Week 4: More new experiences!

  

Kitten Watch 2024: Caramel and her sweet kittens

By Week 4, the kittens are ready to be introduced to wet food alongside continuing drinking their mother's milk. They also do a lot more walking, playing and even running! Kittens may start to show interest in the litter tray too. This is an exciting age for the kittens as they are getting used to their surroundings and developing strength in their bodies.

Chai testing out the litter tray.

But first, an appreciation of the amazing job that Caramel is doing as a mother for her kittens. After her risky experience during pregnancy where if she had gone unfound, could have resulted in her giving birth on an industrial estate near a very busy road, she is flourishing in the safety of the maternity corridor here at Wales Cat Centre. It is thanks to our dedicated supporters, staff and volunteers that we are able to rescue cats like Caramel from sometimes dangerous situations.

Beautiful Caramel, safe and sound now.

Did you know? A mother cat needs a lot of the right nutrients while she is nursing her kittens, to help keep both her and her kittens strong. It is best to feed the mother a good quality kitten food while she is nursing, as it is more nutrient and energy dense.

Around four weeks of age, the kittens will be ready to start trying wet kitten food too! This usually involves introducing the kittens to kitten milk in a bowl, and slowly mixing in wet kitten food over time. Gradually over the next few weeks, the ratio of food to milk in the bowl will be increased, all while the kittens are continuing to suckle from their mother.

Sweet Cinnamon showing us her lovely blue eyes.

Whoops! Costa doing a roly-poly.

Cuddly Coban - look at his little milk teeth coming through!

Thank you for joining us for Week 4 of Kitten Watch! We will continue to follow the kittens' progress week by week on this blog, right up until they and their mum are ready to go to their forever homes.

 

Please note, these blog posts are not in real time, the kittens are a little bit older at the time of writing. However, we hope you enjoy following along with their weekly development from day one. You will get to see how they grow, change and blossom into lovely young cats with the support of their amazing mum, Caramel, and our dedicated team of cat care staff and volunteers here at Wales Cat Centre.

 

If you would like to donate towards the care for our cats, including those like Caramel and her kittens, you can do so on our website here. Anything you can give, big or small, can really make a difference. Thank you for being here for cats 💜

 

See you next week for Kitten Watch: Week 5! 🐾

Week 3: Introducing the kittens!

 

Kitten Watch 2024: Caramel and her sweet kittens

It's Week 3 of the kittens' lives and while they are still a bit wobbly on their feet, they have started to walk around, play and show their personalities! The kittens are in the important socialisation period at the moment, which takes place from two to seven weeks of age. At this stage the kitten's brain and sensory system are still developing, so the experiences they have during this time will teach them what is threatening and non-threatening. Positive experiences with different people and different things will teach them that these experiences are non-threatening. However, any negative experiences, or no experiences at all, can cause a kitten to become fearful – a feeling that is likely to last into adulthood.

Caramel and all four kittens and a little toy mouse!

Now that the kittens are starting to become more active, this is a great time to introduce you to each kitten and find out a bit more about their personalities.

First up, we've got Chai! She is a tabby female and is slightly greyer in colour. She has white tips to her feet and more of a V-shaped marking on her forehead. She is the most confident of the kittens and loves to play and fight with her brother Costa. She also enjoys climbing on Caramel and biting her ears!

Cheeky Chai, a confident tabby female.

Next, we have Coban, a tabby and white male with a coloured patch on the side of his nose. Coban is the shyest and sleepiest of the kittens. He loves cuddling up to Caramel or sweet Cinnamon, who is the gentlest of his siblings.

Cuddly Coban, a tabby and white male

The other male is Costa, who is a slightly browner coloured tabby with more of a W-shaped marking on his head. He is quite a confident chap and loves playing with Chai. They are very happy rolling around together and like to follow each other around the pen.

Mother and son: Caramel and little Costa 

Last but not least, we have Cinnamon (rightmost kitten below). She is a very sweet tabby and white female just like her mum! Sweet Cinnamon is just starting to play, but is not as boisterous as Chai and Costa.

Caramel with Costa, Coban and Cinnamon (looks like Chai is behind her too!)

We hope you enjoyed meeting each kitten and learning a bit more about their personalities! We will continue to follow the kittens' progress week by week on this blog, right up until they and their mum are ready to go to their forever homes.

 

Please note, these blog posts are not in real time, the kittens are a little bit older at the time of writing. However, we hope you enjoy following along with their weekly development from day one. You will get to see how they grow, change and blossom into lovely young cats with the support of their amazing mum, Caramel, and our dedicated team of cat care staff and volunteers here at Wales Cat Centre.

 

If you would like to donate towards the care for our cats, including those like Caramel and her kittens, you can do so on our website here. Anything you can give, big or small, can really make a difference. Thank you for being here for cats 💜

 

See you next week for Kitten Watch: Week 4! 🐾

Week 2: Starting to explore!

 

Kitten Watch 2024: Caramel and her sweet kittens

In their second week of life, the kittens are starting to take their first steps and get to know the world around them a bit more! By now, all their eyes are fully open and their ears are uncurled. The ears are still very small and round compared to what they will look like when the kittens are a bit bigger.

Open eyes! All kittens wiggling around starting to explore.

Did you know? All kittens are born with blue eyes, which is because of lack of pigment in the iris. Within their first few weeks to months of life, a pigment called melanin is distributed throughout the iris, which causes the eyes to change colour. Usually this happens in both eyes, but if the cat has heterochromia, melanin is only distributed in one iris. This leaves the other iris blue. You can find out more about some interesting cat eye facts on the Cats Protection website here.

Cinnamon (female) and Coban (male) playing together - don't they both look so much like their mum!

Little Costa, one of the male kittens.

And now for a special treat! We have a short video to show you, of the kittens cuddling with Caramel and wiggling around - learning how to use their legs and paws!

We will continue to follow the kittens' progress on this blog over the next few weeks, right up until they and their mum are ready to go to their forever homes!

Please note, these blog posts are not in real time, the kittens are a little bit older at the time of writing. However, we hope you enjoy following along with their weekly development from day one. You will get to see how they grow, change and blossom into lovely young cats with the support of their amazing mum, Caramel, and our dedicated team of cat care staff and volunteers here at Wales Cat Centre.

 

If you would like to donate towards the care for our cats, including those like Caramel and her kittens, you can do so on our website here. Anything you can give, big or small, can really make a difference. Thank you for being here for cats 💜

 

See you next week for Kitten Watch: Week 3! 🐾

Week 1: Kittens' first week!

Kitten Watch 2024: Caramel and her sweet kittens

It's Week 1, and Caramel is already such a wonderful mum! She has been carefully looking after her four kittens: Cinnamon, Coban, Chai and Costa, and getting to know them in the safety of her maternity pen. Here they all are feeding and snuggling with Caramel, while she gets some well-deserved comfort on her soft bed.

Caramel and kittens enjoying their first week together.

All kittens are born with their eyes closed and ears folded. This means they can't see or hear anything, and rely on their mother completely. This shows just how vulnerable newborn kittens are, and how important it is that they stay with mum as they are growing. Around seven days of age, the kittens' ears can be seen unfolding, but most kittens' eyes are still closed.

The kittens have closed eyes, and ears are starting to uncurl.

By one week of age, the kittens can hold their heads up, and they crawl around to move - like when looking for a place to suckle. Did you know? Kittens need to feed every two to three hours, and in between feeds the kittens can often be seen sleeping - getting their energy ready for the next few weeks of important changes! Kittens get all of their nutrition from their mother in the milk, until they are ready to transition to solid foods at around four weeks of age. You can read more about kittens and feeding on our kitten advice pages here.

Some sleeping, some feeding, Caramel watching over them.

Over the next few weeks, we will follow the kittens' progress week by week on this blog, right up until they and their mum are ready to go to their forever homes. It's great to have you here sharing in their journey!

 

Please note, these blog posts are not in real time, the kittens are a few weeks old at the time of writing. However, we hope you enjoy following along with their weekly development from day one. You will get to see how they grow, change and blossom into lovely young cats with the support of their amazing mum, Caramel, and our dedicated team of cat care staff and volunteers here at Wales Cat Centre.

 

If you would like to donate towards the care for our cats, including those like Caramel and her kittens, you can do so on our website here. Anything you can give, big or small, can really make a difference. Thank you for being here for cats 💜

 

See you next week for Kitten Watch: Week 2! 🐾