I was up every two hours or so, feeding the little ones. Dolce seems happy to hang out with them, but it has been at least 48 hours since I saw any of the kittens actually nursing on her. I'm kinda stumped as to what is going on.
Theodore, the littlest one, is a champion nurser from the bottle. As soon as the nipple is in his mouth, his ears start vibrating back and forth and he sucks down as much as he can. Given that his stomach is probably the size of the tip of my little finger, that's not much. The girls seem much less consistent with nursing from the bottle. I managed to get each of them to eat something, but there was definately more resistance. Evanee is the worst. She squeaks, pulls her head away, and chews on the nipple rather than sucking. Shayla went to town nursing at the 2 a.m. feeding, but resisted mightily at 4 a.m. I can only hope that she got enough the first time and just wasn't hungry. Zyra has been good both times, although she can take a bit of convincing at first. I'm just glad I seem to have the technique down finally.
I am keeping a small space heater on in the room (on a shelf away from the floor) since I am concerned that the kittens may get cold. Dolce does seem to spend time in the nest with them, but they don't always sleep in a pile. I have come in to find one kitten in each corner.
I could really use some reasurrance from the Humane Society about how they are doing. I did read online that kittens with a birth weight less than 3.2 oz have a mortality rate of 59%. All my little ones were nearly an ounce less than that. I just want to know I am doing *everything* I can. I really don't want a repeat of little Tag. She faded away so quickly.
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