Kitten Concerns - Days 45 and 46

Phoenix is as energetic as ever.  He runs and jumps and falls.  He eventually sleeps.  Then wakes up to go through it all again.  Overall he's doing alright, but our poop problems have returned.

Kitten Concerns

Phoenix has been able to poop on his own for a while now.  The poops have largely been formed, so things have been on the upside.  Unfortunately yesterday afternoon, he had a pretty loose stool.  And then shortly after, it was pretty much only liquid coming out for the poor guy.

I gave him his dewormer yesterday.  There was a lot more to feed him, but I got most of it in him.  I got some of it on my pants... but the majority of it successfully went into his mouth.  He did fight it for the most part, but we got it down!  It was the next poop after that that came out as liquid.

We've also recently introduced some moistened dry food for him.  So this new food could explain the change in his poop.  I'll continue to monitor his weight and his hydration to make sure nothing is going wrong.  If we still have diarrhea tomorrow, then I'll reintroduce some pedialyte for the little guy to help prevent dehydration.  He also gets some pumpkin mixed into some of his meals again.

He's also started drinking water from his bowl!  When he had tried in the past, he'd put his nose in and then snuffle a bit because of it.  But since yesterday, he's been successfully drinking water.  Makes me feel a bit better about the diarrhea.  Dehydration can be deadly, so I'll continue to monitor.

I think the only other thing on my mind is some slower weight gain.  I worry that maybe I weaned too fast, but according to the food labels, he seems to be getting enough food.  It has been more challenging to get an accurate weight on our scale these days.  With him moving around, the weight changes up to 20-30g.  So I likely just ended up thinking he was higher before and now it looked like it was stagnant.  In general though, when I look at where he was last week - he is still generally gaining around 10g per day on average.  And at least the last couple of days where I've been paranoidly taking more weights, he has been going up.

Phoenix has also figured out how to get out of his pen.  My guess is that he used the cow to climb up and out.  I'll need to move the cow elsewhere so that he can't escape... but not sure what I'll do overnight.  Just let him run around the whole room...?  I feel like that's my only option for tonight.  So that'll just have to do.

But with all of his climbing skills... he hasn't really developed very effective "getting back down" skills.  He jumps off the couch from time to time, but he's hesitant.  Am I supposed to just leave him there and let him figure it out on his own?  I usually end up helping him for now.  How can I not when something like below happens?  He's just asking for someone to help him!

Life with Big Brother

The next biggest challenge is dealing with feeding.  Asher is highly interested in Phoenix's food and is pretty adamant about trying to get it.  What I've read about kittens is that we're supposed to allow them to free-feed.  This is incredibly difficult when Asher will try to eat Phoenix's food when he thinks we aren't looking.  It's forced me to keep the office room door closed more frequently.  So I try to spend more time with Asher during my breaks and in the evening to make up for the fact that he can't come in during the work day.

In some ways, Asher has become better with Phoenix.  Phoenix can be nearby and Asher won't have a care in the world.

And shortly after, it was followed by this:

Of course, in between, Asher went after the little guy when Phoenix got close.  Bit him in the butt.  But they slept like this for a bit!  All in all, I think they're generally getting on better:

Though tonight, Asher did go after him unprovoked.  And by unprovoked... I mean, Phoenix was sleeping.  And Asher decided to jump on the couch and bite him a few times.  Clearly not enough to hurt the guy.  Phoenix started falling asleep right after I made Asher get off the couch.  Maybe he was upset since Phoenix was in "his spot"?  It's hard to tell.  But they're both on the couch again right now.  Asher is in my lap and Phoenix is on the other end of the couch.  All seems right in their world.

All in all - we won't be leaving the two of them alone together any time soon.  But maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to snap a cute photo of the two sleeping next to each other one day!

Photos

Just putting in a photo dump!

Video

Here's a somewhat funny video where Phoenix scares Asher.  "Strong language" warning in this one.  I said a word that sounded like a swear word (don't ask me what I was trying to say... I think I tried to say "scared" and used - and then Nguyen asked me what that meant.  So if anyone watches with their kids, you may want to keep the sound off!