Toddlers

The orphaned kittens are now toddling around, even showing some signs of wanting to play with each other. They gain weight every day. Dev had some apparent pain with elimination, but that seems to be subsiding. We think he was eating too fast and swallowing a lot of air, as his little abdomen was sometimes a bit hard and distended and he expelled gas. He's fine now. We still have to help him eliminate. Belle, on the other hand, whom we are pretty sure is at least a week older than Dev, eliminates on her own now. We inserted a small pan of litter in their box and she used it! That is pretty impressive for not even four weeks old! It is amazing what is hardwired into kitten brains.

We have an impromptu playpen set up for them -- it's a huge suitcase. They play around in that between meals and naps. We have ordered a nice big playpen/cage for them through one of our favorite pet vendors, Drs. Foster and Smith. They'll be able to play safely in this cage in Mr. A's office while he works, until they are old enough to be left at home during the day. He still feeds them formula every 4 hours or so. We gave them a taste of some canned kitten food and they appeared to like it, though Belle is better able to eat it, it seems, probably as she's a bit older and more developed that Dev. Dev is still primarily interested in suckling.

We did also purchase the "Conversion Kit" for the playpen, which includes the ramps and the "hammock". Once we receive the cage and use it with the kittens, we'll review it here. The base price of the cage is $139, not bad for solid construction and portability -- the cage rests on casters so can be easily moved.

We managed to snap some photographs of Dev and Belle, but Dev was always moving, so he's a bit blurry in all of them. Belle is a bit less wiggly than Dev, so she is clear - this is the best of the bunch: