is broken who would do such a thing?!!! Any advice is appreciated.

[Piparskeggr]

(Read more closely before replying)

While FurballsMom has provided me some good reading, my above comment was directed to Bkittyy.

[Piparskeggr]

Wow, your story of how Beener, Gizmo (and to some extent), the other boys are helping with the kittens is marvelous.

The way you describe it, I can play the scene in my head.

You and your hubby are good people.

[opus88]

good info there furballsmom, interesting!!
and good for you bkitty, for being such a responsible kitty mommy, they will by the sounds of it become very social little tykes..with all the hand raising and the interaction with the bigger brood.....my goodness you have a houseful, and they are all so loved too ♥♥

[Bkitty]

Beener is a turning out to be a great daddy and the others occasionally will hiss at them but also will come up and lick their ears and face. I have 5 male cats 8months-17yrs old. Beener is senile( he is 17) but has taken to the babies like they are his own. They actually tried to nurse on him. HA! But he is very patient and lets them climb and wiggle all over him. Gizmo (8 month old) is a little more playful with them. He nudges them and and kinda rolls them around. Zachary, Milo and Pepper-dont pay much attention. Of course I will continue to monitor them with the boys,, only during the day and evening do I let them interact with my cats. When we are sleeping or not around they are locked up. My vet said too that since my boys are vaccinated and healthy it is ok to let them interact with the babies that it helps them to develop their socialization skills. The babies are healthy as well. Just a lot of work!! My plan is to keep them till they are 12weeks and get them vaccinated and set up spay/neuter before I send them off to a forever home. I will NOT send them to the pound or any kinda shelter! It will look good on their records if they are able to interact socially with other cats. That is my intention of letting the boys help raise them!! LOL ;))

[FurballsMom]

Although it's true that males tend to kill kittens, I've witnessed male cats being excellent daddies, too.  I have a picture of one who was actually snuggled up next to what we had to assume was actually his own son.  And, the kitten was just about old enough to be weaned from his mother naturally.  The mother was a black female and the one we assumed was the father was my mother's brown tabby.  He had the special wider striping than the standard tabby.  The kitten had the same kind of striping.  The main difference is that the one we thought was the father had white paws, but the kitten had tan colored paws that matched the lighter background coloring in his fur.  The one we thought was the father was pretty sweet to the kitten, but naturally we watched him closely being that he was a male.  We knew what males are known to do to kittens.

Animal behaviorists say that our domestic cats' natural life society is similar to lion society.  As with lion prides, the females will share kitten raising duties if there is more than one female in the family group.  As with lion prides, the males might kill the babies.  The difference is that lions do this if the cubs aren't their offspring.  Our domestic male cats might kill their own kittens.  But, then, again, they might not.  So, sometimes the males make good parents.  It's still a good idea to keep an eye on the adult male around those babies.  It's wonderful, though, that he is being such a good surrogate parent.

[Bkitty]

Thanks Opus! We had a scare today the littlest baby aspirated on the formula and it was coming out of her nose and she was choking,,ran to the vet and he gave me some different bottles/nipples-we have to make sure she is really upright when feeding her. My hubby had her wrapped in a blanket and was holding her like a baby instead of keeping her upright or on the belly. Im glad its the weekend. Beener sleeps with the babies, helays in their bed and they curl up under him. Im glad that he does that as its hard keeping them warm. They still cant regulate their body temps and despite all the heated water bottles and cloths i seem them shiver every now and then. :( Ill post more pics this weekend! Xoxo Bkitty