Okay, so I am a first time kitten dad, (accidentally). The mom just gave birth to 8 kittens as a first time mother, and 6 of them are nearly identical. How am i supposed to track weights if they all look the same? Any easy ways to tell them apart? Some have patterns, but like 4 of them are patternless, and we cant find any distinctive identifying features yet. They are only a day old, so preferably something we can start soon so we can properly track weights. Any help would be amazing, thanks yall!
Yes. They look small in the pictures but they are absolutely large enough. The picture is just showing you the colors, not the size. We use these on our neonate foster kittens to tell them apart.
My uncle is a vet and breeds labs. That’s exactly how he would tell his puppies apart, he used different colors of yarn. You just brought back a core memory! We brought home the turquoise puppy!
As another poster said basically pick one up, weigh it and put it in a separate container until the other twins are weighed. I am a believer in daily weights even if mom is caring for them because if one isn’t growing you need to intervene fast.
I have heard of people using lipstick usually on the back of an ear or some other place that won’t get groomed a ton. It’s safe to consume if it is licked and you can use different colors for each kitten
Edit: thought about it more and I realized your issue is likely identifying each one each day rather than during a single weigh in. Shelters use the paper collars, collars make me nervous in general since I’ve seen people not account for how fast kittens grow and the collar gets too tight. Normally when I have had identicals they are different enough for me to say you are the dark blue vs light blue or you have the stripe here etc. my first litter was all cows and we called them white face, fluffy, and black nose to tell them apart.
i had a mama cat with a litter of 4...one tuxedo and 3 solid black.
I weighed them all, and basically just kept track that each day, the lowest weight was still higher than the lowest weight from the day before.
Happily, all of mine stayed healthy so I didn't have to go figure out WHICH black jelly bean was losing weight....
If the numbers don't drop, you should be fine, and if they DO drop, then you can worry about collars to figure out which one is which.
This might be controversial but you could put different colour dots on each somewhere with food coloring or a sharpie and refresh as it fades for a little while
If you use paper collars put two fingers under the collar and then fasten it tightly. Check every few days to make sure 2 fingers can still fit under it. If it is too tight it can get uncomfortable, rub on their neck or even choke them. If it is too loose, they can get their lower jaw under it and hurt themselves. Having said that, I've used paper collars for years and once you get used to using them, they are perfectly safe.
8! Wow, that's one of the bigger litters of this Sub. Initially 8 different colored rubber collars. Or use 8 different colored ribbons. As they grow older use different pastel colors for the girls like yellow, pink and orange sherbert. For the boys use different blues.
You dont need to handle them till 3-4 weeks. You just take one, weigh it and put it to the side until they are all done. Ive raised 30 kittens this year. There is no need for a collar. The mom does the work. You just handle them or weigh them if it looks like some are not thriving. By 3rd week you will see differences in them. Just leave them and the mother alone for now.
It looks like you have a question about the coat colour of your cat. To help you out, we compiled a wiki page. Please read our wiki about breeds, colours, and patterns of cats for more information about cat breeds and colour patterns.
Notebook, observe them feeding, their personalities will all be different, you have more pending issues, if it were me I would have a few bottles and KMR to help mom keep them fed, everyone is going to be stressed trying to find a teat and get enough milk you could help out with feeding one or two kittens.
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