Hi
I'm fostering for Cats Protection and at the moment have a litter of 4 and a half week old kittens with their mum.  She is a brilliant mum - I've had them since they were 6 days old.  Anyway, having only had canine litters before, apart from hand-rearing a litter of kitens, I've got a couple of questions as this is all quite new to me.

The mum is beginning to get quite rough with them - she grabs them and play fights with them.  I'm sure she's not being nasty as it will end in licking, but is this OK?  She even does the back feet kicking thing.

The other question is to do with weaning.  I've been feeding the mum with Royal Canin weaning food and now the kittens have free access to it.  I have seen one of them eating quite frequently but not the others, and I don't see her feeding them much either so am worried they won't be getting enough.  I know I could put smellier wet food down which might encourage them but the mother came to me with a history of a very sensitive stomach and diarrhoea and I don't want to upset her!  Is there anything else I should be doing?  They are using the litter tray (and one particular bed!) to wee, and I think she must still be sorting their poo as I haven't seen any.

I have to add that they are adorable and I'm really enjoying having them here!! :)

Thanks for any advice.

Is the mum possibly quite young? It sounds like she might be, as you don't often see queens playing rough with their kittens until they are quite a bit older -although as long as they are not hurt, I wouldn't worry too much. As for weaning -normally you would not start weaning until 6 weeks of age, with some kittens leaving it even later -if some are starting to try solids now it most likely does mean that the mum is short of milk. If mum has plenty of milk some kittens won't touch solids until 8 weeks, and twice I've had a kitten that refused until ten weeks of age. But those where mum ran out of milk tend to start at around 4 weeks. I'm not always happy about this as their systems aren't really mature enough to cope with it. Definitely avoid dry food and just use wet. (I had a kitten once that did start early and when he picked at his mum's dry kitten food, he got a kidney infection -his kidneys were too immature to cope with dry food. He's a big strapping 3 year old now though so all ended well but he did need antibiotics.) You may well have to top up the kittens with milk a bit, especially the one that isn't eating as much. Best milk to use is Cimicat (available from the vet, can be hard to find elsewhere although some petshops carry it). Just feed with a syringe so there is no chance of mum stealing the milk and getting an upset stomach. If you do it just say 3 times a day, it should be enough.

It's typical for young kittens to wee where they shouldn't -give them a few more weeks and it will all be in the tray, they do learn. Check to make sure they can all get into the tray easily as sometimes you need a smaller tray with lower edges to start with.

Good luck! :)

Hi Marianne

Yes, the queen is only 13 months old.  I think she's getting a bit bored now.  They are all in my bathroom (!) but at night she has free run of the bathroom and upstairs as I shut the dogs and other cats downstairs so that she can have a change of scene and not go stir-crazy.

The kittens are drinking water quite a lot, so maybe Cimicat would be a good idea.  I work at a vets so no problem getting hold of it.

Thanks for your advice! :)

A friend who breeds/shows British Shorthairs weans her's on to Kitten 36 (Royal Canin) soaked in the Top Life kitten milk you can get from Tesco's & Asda's, all her's seem to take to it and she has some good chunky kittens (Although I know that's genes too!).   Then after that they get minced raw rabbit & dry Kitten 36.

I think my Hope gets bored with her kittens too as she has a tendency to grapple them and she is now 4 but then she is a tortie.....and there is a demonic glint in that eye!