Lakeland Animal Shelter

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1 day old

April 4th, 2008

The first few days of a kitten's life are critical, and at this point, they are entirely dependent on Mama. Neither their eyes nor their ears have opened yet, so they are both blind and deaf. They can smell and and they can feel temperature gradients--instinctively they make their way toward mama's warmth. They cannot walk or crawl yet--they squirm or "swim", as some people prefer to call it, towards warmth and food. They cannot regulate their body temperature, which means that without Mama or another carefully controlled heat source, they will die. If they end up too far away from Mama, it is up to her to pick them up or use her paws to guide them back to where they belong. They cannot urinate or defecate on their own, but need stimulation from mom's tongue to help them. Their mother is responsible for feeding them, keeping them close by for warmth, bathing them with her rough tongue, and protecting them. Her antibodies, which are present in her first milk (colostrum) will help to protect the babies, who have no immune systems, from illness. Unfortunately some moms (often those that are young and inexperienced) don't automatically take on all of these responsibilities, and most of our seasoned foster volunteers have at one time or another found themselves desperately trying to pull newborn kittens through after a mom has walked away or even injured their own babies.

Luckily, Mama turns out to be an excellent mom. Mama's foster people have provided a warm box for Mama and her babies but there is enough space in the cage that she can move her kittens out of the box if she gets too warm. Mama has chosen to keep her babies in the box, and they are comfortably nursing. She is alert and watchful, and entirely focused on her kittens. She will step out of the box to eat and use the litter box, but at the slightest cry from a baby, she will jump back into the box, which she keeps scrupulously clean, as the slightest smells can lead predators to her nest. She accepts our handling of her babies, but is obviously quite nervous when they are out of the nest. At this age, the kittens are too young to socialize, so extra handling is unproductive and stressful for mom and baby. The foster mom should only handle the kittens long enough each day to do a brief physical check, and to move them to clean bedding. On my visit, I pick each kitten up--under Mama's watchful eye--only long enough to determine sex, snap a couple of very quick photos, and document descriptions--then it is back to Mama where they belong. Sometimes it is difficult to tell sex on kittens this young, but this time it looks like Mama has 3 boys and one girl.

Unlike human babies, full-term kittens (except for the hairless breeds) are always born with fur. Though the shade may become lighter or darker and patterns may emerge or become more evident over time, the base color and any major patches of color will not generally change. Kittens with the pointed gene, such as Siamese mixes, will be born a solid white or nearly white color, and the points will start to show within a few weeks (though points and base coat color may continue to deepen for their first year). Mama clearly has two orange or red tabby babies, both male, and two brown/black tabby babies, 1 male and one female. Hair length is not obvious at birth, and it will be several weeks (or even longer) before we can say with certainty whether the kittens will be shorthaired or longhaired. At this point their umbilical cords are still attached, but they will most likely fall off in the next few days.

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