23 days old, Weaning Begins Fully

Well, yet again we make progress today, and I've got some more photos
to share with you! I've only got a few, so will tease you by only
giving you one a day!

I think I mentioned yesterday that I've just begun to encourage
kittens to wean. This is such a messy business that it's ridiculous! I
spread a large hand towel on the carpet and fed them on that, but for
five such tiny kittens, they were still able to cover the whole towel
in food! And there wasn't that much on the saucer in the first place!
I really wish I could take a photo of them just after eating. No doubt
you will notice staining to their faces this week because when they're
learning to eat, they have dirty faces far more than clean, and it
shows. They were literally covered from eyes to neck, then they'd
stand in it, then they'd fall over onto the puddle they'd just created
on the towel. Apache even had it in her right armpit! I'm so thankful
for Millie because she does such an excellent cleaning job! We're
still at the open their mouths and shove the food in stage, but Apache
did get stuck in and sucked some food from my fingers, and little
Stripe filled her belly! None of them will eat from the plate yet, but
eating from fingers, especially active searching for food as Stripe
did is very good progress, particularly because they're so young.

Dreamy is just starting to lick at the food, but he's still trying to
pretend that he hates it. He screams when you put it in his mouth. I
never force a weaning hard, particularly when they're started young,
so if he squealed and struggled, I'd reach across and put him back in
the pen. He hated that food so much that he just had to keep sneaking
back to the front, then squealing at me until I took him out and fed
him some more. Apache and Stripe were so keen that they threw
themselves out of the pen so that I'd be forced to give them more! Red
and Berry aren't so keen yet. Berry will take some, but she's not
interested in licking yet, so she only gets tiny little gobs. Red is
in the same boat.

So, now to photos. Look at that big, fat lump on top of all his sibs!
Isn't he a cutie?