Kitten Behavior 101

I thought I would just post some information I have learned in the last few days.  As you may know, I have a litter of four kittens who turned 4 weeks old yesterday.  My biggest is 1 pound 4 ounces and my smallest is right at one pound.  The difference is huge when you are talking about little kittens even though it sounds miniscule.

It's a good idea to watch if the kittens go into the box and you happen to be there.  I know it sounds gross but watching them poo and pee tells you how everything is working and looking at the poo, can tell you how they might be doing health wise.  Anyway, I saw that Spot was in the litter box meowing very loudly-almost as if she were in pain.  I watched her and her poo seemed to come out fine (ugh, I know-it's gross) she didn't strain, there was no blood, etc.  Today I asked some of my more experienced friends and one of them told me that the kitten could have some gas that caused pain when she was trying to eliminate.

So, when I got home today, I massaged all of them in a downward motion to try to help the gas come out.  My friend told me that sometimes mother cats will do that if their kittens are meowing like that.

I learned another lesson today, just now in fact.  I was getting fresh food and water for the kittens and mama cat for the evening.  All the kittens were asleep in their little bed except Sunset.  I bring in wet food every few hours but I haven't been giving them the dry baby cat food very often because Scarlet eats it.

I weigh the kittens each evening and I noticed that Spot and Sunset haven't gained very much in the last two days.  Sunset and Spot are both a little more shy and reserved.  I think the reason why they haven't gained that much is that they want to eat alone.  Sunset ate and ate and ate some more when it was just her at the big plate of food.

I think what I am going to do in the morning is offer them all food on their own little plates.  We use lids from butter containers, etc.  They work really well.