Bruno and Mimi will begin their new journey with their forever families soon. I am grateful for the joy they brought into our lives and have no doubt they will bring happiness to their new homes. I will miss their playful energy but know they will thrive with their new people.
My view today during a Zoom budget meeting. Baby Birmans are so much more fun to watch!
Making progress with litter training - so far I see that 2 out of 3 are getting with the program.
Babies are 5 weeks old already! Holiday's are over and house guests have departed, so it was long over due for babies to move into the nursery room. Have you ever wondered how baby kittens get litter trained? Our babies are confined to a puppy play pen with little litter boxes in every corner until they are reliably trained. We also use a kitten attractant and usually that is enough for them to get the idea. Please note the cardboard 'no climb' strips clipped on the top 1/3 of the pen walls....some litters never need those, but these little monkeys sure did! First one had climbed over the wall within 5 minutes!
Mom can easily hop over the fence to get a break, or use her adult size litter, but she likes spending most of her day cuddling her babies.
Solomyia x Leandro babies are now 2 1/2 weeks old and really growing. Their eyes are open and they are starting to test those tiny legs out. Colours are starting to show on little ears & possibly 2 are tabby/lynx point like Mom.
Babies and Momma are doing great. The blue dots of food coloring on the two girls help me tell them apart for the daily weigh in. Little umbilical cords have dried up and fallen off. Next milestone we watch for is that they have doubled their birth weight around 7 or 8 days old.
First real food for breakfast today. Love these tiny kitten size dishes that were recommended to us! So cute!
Mimi x Leandro babies moved to the spare bedroom today and are having fun exploring!
Sun-Silk Solomiya of Gryphonwood had a great show this past weekend, and became a Grand Champion in the first ring Saturday! Thank you Mary Myers for letting sweet Miya come to Canada!
This past weekend Sun-Silk Solomiya went to her first show. I was a bit worried that at 10 months she would have a difficult time adjusting to the show hall. I should have known better - Miya comes from a family of rock solid show cats that are as wonderful in temperament as they are in type. Kudos to her breeder Mary Myers for developing such a nice line of Birmans. Awaiting the official counts later this week, but my estimation puts Miya about 2/3 of the way to her GC at the end of this weekend. Here is the highlight where she was Best LH Cat (2nd AB Cat) and Best LH CH (2nd AB CH). Thank you to all the judges who found a place for our sweet girl in their finals.
How quickly time goes by! Mimi's kittens will be 8 weeks old this Thursday! All are reliably using the litterbox with no more accidents (yay!) and doing so well eating from a plate. They still nurse from Momma and will continue to learn good cat manners from her for the next 8 weeks. This weeks plan is the first set of kitten vaccinations to protect babies from viral diseases. We provide them with the FVRCP vaccination three times before they leave to go to their new families. Kittens typically retain maternal antibodies from 8 to 20 weeks and these can interfere with a kitten's own immune system developing a sufficient response. Because we cannot easily tell when a kitten may have lost those maternal antibodies the recommendation for indoor kittens is 8, 12 and 16 weeks. Any show kittens that are staying with us also receive a booster at 20 weeks to ensure immunity since they will potentially be facing a higher risk of exposure.
Mimi's kittens are just over 5 1/2 weeks and starting to get the idea of what to do with the litterbox! Yay! Amazon boxes make thethe best play houses at this age!
At just over 4 weeks the babies have woken up! This week they are busy learning how to eat mush from a plate and introducing them to a tiny litter box. So far only mild interest in both. Mama is VERY happy to be able to hop over the baby fence for a well deserved break and I'm rethinking the wisdom of my home office in the baby room. This morning Zoom: 'Heather....are those kittens? Why are they screaming like that??" So much for those quiet sleepy babies!
Mimi's kids are 3 weeks old today and toddling around in their nest. Seal point male, seal point female, blue point male.
Mimi is such a good Momma cat. Babies are spotless and fat. She is one of those gals that was made to be a mother and gains weight while nursing. Love this gal!
Mimi x Jack welcomed babies into the world yesterday afternoon and we are thrilled to finally be able to once again share 'The Secret Life of Baby Birmans'
Day 1 Mimi x Jack 2021
