Kitten Nappy Change (video)

(Best not read if you’re eating!)

One of the delights of cat motherhood is washing a newborn kitten after its fed.  The action of the mother cat’s tongue on the kitten’s belly and bottom causes it to relax and release pee and poo.  This is then hoovered up by the mother cat.  The equivalent of a human nappy change (but without the nappies)!

In the wild, getting rid of the waste in such a scrupulous manner is a precaution to make sure that predators don’t pick up the scent of the kittens.  It also keeps the nest clean.

Here is a video of Ananda cleaning one of her newborn kittens [takes you to YouTube].

Some kittens must find it ticklish or intrusive because they squeal and try to get away.  Mum then pins them down with a paw and just carries on doing the business.

Kitten Teat Wars! The movies

I wrote yesterday about the feeding frenzy as newborn kittens jostle to establish their teat supremacy.

Imagine what it must be like:  you’re a newborn kitten, you can’t see anything, you’re in a space filled with bolster-like objects that jostle and hurtle into you and turn you round and round so you don’t know where you’re going.  In the meantime, you’re starving but every time you find some yummy milk, someone else is there.  No wonder kittens get so desperate!

Here are some short clips I took this morning to show you just how energetic the kittens can be at feeding time.  They were taken in low-light conditions, so the film is a bit grainy, but I didn’t want to use artificial lighting in case it disturbed the kittens. 

[Sorry you'll have to click on links and not on a video itself.  This is the first time I've ever uploaded anything to YouTube and WordPress is playing hard-to-get when it comes to embedding videos.  When I sort it out I'll stop pulling my hair out.]

This is a video clip: Kitten Teat Wars – Part 1.  A cream kitten and a ginger kitten square it off over a teat.  It looks like ginger has got its teat, but find out what hppens in the exciting conclusion, Kitten Teat Wars – Part 2.

Here’s the sequel: Kitten Teat Wars – Part 2. The cream kitten’s got an impressive left-paw.  Will it stand it in good stead?  Will he get the teat?

And they lived happily ever after …