Friday, November 12, 2010

"C" Litter 12 Weeks

It's been a mad house around here with the little guys, and girl, having the run of the house. You really have to watch your step because they come zinging by so fast, you can land on your back if you aren't careful It seems like the team up and four come at once. lol

Everyone is doing really well. Yesterday was their spay/neuter visit and you would never know they had any kind of surgery by the way they are acting. They were playing with the feather wand and attaching the new scratcher they got while at the vet. There were a couple, like Cove and Clary, that it took a little longer for the lethargy to go away, but today, all are back to normal selves.

In the videos from yesterday, you will notice Crescent is the most bold of the kittens. I could see him as a mafia member, "You mess with my family, you mess with me." He knows what he wants and he goes after it. Last night, it was the feather wand. You can't really hear it in the videos, but when he had the feathers in his mouth trying to take it from me, he is growling. lol That is very normal for a Siberian. It's one reason they are described as being more dog-like. Crescent is for sure a character and a bundle of energy when not napping. He keep us laughing all the time. Curious beyond curious, another trait of the Siberian. This boy is an excellent example of what the Siberian personality is associated.

Castile and Clary are the next adventurous. Everyone gives Crescent the rights first, somehow, he just has dibs on anything they do. But, then these two come in and will or sneak attach another and the play brawl is on. It's hard to tell in these videos, because Clary actually had more procedure done than the boys in a spay, but she sure does want to tackle that wand if she felt better. Castile is back and forth. If Crescent or someone is monopolizing the play, he will go find something else to do, usually with Caster.

Cassian and Cove are the in between kittens. True middle children. They will defer to Crescent (they all do really), and don't seem to mind watching and waiting their turn. They have a calmer and quieter sense to them than the others, and reminds me of a tender hearted little boys. They loves to be cuddled and nap by their momma. In the video, Cove was still a bit more groggy than the others, but sweet is his middle name. Cassian was ready to play, and you will see him engaging more than Cove last night. But, both are pretty even when not recovering from a neuter. ;)

The kitten are going for their second booster shot this Monday. They will are start going home the end of the week. It sure will be quiet around here without them all. :(

Monday, October 25, 2010

"C" Litter 9 Weeks

Since I've been sick and have not had the energy for a kitten photo shoot, I've taken more videos of the kittens playing. Hopefully, this will let you see more of their personality as well. I will be taking more photos as soon as possible though. I tried to get close ups too and will put descriptions under the video.

Crescent is still the most bold of all the kittens. You can tell him apart in the videos because he will appear to be darker due to the shading out of his black pattern. Next would be Castile. He has been coming up to me a lot to be pet and investigate the litter cleaning. Cove and Cassian are still pretty even, but as you can tell in the videos, like to play! Cassian will appear to be bigger and lighter in color than Cove in the videos. Caster is a little fire ball and gets along with everyone. Then there is Clary, the only princess, but doesn't let the boys get in the way of her fun. All the kittens are fairly self assured, but Clary, Castile, and Crescent like to be held more. The others don't mind being held, but they haven't shown much interest in instigating it on their own. If you pick them up and cuddle, they will let you and then ready to get back down and play. They are all still developing and I've even had some of the best cuddlers not turn out that way until they were in their new homes. Knowing this and comparing them to kittens in the past, I think all of them will turn out to be great pets and wonderful additions to their families.

They are all so strong and like to climb, so make sure you invest in a cat tree or cat condo. Also, they are really into learning about scratching right now. We recommend the Whisker City cardboard scratchers, but really, any will do. They are all eating a combo of dry and wet food, so should be good to go from now on. :) They all are rounding out well, have nice muzzles, and have a nice heft to their weight when you pick them up. Some of them are even starting to growl at the feather wand or whatever they are playing with to show their "catch." lol It' is so cute to hear these little guys growl like big cats! I have even heard some chirps, which Siberians are known for. They do a series of trills and I hope this litter continues to develop their trilling. Our pet Caesar is the biggest triller ever and we use him to teach the kittens and expose them to his varied dialogue. :D

Monday, October 18, 2010

"C" Litter 8 Weeks Old

The kittens are growing and active, active, active! They are mischievous little things. I have uploaded on flickr 4 videos of them horsing around. Next week, they will be exposed to the living room with the "Big Cat" condo. They have mastered their little kitten condo. :) They are even ready for their first vaccinations this week.

All the kittens made an appearance in the videos, so you can get a better idea of their personalities. Crescent is by far the one who attacks people. He loves hands, feet, ankles, tail of your shirt, whatever. Where you go, he will find you, and attack. lol I think it's time to introduce him to the feather wand!! He will love it. Cassian is more laid back, would rather observe than the others, but also plays when something catches his eye. Cove is a mix between Crescent and Cassian. He isn't as "out there" as Crescent, but not as laid back as Cassian. He loves to play and is curious, but he won't try to attack you unless he sees Crescent doing it and then decides it might be fun too. ;) Caster is an even mix as well. Very similar to Cove in behavior. Castile is a bit more quiet than Caster, but not as laid back as Cassian. He and Caster are often seen doing something together while the black silver boys are doing something. Isn't it odd how they pair up like that, red/silver red, and black silvers? :) Little Miss Clary is a great girl and turning into a real beauty. She is playful, curious and doesn't mind cuddles. She prefers the ball or ball toys to the more rambunctious scaling things, although she will climb with the best of them now. :) All the kittens like to be pet down their back and will arch when you get to their tale bone. At this age, they are more interested in playing than being held, so get your kisses in quick because they are ready to launch and go at someone. :)

Poppy is the brown classic kitten in the video. She is our newest girl from Snowgum cattery in England. Poppy is a VERY sweet girl. She purrs ALL THE TIME. Plus, she is very playful and very busy. I have learned that when I hear her thumping paws running behind me, just stand still until she runs past you, or else she will run between your legs and you just might trip. lol Poppy has been wanting to play with the kittens forever. Since everyone can see each other through the glass doors (you can see Leo in one of the videos looking in), they get to know each other through sight and smell without the awkward time of hissing, etc. The kittens were finally big enough we have been letting Poppy play with them. Part of the reason we keep our kittens past 12 weeks is the socialization and the time they get learning how to be a cat from the older cats. Proper cat behavior and how to react to things is largely learned from observing other cats, so the kittens learn when something is dangerous and when something isn't. Also, they learn how to play properly, not to use their claws, etc. They also observe the older cats using the scratch boards. Keep in mind, it may look like Poppy was a bit rough with them in one video, but I promise, she was being gentle. She did not use her claws or bat them hard. She was taunting them jumping back and forth, but never hurt one of them. Although, you will see Cassian or Cove, can't remember, arch his back when she jumps toward the end of one video. He wasn't quite sure if she was playing. lol Again, learning behaviors and different reactions.

They are still in the messy stage. Somehow, they even found a way to get part of a paper plate to stick to my wood floor and I'm having a time getting it to come up! Crazy cats. They like odd things to play with as well, plastic bins, little rattle toys, towels that they jump around in and scrunch, then take naps on! lol I forgot to pick up a towel after cleaning up a spill one time, came back and it was their new toy! So, I now leave at least one towel in there for them and they haven't hurt it. So, if yours ends up having an affinity for towels left out, you can blame me. ;)

Enjoy the videos!!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

"C" Litter 7 WKS

The kittens are just growing up so fast!! They are everywhere and into everything. The wrestle in their water, knock over their food, wrestle in the litter, wherever and whenever...wrestling is their favorite game right now. Oh, I can't forget catch whomever tail happens to be moving in their proximity. All the adult cats have been assaulted by one of the kittens grabbing their tail. lol

Crescent has also decided that human legs are meant to be scaled. That's right, my left leg was taken out by a 7 week old kitten. :) I was holding and talking to Clary, the next thing I know, Crescent has launched up my calf and made it to my thigh before I pulled him off. lol All the kittens are active, I can't say one is more of a ham than another right now. Clary is still bold and an instigator, but has a serene feeling about her. Cassian and Cove are almost identical in their looks. They are similar in personality right now too. both like to play, run up to me when I come into the kitten room. Castile and Caster are both misfits too. I honestly can't say one is more shy than another, or more outgoing as a whole. It will be interesting to see how they continue to grow and become individuals.

Caster was the king of the photo shoot today. All his pics came out well. Sadly, I didn't get any good ones of Cove. They were all blurry. But, when you look at Cassian's pics, you are basically looking at Cove as well. :) All the kittens are shaping nicely. Still a proud breeder. :)

Enjoy this week's pics! Here is the link.

Friday, October 1, 2010

"C" Litter 6 Weeks Old

The little monkeys are coming along nicely. They are doing all the messy and mischievous things they should be doing at their age. With every litter, I am always thankful we have the kitten room with hardwood floors because these guys traipse everything around with them. :) They are all using the litter, but still playing in it too. They don't quite have the art of keeping the loose bits in the boxes and somehow carry it on their feet all around the room. Sweeping is a daily activity for me. lol It will get better though. They are all loving the wet food and think every time I come in the door, I'm bringing food. lol I get a scramble of little kittens running up to my feet as I enter. They also like to get after my lighting cords, for the different lights I try to use when taking pics. Note to self, unplug after every use. lol

Some of the kittens are starting to show their individual personalities. Clary for one is an outgoing girl. She seems to be brave and doesn't mind little kisses. She really wants to climb the little kitten tree, but just isn't as strong as her brothers yet to pull herself all the way up. Caster is a playful thing. He does like to climb whatever he can and I love how his classic, swirl pattern is turning out. Cassian seems to be more reserved and doesn't really instigate, but will play when jumped on. Castile is a playful one too. He and Clary like to wrestle each other. Cove seems to do his own things and doesn't need the other kittens to get himself in a mess. lol Crescent is similar to Cassian right now, he isn't overly "out there", but does explore quite a bit. Granted, as they get older, things could change, but this is what I've observed thus far.

I am really pleased with how well all the kittens are developing. I think this has been our best litter to date that fits the Siberian standard the best. We are still observing two of the kittens for potential breeding, so we aren't allocating the kittens out just yet. Plus, I want their characters to be more developed to help match the right kitten with the family.

Here is the link to the videos. I went with videos this week, since they are so active and taking pics has been near impossible with them constantly moving. Enjoy!

Saturday, September 25, 2010

"C" Litter 5 Weeks Old


Cassian



Caster



Castile



Clary


Crescent


Cove



The kittens area bit squirmy right now. Today's photo session was...interesting. They are not posing for the shots yet, so fuzzy results has been a thorn in my side. :( Only a couple of the kittens will stop what they are doing to look up at a finger snap or a feather wand, so until then, I just pick and choose between out of focus, semi-focus, and the rare in focus. lol

All the kittens are eating wet kitten food now, and they all go at it with gusto. They are still nursing as well, but I have started the weening process. They have been learning to use the litter this week, and there are some little accidents, but for the most part they are getting it right. They have been in the kitten pen mostly during this time to encourage using the litter. Over the next two weeks they will start having more free access to the kitten room and climbers.

A couple of the kitten's eyes have started to change their color to green, but the others are still blue. All will change to another color, as Traditional Siberians don't have blue eyes. I'm excited to see what they turn to. In the past Karina has had kittens with green, gold, and gold/green.

Here is the link to the latest pics. Not all came out weel, so I did the best with what we had. I didn't think I would be able to take pics tonight, so I fed them their wet food. Ended up being able to do it after all, and well, little Clary left a little on her coat from dinner I noticed while cropping. :)

Monday, September 20, 2010

Escape from the Box

Here are the kittens learning how to climb out of the box for the first time Friday night: http://www.flickr.com/photos/53782900@N07/5012548251/. Three made it out the first night, and the rest made it out over the weekend. Caster sure was upset he couldn't get out the first night with his siblings! They made it out a little sooner than I expected, but the the box is a bit more shallow than ones I've used in the past. The cord you see if from the heating pad that was kept under the box. Kittens are not able to control their body temperature for awhile, so we kept a heating pad to help momma out. The litter is corn based, since little ones like to try things in their mouth just like babies. They will use the corn based litter for quite some time and then graduate to "big" cat litter. They are all now in the kitten pen while they learn to use the litter and start solid food this week. Enjoy the video!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

"C" Litter 4 Wks Old

Cove


Castile


Cassian


Caster


Clary


Crescent


New pics are up of the kittens: http://www.flickr.com/photos/53782900@N07/?saved=1. Now that they are mobile, it's hard to get the shots without a blur, but if I liked the pic anyway, I kept it. So, bare with me on a couple of them. :) All is well with Karina and her babies. They are walking around the box now with wobbly legs and becoming very vocal when being picked up and feeling gravity take hold. lol They are getting use to sounds and every time I enter their room, they all look my way and stare up at me with those cute kitten faces. They seem to look at me like I'm an idiot for using baby talk. ;) It's too cute for words.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

"C" kittens have been given their names!

While the kittens are with us, we give them names with the letter of the litter they were born. Our "C" litter is the third litter with Karina, so all names begin with a "C". We have also decided on the theme. This litter is named after characters, aspects, or titles from some of my favorite young adult books. I posted their pictures, names, and who they were named after on my book blog: http://ataleofmanyreviews.blogspot.com/2010/09/young-adult-litter-of-kittens.html.

Go check them out! :)

BTW: I sent the above link via twitter to the authors who have a kitten named after their books. Each author has commented back how adorable the kittens are and retweeted their kitten! How cool is that?!?! :D

New Flickr Pics


I have pictures of the kittens up! I decided to try using flickr again, since there are so many pics to catch up on: http://www.flickr.com/photos/53782900@N07/. Look to the photo sets on the right side to see them grouped by age. All kittens are doing well and growing. They are starting to wobble around on their legs. All eyes are open and hearing just fine. They are getting so big and everyone wants to eat at the same time, that there is not enough room at the table for all. So, there has been more squabbling and pushing each other around trying to get fed first. Karina keeps trilling at them to behave, but there is no stopping a hungry kitten. :) I'll be adding pics to this flickr account as I edit and go. It takes a long time to do this, so keep checking back. Enjoy the pics!

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

"C" Litter One Week and Four Days

Here is another video of the kittens taken this morning. All of them have their eyes open now, and should start hearing this next week. The second through fourth week of life is when the kittens bond with humans, so we are holding them daily. That's fun for us! About the video: Karina is a "head butting" cat. That is, she head butts you to get you to pet her or recognize her. lol You'll notice, I try to show you one of the kittens and she comes over and head butts it out of my hand.

I do have pictures, but as you know, the software that allows me to download those pictures disappeared on my computer. Bad news is Canon does not have the software on their website for me to download. Good news is they are sending me a new CD. So, I will be posting pictures of the kittens at a later date, but I will still include all their stages. The first week photos will get posted even if they are two weeks old by the time I get the CD. I apologize for the delays.




Monday, August 23, 2010

Karina's "C" Litter has arrived!

Karina has 5 boys and 1 girl!! She and Leo have two black silver mackerel boys, one black silver classic boy, one red silver classic boy, one red classic boy, and one black silver classic torbie girl. All are doing well, with nice weights, solid, chunky little bodies, and nice big heads. :) They are so cute to watch while they sleep, with all their little twitches and kitten sounds. I couldn't resist taking some video (2 videos below) during nap and feeding time, which is pretty much all that is on their calendar to do for a couple more weeks. ;) Enjoy!!








Thursday, July 8, 2010

MISC Updates








I apologize for the photos in advance. My "good" camera will not communicate with my computer and I am having the hardest time finding the right software online to reinstall!!! There is only so much an iphone camera can do. ;)

We have been keeping one of the kittens from the last litter longer than usual as his new family is on an extended vacation. So, I've taken some videos (below) of the little man for them in the meanwhile. He is such a sweetheart, we are really going to miss him. :) But, he will be going to a family with another Siberian from our breeder friends at Pendraig Siberians! I hope they will be great friends, but with the little guy, I don't think the other cat will have a chance. He's persistent and just adorable. He likes to curl up next to us, and I took a pic of him napping while I was reading.

Penny has taken to napping on the mantle above the fireplace. She is such a sweet girl, I can't help but pat her head every time I walk by. :) She, Caesar, and the little man decided to watch some early fireworks this past weekend through one of the windows. They were really interested in what the neighbors were doing. I was so surprised that Caesar wasn't growling at them. He is our lean, mean, guarding cat machine! They enjoyed watching at the window and just relaxed. :)




Sunday, May 9, 2010

Penny is a Champion







Penny became a champion this weekend and made two finals as an Open. :) Our girl took Best Longhair and 2nd Best Cat All Breeds the last ring of the show. We are so proud of her and being only 8 months old!! We can't forget a big congratulations to Sibaris, her breeders.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Updates


Our new vet is wonderful! The kitten's spay/neuters went very well and recovering nicely. :) Dr. Judy was wonderful to spend time with us and talk about breeding issues. She gave us wonderful tips on their personalities and diet. I very much appreciate her coming from the breeding standpoint, as she use to show and breed Scottish Folds.

We also found out today that our Penny is the Best of Breed Kitten 2009-2010 for Region 3 in CFA!! She will have her picture shown at the awards banquet with all the other Bests, Champions, Premieres. :) Way to go Penny!

Sunday, April 25, 2010

B Litter at 12 Weeks Old








The kittens have turned 12 weeks and old. Balthazar is such a sweet boy! He is the cuddler of the litter and is just like his papa. He wants to know what is going on, frequently comes to sit and lay down by us on the couch, and always sits at your feet to be picked up. Trix is starting to mature, but is the most independent of the kittens. She loves the baby chicks the most, loves to play and chase the feather wand (she didn't care for it before), and likes to wrestle with the other cats. We are keeping Baby, but I'm still not certain on her name. So, for now, we will continue with Baby. :) She is a cross between Balthazar and Trix. She has the most luxurious coat and muzzle, I really want to see how she fills out in the next few months. She likes the feather wand the most, nothing has changed there. We are working on getting her to be more like Balthazar, we love the overly sweet ones. ;) The kittens are all cuddle bunnies with each other! I added one of the pics of the them taking a nap together on the condo...actually the girls were taking a nap on their brother. lol

We have found a new vet that opened her clinic for felines only several years ago. She use to be a cat breeder herself and we are so excited to find her! We will also now be able to provide all our kittens to be spayed/neutered before they leave us and will be all set for their new families. :) We will be keeping the kittens until they are around 15-16 weeks old.

I have been trying to use natural light for the pics because Trix does not like the big, photo lights. Please forgive me with these silvers, the light can be a bit much for their color and fades them out.

Monday, April 19, 2010

BEST IN SHOW









Penny made Best in Show at her last kitten show - CFA North Texas Cat Show! She had her first show flight and did so well!! She is such a good girl, we just adore her. Penny made all 8 finals and took Best Kitten with Pam De la Bar. :) Best In Show...what a way to finish up as a kitten.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Adults at play...spring!









Leo, Caesar, and Penny have been enjoying the weather lately! The grass isn't quite green yet, but all the flowers are in bloom. Caesar whines to go outside, and from the time I hit the door coming home from work, he knows it's close to going outside time. We got Penny this past December, so it was her first time with nice weather in the USA. :)

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Easter Pictures 2010










Happy Easter!!