Week 1
Kittens are born blind and deaf. Their eyes are closed and their ears folded down.In the first week of life kittens basically sleep and eat. When they are awake, they stay close to the mother.
Newborn kittens are unable to regulate their body temperature and rely on mum to keep warm. The kitten's environment must be kept at a constant temperature to avoid either hypothermia or hyperthermia.
The umbilical cord remains attached for the first 3 days. At birth they usually weigh between 90 - 100 grams.
Toileting is stimulated by the mother. After her kittens have fed, she will lick their belly and genital area, eating any faeces and urine.
Week 2
By the second week their eyes are beginning to open although their vision is not very good at this stage. Do not force their eyes open as it could result in damage. Young kittens are vulnerable to eye infections, so keep a watch for any signs of infection such as crustiness or white/yellow secretion. All kittens have blue eyes at this stage.
Weight gain is around 7-10 grams a day, and by the end of the second week the kitten should have doubled it's weight.
The sense of smell is developing. They will often have a preference for a particular nipple.
Week 3
By three weeks the kitten is becoming more aware of his litter-mates. Their sense of smell is continuing to develop. It is around the three week mark that kittens begin to shakily move about. Some kittens will try to walk and explore.
By three weeks their ears will be erect. Their baby teeth begin to show. The sense of smell is well developed.
They can now purr.
Week 4
The sense of smell is fully mature.
The kittens are becoming more and more active and will be interacting with their litter-mates.
The mother is still grooming her offspring, but they are also able to groom themselves.
Their eyesight is improving, although it will be a few more weeks before it is fully developed. The sense of hearing is now well developed.
It is at this time that the mother will begin to leave her kittens for short periods of time.
At this stage, you can provide a small bowl of water for kittens to drink from.
Week 5
The sight is fully developed at 5 weeks.The weaning process can begin around 5 weeks of age. Not all kittens will take to food immediately, so patience is important. Introduce a small amount initially. You can introduce solids either by placing a small amount of food on your finger or in a cat bowl.
Kittens are much more graceful on their feet at this stage and are exploring a lot more. Stalking and pouncing their litter-mates.
They may start to use the litter tray, although you will likely find some accidents still. Provide them with a small litter tray, make sure it has litter which is safe for young kittens to use (and possibly eat).
Weeks 6 - 8
The kittens are extremely active. The mother will have longer periods on her own.
The role of the human is to take an active part in the socialisation process without intruding, especially in the very early days. Take the time to not only play with your kitten, but also offer plenty of cuddles and familiarise it with being handled in general. This includes the paws, ears and mouth...which will make basic health checks by a vet, medicating and claw trimming easier as the kitten has been brought up to accept this.
At this stage, kittens should be eating four small meals a day and by 8 weeks should be eating mostly solids. They should have almost all of their baby teeth by now. At 8 weeks kittens can be micro-chipped.
Weeks 9 - 12
Kittens can have their 1st vaccination and health check by the vet. At 12 weeks old kittens can have their 2nd vaccination. Once the vaccination course is complete they will be covered for a whole year. The vaccination protects them against feline panleukopeniaand feline leukaemia and against respiratory diseases caused by feline rhinotracheitis virus, feline calicivirus and feline Chlamydophila felis. At this stage kittens are independent from their mother and ready to be re-homed.
Late last night we had a call from Medina Vets to say that they had a cat that had a serious tail injury. We agreed to take her in and it turned out that the tail injury was very nasty and the mid section of her tail had been completely de-gloved. We have decided to name her Cupcake, she is a gorgeous, young, tabby and white female. 
We are happy to say that the operation was a success and Cupcake is recovering well. You can really see from the photos the extent of the injury and what a fantastic job Fiona has done. Hopefully Cupcake will start to feel a lot better soon. We will keep you updated on her progress. For now she is receiving lots of TLC and some well earned rest and recovery. 
A normal, happy life
An exciting new version of The Cure’s much-loved track The LoveCats is available for download; now with added feline factor!
Poppy was not looking forward to the 19th October as this would be the day she would have her hip operation. Poppy was involved in a tragic road traffic accident in August. She had already lost her tail due to the RTA and has been having cage rest for the last 8 weeks. But the x-ray this morning showed that Poppy has been healing on her own. New bone has fused the hip joint back together and her pelvis has healed even if it is a little off centre. One back leg may always be slightly longer than the other. She may be a bit wobbly sometimes on her back legs but Poppy doesn't mind and nor do we.
On returning to the centre this afternoon Poppy was certainly on a high with the good news. She decided to splash out her water with both front paws and play with the water. After Kevin (volunteer) dried it all off and changed the wet bedding she did it again. So Poppy was let out of her cat pen for a walk and a play to calm her down. Once more back in her pen you guessed it - Poppy caused a right mess again! Oh dear what are we going to do with you. Good luck Holly you'll have a lot of cleaning up to do tonight!
When Molly first came into the centre we treated her for worms also. She had a single dose of panacur paste which is another multi- worming product that is administering orally in the form of a paste. This meant that when the kittens suckled from mum for the first few weeks they were already receiving protection from worms via mums milk. 
Mia gave birth to four gorgeous kittens just over two weeks ago. The whole family seem very content and are doing extremely well. 
Kittens are born blind and deaf. Their eyes are closed and their ears folded down.
Kittens can have their 1st vaccination and health check by the vet. At 12 weeks old kittens can have their 2nd vaccination. Once the vaccination course is complete they will be covered for a whole year. The vaccination protects them against feline panleukopenia
As this was such an interesting case, Fiona let us come and have a quick look at the hole that the Hernia was protruding out from, and we managed to take a picture of it! The hole itself was very small, and we were all so surprised at the amount of her intestines sticking out from it. To fix it back in place, Fiona had to make the hole slightly bigger, so she cut it open a bit more making space to put everything back in place. After the Hernia was fixed, it was time to go ahead and do the spey, and then sew her back up!
The operation went really well, and Cookie is now recovering in one of our op cages. We will keep a close eye on her to make sure she is ok, and give her lots of TLC.
