Strangely enough, most of the “new” stuff in the UK is either from the US, or based on products already available in the US! The US leads where health foods are concerned and because you have a larger market, there are more people to buy the products, so it pays to innovate in the US.

Plus, the products here cost much much more. When I went over to the US many years back I stocked up on vitamins etc. You are so lucky to have such a wide choice at such great prices.

I must disagree about the quality of the natural choices in the US – you have a much better choice of pet foods w/o the nasties. Like Wysong, Felidae, Orijen, Call of the Wild etc. etc.

Best wishes
thecatswhiskers

How pregnant is your queen? Has she kittened yet?

As far as I know, nipples start “pinking up” or getting more prominent from week 3 onwards. But some queens’ nipples don’t pink up much and hardly change during the pregnancy.

It isn’t the size of the nipples pre-birth that is important. What is important is what happens after the queen has given birth. The combination of birth hormones, kittens suckling and kneading the teats is what causes the milk to descend.

When you say the first litter wouldn’t suckle, you didn’t say why. Sometimes kittens are born too early and don’t have the suckling reflex. Sometimes the queen isn’t producing milk – this is not related to the size of the nipples at all, but to whether she is producing the hormones to encourage milk production. You need to have a vet administer oxytocin to encourage milk production. And if the kittens aren’t suckling then you may either have to try to encourage them to suckle by holding them up to the nipples, and squeezing the teat gently to see if you can express some milk. If not, you will have to tube feed the kittens.

You can also get very good expert advice from the Novice Breeder’s Forum on yahoo groups:

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/NoviceBreederAdvice/

Here’s a very nice and cool video too that I found in youtube while I was searching for cats and dogs video clips.. it’s the “puppies and kittens dvd”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF6mmaawyws

Check it out!:) you’ll see how well they bond and interact with each other.. I can’t believe they can make such a wonderful video.. it’s inspirational and educational since it shows us how puppies and kittens behave with each other..:)

My baby Bama was diagnosed with FIP when he was 9 months old, in April 2009. My vet started him on antibiotics and B12 shots every week. He kept telling me he didn’t think he was suffering, just uncomfortable. I believed him, because Bama, up until his final week was chipper, walked around with his big gut, and still had a decent appetite. He would have his good days, and his bad days…but it always seemed there were more of the good.
Then all of the sudden, he just went downhill so fast. I went from one day giving him an antibiotic 2 times a day and watching him eat on his own, to watching him not eat at all, and just lay in the middle of the floor, confused.

The final week of his life, I was force feeding him baby food, giving him eye droppers with water, increased his antibiotic to three times a day. I took him to the vet, and he said Bama was still fighting, and it wasnt’ his time to go yet. Grateful and selfish, I took Bama home. Three days later, I woke up to him screaming and howeling, and gasping for air. I called the emergency vet (which was an hour away…since all of the other local vets were closed. It was a Sunday), and they told me he was dying, and to make him as comfortable as possible. So, all I could do was pet him and cry, and watch him howl in pain until he took has last few breaths. I still don’t know what he was feeling, what was happening to him internally that caused him so much pain. I don’t understand why my vet didn’t put him down when I brought him in, so we could have avoided his suffering.
This was 3 months ago. I still cry every day and cannot forgive myself for having him suffer for so long.
His brother, Mickey has been tested and is not a carrier and doesn’t seem to have any signs of the disease. He has been extremely lonley since Bama passed. He would walk around the house screaming and crying looking for him. So,we got a new little girl (Gidget) for Mickey…and I am watching her like a hawk. I’m so afraid that she will come down with FIP as well. I have sterilized the entire house, put all of Bama’s toys in a box…since I didn’t have the heart to throw them out, and got a new litter box. I am so sorry for anyone who has to go thru with this. My heart is broken.
Sue,
Mom of Bama – Born July 2008, and passed away June 14, 2009.