Sweet Disasters

School vacations are always times for me to chip away at my to-do list, particularly for big projects. This spring break, our big project was to remove the ugly brown mulch and shove 6 yards of white rock into our front landscape.   

There were many other smaller projects, but none of this deterred me from letting my rescue know I'd be open for weaning bottle babies. The whimsy world were still with me for the first week before heading out to find their forever homes.  I figured by the time my weaning kittens were ready for more space, I'd have the entire kitten room back.  Until then, I had Pesto's old kennel set up, plenty of space for the single bottle baby that was scheduled to transfer to me on the first morning of vacation. I let the rescue know I hoped they'd find him a buddy so he could socialize properly, and they were sure we'd find someone, but this little white cow kitten came to me as a solo kitten with no name.  The big kids were instantly intrigued and spent most of their night watching him in his kennel.  

A few hours after I got this alien-eyed baby, another foster reached out and said they had a single kitten about the same age they were willing to transfer to me the following morning.  Her name was Leche, because the good samaritan who found her gave her cows milk (NOT GOOD FOR KITTENS!)  With that in mind, I named my sweet little boy Crema.... Leche y Crema.  Although Crema was still a bottle baby, Leche's foster mom said she was nibbling on kibble.  I set up the kennel for her so I would be ready in the morning, and Crema immediately started nom nom nomming on his kibble!! By morning, he'd crossed over the 1lb mark and was pretty disinterested in his bottle, choosing to eat kibble on his own.  I made the mistake of thinking he'd be an easy weaner.

The next morning, Leche arrived, along with 3 other little kittens!! A little gray guy with a corkscrew tail, an orange and white with a stubby tail, and a big eyed calico girl. The gray guy was a suckler, so I had to concoct a way to separate him from the others when they weren't supervised. I blocked off half of my kitten room and set him up with a heating pad (which he promptly ignored completely), litter box, and food/water station.  All 5 babies could run around their area while I was with them, but I'd lock up the other 4 and leave the gray baby out if I had to shovel rocks or do other less exciting projects.  The big kids were delighted and ran on the other side of the barrier, following the babies around.  

Crema made friends with them immediately, frolicking in the group as if he'd always been with them.  When they finally wore themselves out, they curled up in a lovely kitten pile. Crema purred contentedly in the middle of the pile... suckling on the orange boy.  ACK!! We ran to Walmart to buy a big bin so we could make another separate area... Gray boy in his blanket covered bin, Crema in his barricaded area, and the other 3 in their kennel when I couldn't watch them carefully.  Not that they spent much time in there at all, because they were always on the bottle!! Leche was 90% weaned and not very interested in her bottle, but the other 3 are the best bottle latchers I've ever had.  I always started with the little gray suckler so he would be less likely to nurse on his siblings. I named him Cyclone, because of his spiral tail, his spinning around his kibble bowl between bottles, and his habit of swirling around the room in a frenzy before cycling back to me for another turn on the bottle.  Tsunami the calico also goes into a bottle frenzy and loves to scream for her turn, which is how she got her name.  Avalanche is more patient and usually content to continue his nap while his siblings take their bottles, unless Cyclone takes an excessive amount of time.  It's not kind to talk about how he got his name in mixed company, but let's just say I used a lot of baby wipes on him the first few days.  

Crema gained weight his first 3 days before stalling, then plummeting for no particular reason.  He stopped wanting his bottle but tore into his kibble.  My mentor felt he was still too little to not get formula, so we tried canned food mixed with formula.  He ate that for a day then lost interest. So we dewormed him and started syringe feeding him.  He continued to play, purr, and eat kibble, but continued to lose weight. We tried sub-q fluids, which stimulated his desire for formula for about half a day and he gained a bit of the weight he'd lost before he lost interest again.  In desperation, we decided to risk tube feeding him- always tricky on kitten with teeth because they can chew the tube off and end up needing emergency surgery... but we have great mentors who know great tricks to decrease the risk and we were successful.  We also decided to try some antibiotics.  Within the next 24 hours he rediscovered formula and began to bottle again, and he's gained weight steadily since then.  He's a decent bottle baby, licking up milk a bit before latching on briefly, drinking a bit, then wandering off for his kibble.  Despite the frequency I have stuck him with needles, shoved syringes in his mouth, assaulted him with a tube, and other treatments, he's remained a very happy boy that loves snuggle time.

Cyclone is my other "problem" child, but also my spirit animal  His separation bin only contained him for less than a week before he started escaping, no matter how many clips I used to hold the thin blanket over the top.  I had to start kenneling him in the locking box, leaving the others in the barrier section and Crema in the bin. Cyclone worships food.  One morning, I took him to the side, away from his siblings, so he could have uninterrupted bottle time, fill up, and not go crazy when I tried to feed his siblings. He ate for 20 straight minutes while I googled things like "what's a normal amount of time for a kitten to eat?" or "how long does it take a kitten to drink a bottle" and "will my kitten explode if it drinks too much?".  When he finally took a breath, I put him back in his barrier area and took out another kitten to bottle in peace on the other side of the barrier (while the big kittens complained because they were still locked up in their kennel), but Cyclone broke out of his area to climb all over me and Tsunami, telling the entire neighborhood that he was STARVING because he'd never eaten a SINGLE DAY IN HIS ENTIRE LIFE.  A bottle session could take me 2 hours... he would latch on, nursing and purring 6-8x, in between every other kitten's turn.  One of my foster friends that takes bottle babies often was shocked at how much he ate, but we agreed he was actually eating and not just sucking on the nipple to comfort himself or self-sooth.  Despite eating at every opportunity, he has a tendency to drop weight if I follow my mentor's advice to (if you're easily offended, skip this line) "stop being his bottle bitch" and only letting him eat a "normal" amount at each meal. I dewormed him a third time, just to be sure... but he is just an active guy with a fast metabolism that requires large quantities of food.  

Tsunami would be a stand out at meal time if it wasn't for her even crazier brother.  She is very determined to get to her food and very loud if it is not coming to her fast enough. She is perfecting her puss in boots look... huge eyes that stare into my soul, before she goes milk mad and freaks out when the bottle is close enough to her to be grabbed.  She loves to eat with her paws splayed on either side of the bottle.  

Avalanche's plumbing problems cleared up quickly and he's the easiest of the disasters.. pretty relaxed and content in life.  He tends to meow as he is nursing on the bottle, which is just super cute. He also likes to snuggle with the other babies.

Leche refused the bottle for 2-3 days and showed zero interest in me the first day.  But once she felt comfortable here, she transformed into the biggest purrbug of them all and likes to get at least one short turn on the bottle at every feeding time.  She always looks very charmed, but completely bewildered... but she loves walking back and forth in your lap, pushing her head into your hands for pets.

Together, the 5 kittens are the Sweet (Leche 7 Crema) Disasters (Cylcine, Tsunami, Avalanche) and they're such a fun, but exhausting group.  Feeding time takes forever... which also means I need to clean out their litter boxes at least 3x/day.  We are able to sleep through the night now, and we're down to 3-4 feedings/day... but they've got less than half a week to be able to last though my work day on kibble alone.  

Luckily, Crema and Cyclone seem to be over their suckling phases. I've been cautiously increasing their communal sleepy time instead of separating the two bad boys during nap time when they're more likely to comfort themselves... always on Avalanche, because he's just a sweet, easy going guy.  

The best part of this group has been letting my dad give them bottles. He's always shocked at how vigorously they eat, yelling at me because I obviously don't feed them enough. He falls for their lies, every time!!  But he also giggles as they eat and it is SOOOO cute!