On December 19, 2024 and on December 21, 2024 Apollo and Atlas were born. These are sons of Gaia and Amadi (cattery African Savannah). Atlas was unfortunately not born alive and you can read more about the birth and the loss of Atlas in the blog about the birth.
Facts
First of all, we would like to share with you a few facts that apply to all (Savannah) kittens as soon as they are born, namely:
At birth, kittens weigh around 100 grams.
As soon as a kitten is born, it starts looking for the mother cat's nipple. It then kicks its paws against the mother's belly to start the milk production.
A newborn kitten is deaf and blind - they find the mother instinctively based on smell and touch.
With Apollo, we were able to check off the above sentences soon after birth, because his weight was fine, he started drinking soon after birth and of course he could not see or hear yet. So he had already passed his first test.
Weighing and weight
From the day Apollo was born, we weigh him around the same time. It is important to keep an eye on the weight. It could be that Gaia's milk is not coming in or that she does not have enough milk. A kitten should gain 10 grams per day after birth. This may be less on the first day, but if it does not gain enough after the first day, it needs to be supplemented. Fortunately, this was not the case with Apollo. Gaia had enough milk and with the exception of the first day after birth, Apollo gained between 15 and 22 grams on the days of the first week (even on the day that he went to the vet with his mother and brother for an examination).
Nest
Together with Gaia we created a nest for Apollo in our bedroom. Gaia did not think the bench with heat lamp in which Apollo was born was the best place to raise Apollo and went looking for a new spot in the bedroom. We made this spot warm and sheltered for her and since then she stays in the same spot with Apollo.
The doors in the bedroom are closed so that the other cats and children cannot get to her and Apollo without permission. We do not want outside influences to cause panic.
Search for a satisfied mother cat
We notice that despite trying to make the situation ideal for Gaia and Apollo, this has not been entirely successful and that Gaia feels a bit lonely. Normally Gaia can walk through the entire house and often seeks us and the other cats out. Now she is cut off from the rest and has a little one to take care of and despite Gaia being very busy with Apollo's care, we notice that she lacks attention.
As soon as we enter the bedroom to weigh Apollo or to see how she is doing, she immediately runs to us to be petted. But as soon as Apollo makes himself heard, she does not know how quickly she has to go back to him. We see her running back and forth from us to Apollo several times a minute. We see the conflict in her eyes between taking care of her newborn son and her need for attention from us. Gaia also started meowing when she was alone with Apollo in the room for a long time.
The running back and forth that Gaia showed reminded me a lot of the time when I was a new mother. As soon as my son started crying I didn't know how fast I had to get dressed, for example, so that I could be with my son as quickly as possible. It was very special to see this behavior in Gaia and I could completely empathize with her situation.
After watching the meowing and restless behavior for three days, we brought Noa (our F3 Savannah) to Gaia to see if she could get some support from this and maybe feel a bit better. Gaia and Noa were together in the outdoor enclosure every day until a few weeks before the birth and who knows, her buddy might be able to take away the restlessness. We immediately saw that Gaia was very happy to see Noa and went straight to him to give him a headbutt, but as soon as he looked in Apollo's direction, Gaia started to show different behavior. Gaia started meowing and tried to chase Noa away. We watched it for a while, but we ultimately felt sorry for both Noa and Gaia. Gaia seemed to remain torn between her own feelings and her motherly feelings, so we brought Noa back to his enclosure.
A day later, we tried it again with the other cats in turns to see if this went differently. The other cats were less interested in Apollo than Noa and Gaia became a bit calmer after a while. This meant that we could open the bedroom doors every now and then under our watchful eye so that Gaia could walk through the house. Now she had more freedom and contact with the other cats and she seemed to enjoy this very much. From that moment on we saw that Gaia was a lot calmer and more at ease.
We still notice that Gaia is very protective. She gets nervous when we weigh Apollo and wants him back in the nest as soon as possible. When we hold Apollo at the nest near Gaia, she usually does fine.
We notice in everything that she is a mother who has a child for the first time and it remains very special to see so much recognition in her behavior. The panic in her eyes when Apollo starts calling and she doesn't know how quickly she should go to him. The fact that she doesn't want to give up her child is also very recognizable. This shows that people and animals are not that different from each other. Especially not when it comes to their own child.
Gaia is a fantastic mother and we are happy to say that Apollo is doing very well. We look forward to the coming weeks with him!
Explanation of kitten names
Finally, we would like to end the blog with an explanation of the names of the kitten(s). The kittens are named after two Greek gods that start with the letter 'A'. Apollo is named after the Greek god Apollo, who is considered the most beautiful god and Atlas is named after the Greek god Atlas, the bearer of the heavens. We have chosen the names of Greek gods because Gaia is named after the Greek goddess Gaia, who is also known as the primeval mother. We therefore thought it was fitting to name her kittens after Greek gods.
The names of the kitten(s) start with the letter 'A', because this is the first litter of our cattery. We follow the order of the alphabet and for a next litter the names of the kittens will start with the letter 'B'.
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