We got our first litter on 2008.01.15 and since then we have had 8 litters. This litters have given us a total of 37 kittens, of which 7 are deceased of different reasons.

Of these 37 kittens

- 12 are balinese girls

- 2 are balinese boys

- 7 are siamese variant girls

- 6 are siamese variant boys

- 4 are siamese girls

- 3 are siamese boys

- 2 are oriental shorthair girls

- 1 is seychellois variant boy

These 37 kittens are in different colours

- 5 are bluecream pointed

- 4 are sealtortie pointed

- 3 are redpointed

- 2 are sealpointed

- 2 are chocolatepointed

- 2 are lilacpointed

- 2 are creampointed

- 2 are chocolatetortie pointed

- 1 is bluepointed

- 1 is lilactortie pointed

- 1 is black and white

- 1 is blue

- 4 are too young yet to tell the colour

- 7 died before they developed any colour

Downstairs in the nursery things are quite idyllic   Wen and Faffa are working together with the kittens, and they often lay down in the same box with all the kittens between them. And sometimes Faffa feeds the oldest kittens, and sometimes she feeds the smallest. And other times she has both young and old kittens on her belly, just like Wen has. They also takes turns with the kittens, one mam is with them and the other mam is sleeping at the top of one of the scratching posts.

Today we examined Kikki and Doc, and they both have pink tits   Their due-date is 4th of January 2011 and it´s a loooong time for us to wait for more kittens. But there is not only happy faces regarding this, because if everything goes well with these 2 litters, Muffin has to be neutered    And that is quite sad because he is the calmest fertile male ever, and we have no problems with him at all. He does not stress, he seldom shouts and he hasn´t sprayed in several weeks. If we was breeding siamese, he would not be neutered after 4 litters but the genepool for the longhairbreeds in Cat. IV is so small that it would be the best for the breed to only use him for these 4 litters.

Our two females are helping each other out with the kittens, and they only use one of the two boxes for their litters. They share the kittens between them, and it looks like the kittens decide which female they succle on. And with 7 babies that grows larger day by day and females that looks satisfied, we are happy and do not interfere more than we absolutely need to   When Finn-Ove and I came into the room an hour ago all 7 kittens were in a pile with the small ones on the other kittens belly. They looked sooo sweet     We tried to catch the scene on some pictures, but the Thundercats was to curious about the camera and did not have the time to cuddle or play with the small girls. We got some pictures of them, but they are in a rather bad quality. I still choose to show them   

There are some dark ears on the girls, I wonder if they all would be seal or sealtortie pointed? I would love to have a blue pointed girl.....     Well, in a couple of days I will know!

Yesterday, at day 63, Faffa delivered 4 balinese girls in less than an hour! Faffa had a tough time before the first kitten was born, and she maked a lot of noise. Her ears were shaking and she did not quite understand what happened. Her delivery started in our livingroom but the other cats were very curious and that stressed her a lot. We decided to move her into the bathroom downstairs, but she was not able to settle down until the first kitten was born. But when she got her first baby in front of her, she became a mother    She washed the little kitten thoroughly and let the little one succle at once. She has been with her babies all nigth and all of them have succled on their mam, and Faffa has got milk already! The kittens have gained between 6 and 12 grams during their first nigth!

The theme for this litter is Islands in Thailand, and we think it´s a rather nice theme since the oriental cats have their origin in that region.

And now, the presentation of the kittens!

First born, at 18.11 (N)Bekmørtnans Ko Phi Phi Lee, 67 grams

Second kitten born at 18.20, (N)Bekmørtnans Ko Tarutao, 72 grams

Third kitten born at 18.42, (N)Bekmørtnans Ko Samui, 72 grams

Fourth kitten born at 19.05, (N)Bekmørtnans Ko Kham Yoi, 70 grams

Two days ago my dear husband continued his work in the room were all the litter-boxes are placed. He put up a fan on the wall to ventilate this room. In addition to the fan he put up some shelves too. On these shelves we will place all our cat-related stuff, like bags, cages, curtains used on the cages when we attend to cat-shows. I´m really looking forward to have all this gear at the same place! He migth put up some more shelves, but we will see first if it´s necessary.

Dr. Meow has been in heat since 17th of October, and there has been no signs of her ending it. I have asked more experienced breeders for advice, and they told me to mate her. We was planning to mate her with Joker, but he´s infertile still and he migth be infertile for a year more or so. There´s no guarantee that he will be fertile again, but time will show. We have never ment to mate Doc and Muffin, but to prevent an uterus infection we choosed to let Muffin and Doc mate. In addition to Doc, also Kikki is in heat and Muffin have mated her too. Hopefully none of them will have a large litter   Both the girls are VERY angry on Muffin, and they give him a really hard time after mating. But as a real trooper he does not give in, he just talks to the girls from a safe distance. And after a while the girls forget to be angry for a second, and then he´s on the right place once again   

Today is Faffa´s day 58 in her pregnancy, and hopefully she will give birth to her kittens during the weekend. She has a rather small belly and we think she will have 3 or 4 kittens.

I have not written anything for a long time, but no I have pulled myself together and will update the blog. Last time I wrote I was very worried about Wen, but luckily the medicine worked out just as it´s supposed to do and Wen regained her health. On 2010.10.11 she gave birth to 3 lovely kittens. Not the largest kittens we have had but very strong! Now the kittens are 3 weeks old and they are just sooo lovely! This is the best litter we have had! I have been very curious about what type of kittens Mufasa would give us, and I have to say that I´m very pleased with this litter.   Right now I can´t stand the thougth of them leaving our home, but I´m sure that in due time it will be ok.

I would like to do a little presentation of those 3 small ones, and first of all - the theme is Thundercats! Thundercats is a cartoon that was popular in the 80´s and Finn-Ove loved this cartoon. We try to find themes for our litters that migth be a little bit different from every other breeders, and so far we have managed this.

First of the kittens are the firstborne (N)Bekmørtnans Lion-O. He is a redpointed boy. He is a quiet and calm boy, does not move very much in a day    I think he looks like a little polarbear, only with red ears   

(N)Bekmørtnans Lion-O (bal d)

(N)Bekmørtnans Jagara (bal f)

(N)Bekmørtnans Cheetara (bal f)

All 3 6 days old

Wen is an excellent mam and everything is just nice and cosy. Actually she´s doing so great as a mam that we have changed our plans about her. This litter was planned to be her last litter, but we have decided to have another litter after a while. Right now it looks like one of the girls are going to Sweden, but they are to young to decide which one yet. And I have to say that we are very happy that all 3 kittens are balineses!

I have used my birthdaypresent from Finn-Ove, a video-camera and the films are uploaded to YouTube. Here are the links:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sNnzE76EuI   and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYPxRUWl_IU

In a week or so our Faffa (Bekmørtnans Spitfire) will have her first litter. The father is Muffin (FIN* Fercatin Isaber Mufasa JW) and we hope for well typed kittens in this litter too.

Muffin will mate Kikki (Himmeltinden´s Dark Rose sia h) as soon as she´s in heat, which should happen during the following week. I do look forward to this litter as well!

For the first time our newborn kittens and their mam are placed in their own room, and for Wen it was quite difficult to settle down at first. But when the kittens were 4-5 days she relaxed and stopped to shout to us to make us open the door. Her kittens were born in our livingroom, and I think our next litters will be born here as well.

In Pawpeds G3 I have struggled with the genetics (this is not my sort of assigments, can´t wrap my head around this s...) But finally I managed to find the rigth answers and now week 4 is just a bad memory. Breeding and selection is more up my alley so I hope that I would be able to make a decent assigment in this theme. Last week Pawpeds G1 started, and I´m one of the teachers there. It´s a new situation for me and I feel quite insecure in my new role. But thanks to a clever, kind and helpful lady I have managed to do what I´m supposed to do. This lady is the same lady that helped me through the genetics in G3 - Dagny Dickens. I will always be thankful for her help!

Two days ago I discovered that Wen, one of our pregnant girl, was struggling with her breathing. She held her head up and her mouth partially open and she breathed very slowly. She was on her 55 day in the pregnancy and I got more and more worried about her. After observing her for about an hour, I called the Vet and told him about how Wen acted. He managed to put her in between all the other patients and I took her with me at once after finishing the conversation with the Vet. We waited for a time until he ould look at her, and I felt so helpless because her breathing only got worse. Finally we came in to his office and the examination started. She had no fever and it was not possible for the Vet to listen to her lungs because she was purring all the time. The Vet thougth Wen had an upper respiratory tract infection because the only thing he could find was that her laryngeal was a bit swollen. At first he would not give her any medication because of her pregnancy, but I managed to talk him over   Optimistic Finn-Ove went to the pharmacy to pick up the medication (Clamoxyl tablets (amoksicillintrihydrate)) and home we went. We managed to give her the tablet, and we were quite satisfied and just waited for the medicin to kick in. The next morning Finn-Ove was able to give her the tablet, and we hoped that she soon would be well enough to drink and eat. We tried to get her to eat, but nothing helped. We gave her some water with a syringe in her mouth, but everything came out again. I followed her closely throughout the day, and I cold not se any improvement at all. She just laid behind Finn-Ove´s chair for several hours, struggling with her breating. In the middle of the day she walked, or rather swayed 3 meters from the chair and she did not look good at all! When I picked up Finn-Ove after work, I told him about Wen and he called the Vet at once. The Vet told us to come with her and off we drove. This time the Vet could hear that the infection has reached her lungs as well, and she was quite dehydrated. It was not possible to get any water in her through her mouth and the Vet gave her saltwater under her skin. He tried to find something to reduce the swelling in her throut, but there was nothing that was safe to use for a pregnant cat. We got a new medicin for her, (Baytril - Enrofloksacin) and since she was not able to swollow, we got syringes to give her. Baytril are not recomended for pregnant cats, but she was in such a bad state that it was necessary to treat her. The Vet told us that we had to be prepared that she migth would loose her kittens. He checked her with ultrasound and at least there was one little heart beating in her stomach.....   

We tried to give her fluid in her mouth but it only came out. Nothing helped at all. But we hoped that Baytril would help on her throut, and make it less swollen. This morning Wen came to Finn-Ove when he sat on the floor, and wanted to cuddle. He tried to give her something to drink, but no. Everytime she got water in her mouth, she refused to swollow. I have tried throughout the day to give her water we have boiled chicken in, but it was the same result as before. I called the Vet again, and he told us to come with her. Today she got Cortisone and Glucose in addition to the salty water under her skin. Hopefully she will respond to the Cortisone and make it possible for her to swollow. We are taking her back to the Vet tomorrow for the same treatment - water with Glucose and Cortisone under her skin and we cross our fingers hard and hope for her to be able to eat and drink. She really needs everything she can get to be able to take care of her kittens - if they survive this. The Vet was not happy with giving a pregnant cat Cortisone, but he had to if she should have a chance to survive this.

I´m worried!

Today we started to fix the bedroom at the groundfloor because we will have  mother and kittens there the first couple of weeks - if Wen, Faffa and Mischa wants to stay there. We have used this room for some of our cats, especially our girls when they are in heat. Joker has also been in there for some days, but he does not like to be separeted from the group and he has destroyed some of the flooring    Since there was another flooring under it, we just removed the top-flooring. And suddenly I got an idea   The storage-room where all the litterboxes are placed did not have any flooring, and we started to empty this room after we have cleared the bedroom. And in no time the storage-room had a flooring! It is much easier to clean the floor now, and maybe next week we will be able to put up some shelves as well! When they are in place we will put all the stuff that we have for the cats in this storage-room, like cages, bags, things we use when we are attending cat shows and so on. It will be rather nice to have it all in one place!

As you can see we managed to find place for the wooden pellets we use in the litterboxes. We have made a hole in the door and put a cat-door in there so we can close the door to this room and the cats still can go in there to do what ever they does in their litterboxes   

I hope that we will find time to paint the bedroom downstairs before Wen deliver her babies. Now it is painted i a strong blue colour, and it is not so nice. I do want a light colour on the walls, because then we will have a better possibility to take photos of cats and kittens. Now it is quite dark in the room and the colours of the cats are rather bluish because of the blue colour on the walls. I am really looking forward to finish this room for our girls! It will be a new experience to have the mothers and their litter in a separate room, our first 6 litters are born in our livingroom and they grow up there as well. Some of our cats love to be with the kittens from the very first day, Joker especially.

This is what we love to see:

Wen with Kikki´s newborn kittens (October 2009)

   Kikki, Joker (he is not the father of the litter) and the kittens in our Hamsun-litter

Joker helping a little one to peepee   

Kikki, Joker and the kittens 

Kikki, Joker, View and the kittens. View is not the father of the litter either

Kikki, Joker, Wen an the kittens

In the bed - Kikki, Wen and the kittens.

At the floor - Doc, Nani, View and Faffa

Mischa, View, Faffa and little Eleseus

And some photos of the Fighterplanes-litter:

Joker, Spitfire and Tornado. The kittens are 6 days

Kikki and Hellcat

Joker and Griffin

Kikki with the kittens in the bed, Joker in the tube

Joker and kittens, kittens are 5 weeks old 

Joker and Foxbat, Foxbat  are 4,5 weeks old

We like that all our cats can participate in raising the kittens, but now we will try to have the litter in a separate room with their mam the first weeks as I wrote earlier. The only reason that we will try this is because "everybody" tells us that it is better for the mam and her babies to have their own room, both other breeders and the veterinarians. And we can´t say that this is better or worse if we do not try it.

Our redpointed girl Wen is on her day 54 today, and she looks like she has eaten a football    She spends her time eating and sleeping, and she prefers to lay on the back of Finn-Ove´s chair. Her kittens are active and now we can se them moving in her belly.

Her belly is a bit larger than it was when she expected her first litter, so maybe there is more than 3 kittens?

Faffa´s belly has started to grow, I can se the difference on the size from yesterday! Hopefully she will not have as many kittens as her mother got in the litter when Faffa and her sibblings was born. They were 7......   

We suspect that Mischa is pregnant as well, not everything goes as we plan. We would rather wait a couple of months to mate her, but we can make plans and the cats decides what to come out of our plans. This is the drawback to have a group of cats, and the girls do not get the pill. We did not discover that Faffa and Mischa was in heat until Muffin mated them.... But we do not want to separate Muffin from the rest of the group if we do not have to. So we just have to be happy about our three litters coming almost at the same time. Well, of course we are happy about this, we love kittens    But we have to admit that it´s a bit inconvenient. Nevertheless, we hope for strong and healthy kittens! And 3 small litters?

Vasco and Puma are the best friends ever, they play-fight a lot and Puma sounds like a big male when Vasco wrestles with her. But when Puma wrestles with Vasco, she is quiet   They are running like mad, jumping and plays with the grown ups cats tails. Sometimes they hide and wait for a cat to come by, and when the cat comes, they both jumps on it. It doesn´t matter at all that the cat might be twice the size that they are.. And when they get tired, they they find a place to sleep - together   

In Pawpeds G3 we have started our 5th week. Week 4 and 5 are genetics, and I am struggling with it! I do understand the most of the Swedish language, like when I look at a film. But to read the texts in Sweedish is actually quite difficult at times. I will be soo happy when I have finished the tasks in these two weeks!

From October 21st I will be one of the instructors in Pawpeds G1-course, and that will be a qouite new experience! I´m looking forward to it!