Darkies 10th
After the 9.2 litter, memories and horror images reared their heads when I was planning this litter, and to be honest, I didn't even want to mate Didi. However, I thought that if I take a long break, it may very well happen that Darkie's kittens will never be born again. On top of everything, Didi is already getting 'old' for the first litter, the contract is nearing its end, but the foster home has been the most flexible and understanding in the face of the difficulties of the previous litter.
Didi's first, and possibly the only set of kittens will be born to Satinante's stud Foxi. Their date was a success and they had their fun on March 4th and 5th, kittens due date would be May 6th 2023.
Exceptionally, due to Didi's illnesses, Didi was ultrasounded in the 3rd week of pregnancy and 5-6 embryos were found in the uterus. Let's wait and see how many are born. ❤️
| FI*Darkie's ...bara no hanabira | Color and gender | Status |
| Nagisa "Pöysti" | bluetabby colorpoint/ ♂ | Reserved, kink in tail |
| "Veeti" | blue colorpoint / ♂ | Reserved |
| "Rölli" | blue bicolor / ♂ | Reserved |
| Yui "Marski" | blue bicolor / ♂ | Reserved |
| Akari "Helmi" | blue bicolor / ♀ | Reserved |
| Iori "Napoleon" | blue colorpoint / ♂ | Reserved, kink in tail |
Mated during 4.-5.3.2023
FI*Darkie's Dokujibara no tsubomi, "Melodia" (RAG a 21) x FI*Satinante's Blues Brother Jake Zagreus, "Foxi" (RAG a 03)
Parents pedigrees (inbreeding 0,217% in 10th generation)
20.05.2023
The blue shades are surprisingly difficult to interpret ^^' There are either several tabbies or just one, Didi's silver is strongly inherited in the entire litter, so I can't even use their tales as a hint! Even the clearly patternless colorpoint has a striped tail. :D
It's exciting to have only blue babies in the nest, even more exciting is that there really isn't any mitteds in the litter! It's genetically impossible.
16.05.2023
The gender distribution seems to be 5 males and 1 female, the pattern distribution seems to be 3 colorpoints and 3 bicolors, I haven't been sure about the tabby pattern yet. :) Overall I've had so few blue kittens in the nest that it's interesting to observe how different they are when compared to the seal babies. Of course, compared to Nala's litter, this group already has buckets of color!
Two of the boys (both colorpoints) are definitely pet-level, both have a vertebral defect (kink) in their tail, and one of the boys seems to have a possibly slight underbite. I've never had a kitten with teeth issues in previous litters, one kitten from previous litters (Santtu from the third litter) managed to develop a slight underbite during the teeth change, but other than that I have no experience in the matter. We'll monitor him and the situation and hope that the underbite will remain mild or, at best, that the lenght of the jaws will stabilize over time!
Didi is a phenomenal mother - she's taking proper care of the kitten's needs with ease and after the initial excitement she's noticed how nice it is to lay with the kittens. She's super trusting girl and she lets us handle the kittens without attempting to tear them from our hands during any treatment procedure.
Still on Friday and even on Saturday I served suppliment milk for those who wanted it, the whole litter drank the formula with excitement in the beginning, but after Didi's milk rose up the babies just spat the supplement out and wanted the Real Deal. They are gaining mass properly and are all getting cubby. It feels nice to just be able to observe the babies fussing and actions from the edge of the nest.
09.05.2023
Half an hour after midnight, Didi, according to the nest camera, started her labor. I had just fallen asleep about 15 minutes earlier and my partner woke up to the first kittens meep at around 01:20 am. Didi did an incredible job as a first-time mother and this old!
In the litter, possibly five males and one female, I'll check the genders a couple of times as time goes on, after I've gotten some sleep. ^^' The size range is good, the kittens are all lively, happy and big - the smallest two 91 grams, 93g, 109g, 117g and 118g.
What has happened so far
- 7.5. Still in one piece! On Tuesday, we had a small scare as Didi was extremely restless at the time and mucus was coming out of the birth canal. Didi calmed down when she got herself bathed and after that she's only been extra affectionate and seeking for love. The previous weighing showed 6180 grams, so I'd say we're on target!
- 1.5. At the latest weigh-in, Didi weighed just under 6 kilos, the pregnancy goal being 6.2 kilos (+40% weight), and I'm amazed how close to our goal we are. Just this week and we'll tune our whiskers to extra sensitive, so we'll be prepared for the pregnancy and ready to help when the labor starts. ♥
- 20.4. We have kicks in the stomach! This is what I've been stressfully waiting, medicating a pregnant animal is always a risk, but at least so far it's going well. Her weight is also increasing nicely, on April 16th I measured her to be 5598 grams already.
- 6.4. FINALLY, Didi's weight is really on the rise! 5015 grams showed on the screen of the measure scale. After the call, the food finally started to taste on Saturday. Didi is still very thin after her ordeal, but luckily force-feeding prevented the worst possible collapse. A small pregnancy bump is also noticeable in girl. :)
- 31.3. I called CatVet because Didi's condition still hasn't improved, but the amount of fighting along with medication and force-feeding has increased greatly. Didi also developed diarrhea the day before yesterday when I measured only 4.37 kilos... Stopped the antibiotic 2 doses short and will continue the intestinal support treatment with Enteromicro and Kaopekt Forte.
- 28.3. Didi's weight is 4.5 kilos in CatVet. New blood tests were taken, the uterus was ultrasounded. The uterus is still clean and now possibly six pulsating embryos were found. It turned out that Didi's amoxicillin antibiotic has been given up to four times (!!) the dose. The strength of Clavaseptin prescribed to Didi was 200mg/50mg, 1 pill three times a day. The dose of the medicine was halved (0.5 tbl three times a day) because there were still clear signs of inflammation according to the blood test. The antibiotic alone may cause stomach upset, loss of appetite and fatigue, so it is no longer possible to say what is due to the disease or what is due to the medicine. We are trying Cerenia for nausea, Peritol for appetite and a halved dose of Clavaseptin until Friday. I will call CatVet again on Friday if Didi's condition has not improved before CatVet's closing time.
- 27.3. The appetite still hasn't improved... I called CatVet and got an appointment time for Tuesday. The advice is to continue treatment as prescribed until then.
- 26.3. Didi's appetite is absolutely zero, and she hasn't moved almost at all during the day. We went to Saari again, where she got some intravenous fluids again. With the threat of damaging the embryos, they tried to stimulate the appetite with various drugs, as well as fight against nausea and give opioids for any pain conditions. Despite this, Didi's condition did not start to improve, and Didi had not urinated in 2 days... Let's give more time to the medicine and continue the force-feeding so that she won't not die in our hands. I reserved a checkup time for us in for Wednesday.
- 25.3. I measured Didi's temperature at home when she was extremely passive and distant. 39.7 'C, after which I called Saari's clinic to the emergency room - of course the cats get sick on Saturday. At the clinic, Didi was ultrasounded for fear of a pyometra, but only they found about five embryos with pulses in the uterus, luckily, a clean uterus. Blood was also drawn from Didi, which showed that the girl has acute inflammation going on - the SAA value was 152.6 (reference range 0-10). Because of this, antibiotic treatment was started immediately, assuming an intestinal infection. The clinic also provided intravenous and subcutaneous hydration. After all this when we returned home, Didi ate a portion of chicken by herself...
- 24.3. I realized in the evening that Didi was seriously unwell. She walks to the food dish and is clearly hungry, but turns away after a slight sniff... The expression onn her face is pained, and Didi no longer comes close to cuddle. There really is something wrong. The little food she eats comes up very quickly after eating.
- 22.3. Weight 4634 g, feels like she's being nauseated, she's not that interested in food all of sudden. Could be nausea because of the pregnancy?
- 12.3. Didi's weight 4601 g, a promising start, but I am not holding my breath. It's been near impossible to get Ruusu pregnant..
- 3.-5.3. Didi is having a date at Foxi's place in Porvoo. As she got to Mäntsälä, her weight was 4505 g.