Sitting for their portraits

As you know, we take a lot of pictures of kittens for posts like these. It’s usually pretty difficult to get them to stay still, look at the camera, or generally cooperate.

Not Pixel’s kittens! Once they got into a pose they just kind of stayed there. They were just very chill. It was actually difficult to get them to pose differently. This is especially surprising for a litter we decided to name after famous explorers.  At an early age they would just wander away from Pixel (who refused to keep them in a nest) and drive her (and us) crazy. We expected this photography session to be rather kinetic, but they just rolled with it.  But we’re sticking with Explorers because “Famously Laid-Back People” just doesn’t sound appealing.

All of these kittens are reserved. 

Amelia Earhart (girl)

Marco Polo (boy)

Ferdinand Magellan (boy)

James Cook (boy)

Sir Francis Drake (boy)

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Explorers

Pixel’s kittens are growing fast! They’ve taken to the move to their new room very well and are starting to explore more. Back in the other room they gave us a bit of a scare at first because Pixel didn’t want to keep them in a nest (preferring to keep them under the radio cabinet, like Lily is doing) and they were wandering off far sooner than normal. Especially the torbie. She just likes to explore!

All of these kittens are reserved.

Look at the camera!

Feeding time

Permanent link to this article: https://atlastcats.com/explorers/

Seven for Lily in the wee hours

Sleepyheads

All of these kittens are reserved,

Lily gave birth to seven beautiful kittens starting around 1:00AM and delivering a kitten every twenty to thirty minutes afterward with no issues. That isn’t to say that there wasn’t any drama, as Lily didn’t want to get into the nest, kept trying to wiggle off of the birthing pads, and so on. Maybe it was first litter jitters, but she was a handful. Her kittens came out almost like clockwork, though!

Since Lily had no interest in the nest we were pretty certain she’d move the kittens under the bed, so we did some  quick rearranging and moved Pixel and her kittens (who are doing great) to a different room and moved Lily and her kids into the kitten room.  What is they say in the Army? We vacuum and Swiffer more floors before 6AM than most people do in a day. Or something like that.

As usual, we put Lily and the kittens in the nest but we know the game and placed fleece strategically around the room. Sure enough, she picked the one under the old radio cabinet. (What is it about that spot? Maybe because it is furthest from the windows it seems safest?).

The kittens are all nursing and active, despite being a little on the small side. At this point we’re used to kittens being late and chunky when they come out, like Pixel’s. No worries, they’ll catch up.

We’re keeping an eye on the kitten-cam as Lily is still trying to figure out how to corral the kittens for nursing. Sometimes they will end up behind her or wander off.

Despite being terribly tired, we can’t complain. Seven healthy kittens and no trips to the vet.

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Chubby kittens

First the  good news: We have more pictures of Pixel’s kittens!

Now the bad news: One of them passed a day after they were born. (This is why we changed our process so we don’t take deposits until a week after birth).

The five remaining kittens are doing very, very well. They are getting plump and are already quite mobile. We’re always checking on the kittens but after one passed we were extra paranoid when one wasn’t near the rest of the bunch (Sometimes a mother will know something is wrong and push the kitten away). But no, these kittens just like to wander around the nest!

Pixel is a very devoted mother and is only now not completely annoyed when we check on the kittens or weigh them. For the first few days she would bat at our hands or give us a warning nip. Once she even growled a bit when we came in the room!  Now she’s calmed down and even jumps out of the nest to say hi (or more likely, “Got food?”) when we see her.

All of these kittens are reserved.

Kitten pile

Sleepy

Pretty girl

Always moving

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Pixel makes it look difficult

Good mama

Pixel gave birth to seven kittens this morning, six of which survived. The kittens that made it are doing fine, nursing well, and are very big!

Last year we said of Pixel’s delivery that “Pixel makes it look easy.” This year she tried to prove us wrong. She was three days late when she started to go into labor around 4:00AM.  Of course, she tried to deliver under the bed. We eventually got her into a nest and we discovered that the first kitten was a breach birth. It wasn’t far enough along where we could do anything to help. After an hour we were getting ready to head to the emergency vet when the kitten popped out, and was perfectly fine.

The rest of the kittens came out at regular intervals, except for the last, which took almost two hours and was stillborn. We’ve had long intervals between kittens before and they’ve been fine (sometimes the mama takes a break) and it is always a debate whether we should administer Oxycontin or otherwise intervene. We gave her food with some added calcium but that didn’t seem to speed things up.

In retrospect it could have been much worse, and we were very worried that the breach kitten’s slow delivery would mess things up for the remaining kittens. We avoided a trip to the emergency vet, which could stress out Pixel and her babies, so that was good. It just went so well with Pixel last year that we expected this year to be a breeze.

That said, we have six healthy, hungry kittens and a happy mama!

In other news, Pixel just loves to eat the placentas, so now she has placenta breath.

All of these kittens are reserved.

Fresh, wet kittens

Permanent link to this article: https://atlastcats.com/pixel-makes-it-look-difficult/

Baby bumps

Pixel and Lily were hanging out together the other day and it was the perfect opportunity to compare their baby bumps. Pixel is due tomorrow (Sunday) and is expecting seven! Lily is due almost exactly a month later. She’s just starting to show a nice bump for her first litter.

It always kind of goes this way where for a long time the mom doesn’t look at all like she’s pregnant and the only indication is the pinking of her nipples. Then one day she starts laying on her side like Lily is below and you can see something happening. A month later they look like they need a permit for their wide load and you wonder why you ever doubted they were pregnant.

All of Pixels kittens are reserved.  We aren’t taking reservations on Lily’s kittens until we know how many she is having.

Preggers

Pixel is now sequestered from the other cats in our bedroom and we’re checking on  her regularly to see when she goes into labor. Fingers crossed that it all goes smoothly!

Contrary to the vet’s markings, those are kittens, not tadpoles or giant sperm.

Permanent link to this article: https://atlastcats.com/baby-bumps/

In which many pictures of kittens are taken

Nikki and Lola’s litters are doing wonderfully. They are eating solid food and (thankfully) bypassed the “pooping on the floor” stage and went right for the litter boxes with no fuss. Little geniuses!

Nikki’s kittens have figured out how to climb into their cat tree and are a bit more curious and interactive, but they have a few days lead on Lola’s kittens. That said, Lola’s kids take after their mother and are very, shall we say… big fans of food. They gained weight quickly and are just as big as Nikki’s kids, if not bigger.

But enough of this… You want to see kitten pictures, don’t you?

All of these kittens are reserved.

Nikki’s kittens

(Don’t blame us… Buster named them.)

Murrff (girl)

Meowff (girl)

Burrff (boy)

Lola’s kittens

(From the Star Trek episode “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”)

Lokai (boy)

Bele (girl)

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Just a quick update

Nikki and Lola’s kittens have been growing like weeds! Both litters are getting close to leaving the nests (so much so that it was hard to get pictures that weren’t blurry with movement. But here are a few pictures that came out okay.

First up, Nikki’s kittens. They are starting to walk and it’s only a matter of days before they decide to start exploring their room.

Starting to walk!

Ready for belly rubs

Here are Lola’s kittens. Despite being a few days younger than Nikki’s kittens they are definitely overachievers when it comes to growing and eating. Maybe they take after their mother, who is rather… food focused.

They’re more crawling than walking, but give them time.

Two peas in a pod

Hello there.

All of these kittens are reserved.

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A Long Morning

Lola gave birth to three kittens this morning. Unfortunately, the second one was stillborn.

Lola gave birth to the first kitten two days late and at around 3:00AM (just her the last two litters). She wasn’t pushing or distressed, but when the second kitten hadn’t come by 6:00AM we decided to take her to the vet.

X-rays showed the remaining kittens were positioned fine, but the ultrasound only showed one kitten heartbeat. We were prepared for a Caesarian section, but after a shot of oxytocin the second kitten moved closer to the exit. After another shot both kittens emerged naturally. The second kitten didn’t make it, as we kind of expected.

Very good eaters

Lola and her two kittens are home now and doing fine. They are very hungry and their mama is very protective. We brought her some lunch and when we started taking pictures of the kittens she rushed back, growled, and generally got between us and her babies.

Lola is very protective, so this is what most of the pictures we took look like.

One room over, Nikki and her three kittens are doing great! They are growing steadily and are very energetic.

Meanwhile, in the next room over…

All of these kittens are reserved.

Permanent link to this article: https://atlastcats.com/a-long-morning/

Right on time

Fresh and wet!

Nikki gave birth to three  lovely kittens this afternoon in about the space of an hour. All are noisy squeakers, except when they are nursing, which is a lot.

Buster, the father, immediately began suggesting names. However, since we’re not sure of the genders and all of his ideas amounted to “Meowrff” and “Burrff” we gently suggested that he table the subject until a later date.

All of these kittens are reserved.

Permanent link to this article: https://atlastcats.com/right-on-time-2/