2020 : Jemima's litter with Deglet Nour Homepage  

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You may skip directly to : birth    weight curves   naming
first two weeks    first individual portraits    mid-august
4th week   5th week   6th week   3rd month   2021    

When Jemima and Deglet Nour meet again

Deglet Nour des Fauve & Or (pedigree), 11.5 years old cinnamon somali, sired Jemima and Noisette's kittens last year,
and was chosen to sire a new litter with Jemima this year.

   Deglet Nour

Deglet Nour arrives and sees Jemima... « Hmm Hmm she rings a bell... »

How many babies in Jemima's tummy ?

Hard to know... the ultrasound had revealed 5 kittens,
but the X-ray one week before the birth left the vet and us in doubt : 6, 7, even 8 ???
In any case, Jemima's daughter Noisette does not leave her mom for a week now :

Jemima et Noisette

Jemima and Noisette enjoy the grass (inside the protected area) the day before...

... the birth - 27 July 2020

Contractions begin around 9 a.m.

Jemima
Jemima trying to find some freshness on the tiled floor

10h03 : the first kitten is born ! It's an 80 grams ruddy female.
As soon as she's dry, I fit her with a little pink felt collar.
She's got the privilege of choosing a tit without competition yet !

F1

10h53 : a second kitten is born, an 84 grams ruddy male, he will have a blue collar.
12h20 : a second ruddy female, 77 grams (yellow collar)
13h33 : oh, an 82 grams cinnamon male (green collar)
15h05 : a second ruddy male, 91 grams (brown collar)
15h38 : a thirs ruddy female, 85 grams (orange collar).

Here they are all with mom.
Finally, there were « only » 6 kittens, which is a good thing,
since it's already more than enough with only 3 productive tits !

Jemima et ses 6 chatons

First picture of the whole litter : Jemima purrs, she's happy.

The first two weeks

Noisette decides to join Jemima in the nest to take care of the babies.

6 chatons   6 chatons et mamans

The babies are well cared for and super-clean, they are kept warm by two « mums ».

However, the kittens must take turns to feed, so there are quite a few fights to access the milk bar.

So I weigh the kittens every 3 hours during the day and gives them some complement when needed,
to ensure the weight curves don't become too... chaotic.

9 August 2020: first individual portraits

All the kittens have opened their eyes to the world at one week old.
During their second week, I moved them from the « maternity box » towards a larger space:
a large exhibition-type case, open for mum but preventing them from falling out, with a soft and warm vet-bed inside.

3 ruddy females: F1 (pink collar), F3 (yellow), et F6 (orange)

F1   F3   F6

Three males : M2 (blue collar), M4 (the only cinnamon male, no need for a collar any more !), M5 (brown collar)

M2  M4  M5

15 August (in French, "mi-août" is pronounced the same as the "miauw" of the cats)

They begin to push on their paws to raise their bellies... try to walk, to sit, to explore the cage.
They also start to touch each other with a hesitant paw (sometimes tumbling down
because the equilibrium on 3 paws is not yet quite mastered).

Here are their portraits, ears are already gone up quite a bit :

3 ruddy females: F1 (pink collar), F3 (yellow), et F6 (orange)

F1   F3   F6

3 males : M2 (bleu collar), M4 (the only cinnamon male), M5 (brown collar)

M2   M4   M5

The cinnamon male won the contest of the best sitting position:

M4

4th week : 16 to 23 August

On Sunday 16, I move the kittens from the large cage towards a much larger enclosure, on the ground level,
so that they can start to explore the whole room while having a snug nest to come back to.

They mom Jemima and sister Noisette have decided that coming back to the cage next to my bed at night
is not needed any more... So, the same evening, a few minutes after I transferred back the family from
the enclosure to the cage, they took the kitties one by one and brought them back to the ground level.
Well, in that case, no need to discuss, I follow their advice, it seems to be the right moment for this.

The kittens are now in the enclosure (with open mesh door), with mom and 2 baby-sitters : Noisette and now also Edelweiss!

une maman et deux baby-sitter   tous avec Noisette

Left : Edelweiss and Noisette in the background, Jemima engulfed under a sea of kittens in the front.
Right : Noisette keeps the babies while Jemima goes for a stroll.

After the pink-collared female and the brown-collared male started paving the way,
all the kittens quickly got out of the enclosure to explore the room,
visiting the adult's pet feeders, the space underneath the furniture, ...
They also start to play with other objects (starting to kick the rolling toys, ...)

Here are their portraits on 21 August:

3 ruddy females: F1 (pink collar), F3 (yellow), et F6 (orange)

F1   F3   F6

3 males : M2 (bleu collar), M4 (the only cinnamon male), M5 (brown collar)

M2   M4   M5

Now they don't want bottle feeding any more nor gastric tube feeding,
and mom's milk is plentiful but still a bit hard to get when you have to make turns...
They lick my finger (with milk, cheese, kitten mousse) but don't yet lick from plates.

The encounters between children and the kittens are always fascinating and the occasion to learn a lot for each of them.

EG-F1    CG-F3

Left : Elliot (2 years old) with « little pink one »
Right : Clémentine (4.5 years old) with « little yellow one »

5th week: starting to eat solid food

Since they reached 4 weeks old, a lot of changes have happened!
They now all start to eat pâté, kibbles (either softened by kitten milk or raw),
drink alone from the water fountain, climb the lower cat trees,
and start to use the litter box.
They improve their agility every day and start to try jumping... almost.

Here is a 6-ray star on the day of their first month (27 August):

6 chatons somalis - premier repas

And their portraits at 4.5 weeks old

From left to right, the 3 ruddy females:

F1   F3   F6

And now the 3 males, from left to right:

M2 et Pépite   M4   M5

6th week - we move faster and faster...

I had found coloured silk paper to match each one's collar to take the traditional pictures
inside a small fruit basket... but they move so fast that I didn't succeed to get a correct
picture while they were in the basket !

3 ruddy females: F1 (pink collar), F3 (yellow), et F6 (orange)

F1    F3    F6

3 males : M2 (bleu collar), M4 (the only cinnamon male), M5 (brown collar)

M2    M4    M5

During the week-end, they mastered (by themselves) to climb the tree trunk beside the heater
(picture at right, the climbing process now takes them less than 3 seconds !)

In between two mock fights, climbings, tug-o-war etc., there's nothing like a mummy to recharge the battery !
Jemima is submerged by a wave of kittens all wishing to drink at the same time...

Jemima and 6 kittens   grimpe

And now the close-ups of Sunday 6th September:

3 ruddy females: F1 (pink collar), F3 (yellow), et F6 (orange)

F1   F3    F6

3 males : M2 (bleu collar), here with Edelweiss who will be 11 years old next week and shows infinite patience with the kids,
M4 (the only cinnamon male, looking more and more like his dad, his ever-surprised look included), M5 (brown collar)

M2   M4    M5

7th week - we have names !

The naming ceremony has begun...

For the females :

For the males :

Roudor

Their portraits at 7 weeks old:

The females: R'Maïnie (ex-F1, pink collar), Rusalka (ex-F3, yellow collar), and Rumpleteazer (ex-F6, orange collar)

F1   F3    F6

The males: M2 (blue collar) in deep sleep, Roux d'Or (ex-M4, cinnamon) and M5, surprised during his play

M2   M4    M5

Left, M2 and M5 (and also a paw from Roux d'Or sticking out)
At the end of the week we should know which one is R'agon and which one is Ristretto...
Right, M2 and Roux d'Or

M2/M5    M5

Their portraits at 8 weeks old :

The 3 ruddy females: left, R'Maïnie (ex-F1, pink collar) with Rumpleteazer (ex-F6, orange collar)
right, Rusalka (ex-F3, yellow collar) during a quieter period

F1 F6   F3

The 3 males: from left to right, Ristretto (ex-M2, blue collar), with his fascinated - and fascinating - eyes
Roux d'Or (cinnamon), looking very proud in the small cardbox he just "perforated" to test his young teeth,
and R'agon (ex-M5, brown collar) rolling to play.

M2   M4    M5

We are more than 2 months old now !

Time is running... the kittens had their very first visit at the vet
(full examination, chip, first vaccinal injection, buccal swabs for the genetic tests...)

Here are their individual portraits on September 27th (2 months old today)

The three ruddy females, from left to right:
R'Maïnie (ex-F1, pink collar), serious and puzzled after having seen her reflection in the mirror,
Rusalka (ex-F3, yellow collar) and Rumpleteazer (ex-F6, orange collar)

F1   F3    F6

The males, from left to right:
Ristretto (ex-M2, blue collar), Roux d'Or (ex-M4, cinnamon kitten) and
R'agon (ex-M5, brown collar), in one of his favorite activities : toy-spotting

M2   M4    M5

And additional group pictures for their 2nd monthly birthday

males 2 months old

The males : left to right, Roux d'Or, R'agon et Ristretto 

  2 months old kittens

The females (plus R'agon who squeezed his way in) : R'Maïnie, Rusalka, R'agon et Rumpleteazer

In the picture below, you can see them all together in the hanging basket :

2 months old somali kittens

Upper basket: Roux d'Or and Rumpleteazer ; lower basket: R'agon, Rusalka, R'Maïnie and Ristretto

30 november 2020

The three males (Ristretto, Roux d'Or and R'agon) have all gone to their new homes.
Les three females (R'Maïnie, Rusalka and Rumpleteazer) are still with me,
partly due to the lockdown but also because I needed time to choose which one will stay here for sure.
They are enjoying their time together and provide more than enough animation !

Here are their portraits at 4 months old.

4 months old   4 months old

From left to right (both above and below): R'Maïnie, Rusalka, Rumpleteazer aka "Poupée" ("Doll")

Rmainie    Rusalka    Rumpleteazer

January 2021

2021 starts... I finally decided to keep R'Maïnie, who is very fond of me...
Rumpleteazer (now aka "Rumplea") and Rusalka (now aka "Kira") are now living with their own families.

July 2021

To celebrate the litter's first birthday, here is a picture of each grown-up kitten mid-2021.
A big "thank you" to all the owners for sending me updates and pictures.
Will you be able to guess who is who ?

F1    M    F
M    M    F


Weight curves

First two weeks

Courbe de poids semaines 1 et 2

Weeks 3 and 4 (with a recall of the weights since day 12)

poids chatons semaines 3-4

Weeks 5 and 6 (with a recall of the weights since day 26)

poids chatons semaines 5-6

Weeks 7 and 8 (with a recall of the weights since day 40)

poids chatons semaines 5-6

 

 
© Marie-Bernadette Pautet, 2005-2021
Last page update : 29.08.2021