At last, Devon Rex kittens from Sybil (the trollop)

Well my thanks go out to Mo and Jack. Some of you who have followed this blog for a couple of years will know the problems I have had in trying to conceive to a cat with a bit of class, rather than the Jack the Lads she seems to prefer. For some unknown reason she will not conceive in a cattery environment, despite apparently successful matings. In fact, up until now the only pedigree kittens she has produced were fathered by Manuel when he still lived indoors (started spraying last year so he had to move out).

So Mo MacDonnell from Philokalia Devons had a brain wave and suggested she allowed Sybil to run loose in her cat secured garden with her gorgeous boy Jack. It worked!! So far we have three kittens, will update with photos tomorrow. Ok, things didn't go quite as smoothly as I would hope. Sybils 1st kitten came out with no problems and appeared to be a healthy kitten, her 2nd kitten was unfortunately stillborn and despite my best attempts I could not get it breathing. She then had 3 more normal kittens but then for no reason that I could see, the first kitten just seemed to give up. Again, there was nothing I could do to bring him back. I am very pleased to say that the remaining 3 kittens are doing very well and hopefully we won't have any further problems. As always Sybil is being 'supermum'. We have a red boy a cream boy and a chocolate torti girl.

Dillis pups are now starting to take shape. Although their colours aren't quite what I had hoped for, the chosen mating seems to have been a good one, the pups are a lovely shape, short backed with good reach of neck (something Dilli is slightly lacking in) and, unusually for toy poodles, they have got very good low set ears with lovely long ear leathers and the icing on the cake is their tails, lovely and straight and well set. On top of this they have quite feisty personalities which will be super for moulding into confident, trainable pets. I am looking forward to clipping their faces in the next week or two, I have every confidence that they will have beautiful heads. All in all they are really nice pups and the fact that they have a few white points on them only gives them a bit of individuality :-)

A Strange Tail

All the babies are growing rapidly. Dillis pups are just about starting to get up on their legs and toddle about now, this is when the serious time wasting starts! Dilli is not wanting to spend as much time with them anymore but is still fiercely protective of them. I am still undecided about their colour, I think it is likely they will be blues although one of them has a very small but definite area of tan near both eyes so I am interested to see how this develops. At the moment all these boys are still available.

Miss Tibbs kittens are gorgeous (ok they are not the pretty chocolate box type kittens, but I think they are wonderful). The chocolate girl or one of the blue boys has a possible home. The little black and white girl has lost the last 3/4" of her tail. I have no idea what happened to it other than one morning I came down to find the end had withered up and dried, a bit like a lambs tail goes when it has had a band put on it, 24hrs later the end dropped off leaving a clean dry stump. At no time did I notice an injury to the tail and the kitten has remained fit, well and has been feeding as vigorously as her littermates.

I am expecting Audrey to come into season very soon, so hopefully we shall have some standard pups towards the end of the summer.

Something in the air?

Well so far this year my girls have been very considerate, all the babies have been born during the day. Miss Tibbs had her 4 babies this afternoon but would you believe it, although I have only had a very quick look and will check again tomorrow, all 4 appear to be boys! She has a black smoke and white, a chocolate and two blues, all healthy and feeding well. Have now re checked the kittens, the blues are both boys but the blk/white and chocolate are girls.

Dilli's pups continue to thrive, they are just thinking about opening their eyes now. We are starting to handle them more now, having them out for short cuddles so as not to stress out their very protective mum, who washes them very thoroughly when they are returned to her. If they have temperments half as nice as Dilli they will make super little pets.

Not Long Now

Tibbs is not far off having her kittens now, she keeps looking for places to hide so we will be getting her kittening area ready for her this afternoon. She doesn't look huge so hopefully we will have a nice small litter for her. Sybil should be due a fortnight later and this will be interesting for me as, hopefully, she is pregnant to a different Devon boy.

Dilli is proving to be a totally natural mum. Five babies is a huge litter for a toy poodle and she is coping admirably, all are fat content pups. Although I believe these pups will be silver or blue, as I can't be 100% sure until they are about 6 weeks old, I have priced them as black pups.

Pups are coming

Right on time Dilli is in labour. Web cam is now on, see link on the right. Dilli has produced 5 little black boys, not quite what I ordered but mum and pups are doing well. Photos to follow tomorrow. I have now spoken to the owner of the puppies father and apparently he has silver breeding behind him, so , as Dilli is a blue and white there is a reasonable chance that some or all of these pups will turn silver or blue. Time will tell.
Miss Tibbs is due to have her kittens at the end of next week so it's going to be busy here again soon :-)

Pups are coming

Right on time Dilli is in labour. Web cam is now on, see link on the right.

Getting bigger

These pictures of Dilli were taken when she was 6 weeks pregnant (she will be 7 weeks tomorrow, 03.05.11) and as you can see she is definitely pregnant. In fact we are a little concerned that she is so big, she is already finding it difficult to get comfortable and seems to be growing as you look at her! I won't be surprised if the pups arrive a day or two early.