Babe’s babies are five weeks old and they’re big and playful. They still sleep a lot of the day, but they’re a lot more energetic. Let’s start the collection of their pictures on this site with photos from their first month in the world.
The Kittens’ First Day
As I’ve said before, Babe decided to have her babies in a DIY cat bed I had made for her last August. I used this video as a tutorial, and Babe used the bed several times over the fall and winter until it got a little too snug for her liking. The photo shows Babe in it from September 2023, and I figured it was too small for her and her babies, but she proved me wrong.
Babe started giving birth before 7 am on Friday, 24 May, and by 9 am she had given birth to three kittens and was pretty knackered. She’d have two more kittens, and it got hard to see the kittens in the box. I cut the neckline of the tee to fold it back at the top, but she wasn’t happy with me taking so many pictures of her newborn babies. Unfortunately, I had several people asking to see pictures of the babies. As you can see, she didn’t have a problem telling the paparazzi to bugger off.
A few minutes later she either decided to let me get more pictures or was so knackered she didn’t feel like fighting me anymore.
1 Day Old
Mom went up to see her human Dad for a few minutes, and I took advantage of the opportunity to get a picture of the day-old fur babies. They’ve gotten a little bigger since they were born, but they’re still so small that they don’t cover from my wrist to the base of my fingers. You can clearly see Vito with his white body and a white gap between the strips on his head and down his back. Kenny’s directly to his right, with his white belly and stripes down his back.
The others have their daddy’s stripes, each having their variation on the tiger theme. Daddy is a neighborhood cat, and he tends to get lost when Bobby (Babe’s primary human) or I show up, but Bobby was able to take this picture in mid-March, not long after Tiger (as we’ve taken to calling him) took advantage of Babe being in heat.
2 Days Old
Momma let me take her picture as she stretched out for a break on my bed. My bedroom was the main living area for me, Babe, and her kittens for the first month of the kittens’ lives. I didn’t want to do things in the living room and miss being needed in the bedroom, so I made sure I stayed close as they grew big enough to get around on their own. It worked out well for everyone, and I liked being able to look in on the kids pretty often. I was already taking time to just watch the kittens without necessarily taking a picture of them.
I posted my first image of all the kittens today, and I also posted my first kitten video to YouTube. The video named itself because it is an adorable kitten pile.
3 Days Old
At three days old, it’s amazing how much the kittens are filling out. Mom’s eating as often as she can just so she can have milk for her kids to eat.
The kittens still aren’t very active, but I’ll bet that at three days old, I wasn’t doing much besides sleeping, eating, and pooping. One thing for sure is that I was spending more time putting down my laptop and phone, going over to the kittens, and watching them. I couldn’t wait to reach out and pet them, but I knew it was still too soon.
4 Days Old
I found myself taking a lot of pictures of the kids being fed, and I wanted to try and get photos of the kids apart from their mom. But I saw this scene of the kittens having dinner and I had to get a picture. I also managed to get a little video that went up on YouTube.
5 Days Old
After taking last night’s picture, Babe moved her litter into a larger box. I knew they wouldn’t fit in the original box much longer. This is one of the possible birthing boxes I made for Babe, and it has an opening in the front that Babe can walk through but is still too high for the kittens to cross. The best part is that the new box has a removable lid that makes it easier to take pictures. It’s also easier to watch them, and I love how some of them use their siblings for pillows.
6 Days Old
Before calling it a night, I knew there would be thunderstorms overnight, so I tried moving the box across the room. Babe wasn’t having any of that, though, so I moved them back. When I woke up, I went to check on the kittens but the box was empty. What the hell??? I called up to Bobby to see if they were upstairs with him, but they weren’t. As I went back into my bedroom I noticed something changed.
Babe had considered having her kittens in my closet, but there was no way there was room to set up a birthing area in it. Babe had tried moving the kittens into the closet, but I wasn’t sure about that. Bobby asked me to block off the closet, so I laid my mirror over to block her access under the door. I also put my personal shopping cart in front of the mirror to keep it from falling over.
Momma cat probably saw her kids were frightened by the thunder and lightning and moved the mirror away from the closet door, and when I walked back into the bedroom I saw the mirror had been moved enough to let Babe get her kittens into the closet. Sure enough, when I opened the closet door, I saw the kids nestled snugly in the closet. This is where momma must have brought them during the storm.
I don’t think I have a better picture of the furry family to close out their first week with.
One thought on “Babe’s Babies: The Kittens’ First Week”