Tuesday, May 13, 2008

More on the Orphaned Kittens

The kittens are doing fine. They were shivering last night so we turned up the heating pad and put a towel over the box to retain heat, and they were much happier. Kittens this young are not able to regulate their body temperature, so they need heat from their mother, or, in this case, from some other source. The SnuggleKittie came with heat "pods" that last about 20 hours, so we were using them, and it also comes with a pouch for holding raw rice that is heated up in the microwave. Raw rice retains heat quite well - I used something similar to apply heat to my jaws when I had severe TMJ problems.

Callie the calico is opening his/her eyes! Maggie the magpie-colored cat is a little slower in the eye department, and s/he may simply be "behind" in every aspect of growing as s/he was never fed mother's milk (except for the first two or three days of his/her life). We've learned that they are really too young to sex accurately at this time, so we will wait a bit longer before we give them permanent names. They are getting a bit more coordinated and moving quite a bit more, and Callie can almost climb out of the box! We'll have to get a bigger box.

The SnuggleKittie is still a hit and the kittens sleep on it, under it, or burrow into it. They also defecate on it -- Snuggle Kittie folks, your next invention needs to be a SnuggleKittie that will clean itself! It would be even better if it would clean the babies, as well...

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