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Kittens - Our Ethos. When it comes to breeding, my policy has always been to only have a maximum of two girls at any one time with young kittens. This principle then allows me the necessary time required to spend with each of them, ensuring that they grow in to well rounded healthy and happy youngsters, full of personality, and raring to go ready for the time in their lives when they will leave home, and grow from fully socialised and contented kittens into happy laid back cats.
We have always strived to breed both responsibly, and towards the Breed Standards as laid down by our Governing body, the GCCF. Within our aim to produce kittens of a high quality, we recognise the need to be realistic, and completely accept that although apparently perfect in every way to the untrained eye, not every kitten born is suitable for either showing, or being bred from! Indeed, the vast majority of our kittens leave home to go on to be much loved pets, irrespective of their quality, which to us, is absolutely fine, as the long term happiness of our kittens, and the best home for them is more important than winning prizes! By the time our kittens are ready to leave home, they have undergone two full health checks, and have been fully inoculated against flu, enteritis, leukaemia and chlamydia. They will also depart with six weeks complimentary insurance. They will also have survived an intensive 13 week training programme of how to adapt to living with two totally mad Springer Spaniels - so really, truly bomb proofed kittens!
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FANATIKAT KITTENS 2008
Champion Fanatikat Eshaness, our Odd-Eyed White girl to Achuri Stitchwort, one of our Orange-eyed White boys.
We are delighted to announce the safe arrival of Esha's three gorgeous White kittens
The kittens, who are two boys and a girl, at six weeks old.
The two brothers, with the odd eyed boy to the left of the photo, aged seven weeks.
Oh no!, there's a HUGE bird on my scratching post......ok......pounce and.......yep......GOT IT!
Sadly, we realised at around three weeks of age that our lovely girl was suffering from hydrocephalus, a condition where the skull does not initially completely close, and excess fluid then accumulates around the brain. We have only encountered this situation twice before, when sadly, neither kitten survived, so were extremely worried for this little girl. Luckily for her, around ten days after I discovered the hole in the skull, it closed again, and although we know that this has left her with a very domed shaped skull, and some degree of neurological damage, she is now doing really well, using her tray normally, eating like a little horse, and playing quite happily with her brothers.
Not every kitten you produce as a breeder can be perfect, and my approach to such situations is quite simple - does the kitten have a quality of life which, although not fully perfect, is acceptable? Can it eat, and care for it's personal hygiene needs, with minimal help from me? Can it be seen to be enjoying these to the best of its ability? If the answer is yes, then I would never, ever consider euthanasia, as with breeding not getting 100% perfection goes with the territory, and to my mind, I bred it, and it is my responsibility, and simply 'getting rid' of a problem kitten is not an option.
Happily, our little girl seems to be making massive steps forward on an almost weekly basis, and aside from her obvious domed head shape, and the fact that the pressure from her condition makes her eyes look a little different, all that can be seen physically, is that when she first wakes up, she is really unsteady on her feet, and falls over until she had her centre of balance sorted, as an M.S. sufferer myself, I often do exactly the same, but I reckon she can get back upright faster than me at the moment! We are keeping everything crossed that she continues to build on this improvement, and continues to lead her happy, if a little wobbly life.
Diwali Lord ofthe Isles (a.k.a. Hendra, one of our Blue boys) x Diwali Bygone Daise (Deja, our Black Tortie & White girl who is temporarily 'on loan' back to Charis, who bred her)
******UPDATE ****** Deja's kittens returned home to Cardiff a couple of weeks ago now, and it is just so QUIET here without them. Although we miss them all terribly, it has been a very happy ending to what could of turned in to a total disaster for these guys, and both Charis & I are indebted to Esha for all that she did. The kids understandably missed Esha for the first few days, but are now happily settled back where they belonged, and are really having lots of fun back at home. Go and visit them at www.diwalicats.co.uk to see the latest photos.
Deja also safely delivered her kittens, with both Charis & I in 'attendance' to assist if required! Deja typically had another text book labour, but unfortunately, two weeks on developed a very sudden and aggressive form of mastitis, which for several days threatened the lives of both her, and her kittens. After some very fast thinking, we decided rather then to opt to attempt to hand rear the kittens, we would see if by any remote chance, Esha might consider helping us out, even if it was only to keep the kittens warm and toileted. An extremely tense time followed, as I was uncertain, with Esha being a first time Mum herself, if the addition of an extra five kittens was going to work, as would Esha or indeed Esha's own kittens accept these newcomers? We started the introduction by, whilst stroking Esha with one hand, (who fortunately had as usual hopped out of her box to greet us) using the other hand to take each new kitten in turn, and gently rub them over Esha's own sleeping kittens to get the same scent.
Having successfully managed to get Deja's kittens into the kittening box, and apparently accepted by the others, we just had to keep our finger's crossed that Esha wouldn't return and freak out. We needn't of worried, as can be seen here....
Esha, God love her, simply just got back in, took a quick look, and didn't bat so much as an eyelid before settling down to groom and feed all of 'her' kittens
ItIt's amazing that Esha just somehow seemed to understand exactly what we so needed from her that night, and couldn't have done a single thing better for me, or the kittens if I had asked her to. Happily, we can now report that Deja is well on the road to recovery, and her kittens are thriving well up here with their new found half brothers and sister. In a couple of weeks time, they are fully weaned, they will go back to Charis in Cardiff as planned. Here are a selection of shots, taken over the past couple of weeks..
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Aged three weeks & starting to get in to everything!!
And so finally, it's time to think about going to bed since we've had our dinner
Last one awake turns the lights out!!
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Page updated on Tuesday March 11, 2008
Or telephone us on (01772) 431277 We are located in LEYLAND, LANCASHIRE
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