# Ella (A Barn Cat’s Journey of Mothering)



## Wehner Homestead (Feb 20, 2019)

We had previously expected Ella to have kittens but were mistaken. DH saw “the act” between Wilson and Ella about three weeks ago and then a stray yellow tabby tom last week and Ella. She’s bound to be expecting now.

My research showed domestic feline gestations to be 58-63 days.

Does anyone have any pointers for expecting kittens? Please bare in mind that Ella is a barn cat, though quite treasured. She will be spayed promptly after this litter and while we wish she had been before reproducing, it is what it is. We will make sure Ella and the kittens are cared for to the best of our abilities.

Ella (DD2’s treasured feline)



 

 

Wilson




My research also showed that cats can only reproduce the colors of themselves of their mate (in basic terms.) This leads me to believe that we will get black and orange kittens with or without white, as it’s a separate gene that Ella carries. Any thoughts here?


----------



## B&B Happy goats (Feb 20, 2019)

They both look so clean and pretty !  I have no earthly idea what colors  you will end up with , but will for sure have some cute kittens....


----------



## Pioneer Chicken (Feb 20, 2019)

Aw, kitties!!! 

It could be true!   We have two feral cats who were mamas at least twice last year (they have since been spayed). One mama(Blackberry) is solid black with a small white patch on her chest and all her kittens were solid black.  The other mama (Peaches) has been described to me as being a torbie.  She is orange and gray with scattered tabby markings. The kitten from her first litter was mostly white with tabby gray patches.  From her second litter, one kitten was a dark gray tabby, one is a spotted orange tabby, and the other three are brown tabbies.  I don't know the dad to any of the kittens. There is a solid black tom and a gray tabby tom who visit us occasionally.    

I do agree with B&B that they are bound to be cuties!


----------



## Wehner Homestead (Feb 25, 2019)

Ella’s belly is still growing. I’ve spotted the Orange tom that’s feral a few more times. I’ll try to get some updated pics.


----------



## Mini Horses (Feb 25, 2019)

I know we all want to limit kittens, due to homes, but I've always been told it is better on the cat to let her have one litter first.    don't remember why now.   Hey, kittens are cute!!


----------



## MiniSilkys (Feb 25, 2019)

Ok, here goes. A cat can have kittens from more than one male at a time. It is fact. I had a silver female. She mated with a smokey blue tom. He was mine. They were not related. We had a black and white tom that sometimes visited. We also had another tom that we sometimes saw sneaking around that was orange tabby. When my female had kittens, one was orange, one was a blueish gray and white, two were silver like their mama, and we also had a two black and white.
Kittens can also take on colors of their grandmothers/grandfathers. So you never know what you might get.


----------



## Bruce (Feb 25, 2019)

Mini Horses said:


> I know we all want to limit kittens, due to homes, but I've always been told it is better on the cat to let her have one litter first.    don't remember why now.   Hey, kittens are cute!!


I believe that is an old wife's tale.


----------



## MiniSilkys (Feb 25, 2019)

For the pointers, make sure you fix her a bed in a quite dark place that she likes to hang around. You would be surprised that she might actually have her kittens in it. You don't want to come home one day to kittens spread out on your front porch. Yes, happened to me. She wanted me to have them. One of mine had hers last year behind the hay in the same house with my buck. He actually thought they belonged to him. He butted a coon that was trying to get to them. They played all around him when they were so small and slept with him when their mama was night hunting.


----------



## Wehner Homestead (Feb 25, 2019)

I know they can have more than one sire. It’ll be hard to tell which they are from though if it’s just the two orange toms. Oh well. Kids are excited! DD2 wants to name her kitten Princess since that’s what Papa calls her. 

I’m thinking a covered metal dog crate in the tack room. Door can be closed to keep dogs and other nosy predators out. I’ll put it on a shelf in there. Thinking a diaper box with a big notch so she can get in and out easily but kittens can’t. I’ll line it with old towels. Crate is big enough for food/water/litter box also. I have a huge box they can graduate to when they start to get mobile to help keep them safe.


----------



## MiniSilkys (Feb 26, 2019)

Just make sure it is dim enough in the tack room and quiet. If not she won't use it. Oh, yeah I see you said covered. I have had many kittens born and only had to help with the birthing one time. It was a large tomkit and he needed a little pull. Also, if she is young, she many need you to comfort her and let her know she needs to stay with them. One of my young girls had two kits last year. The girl was dead when I found them and the tom was hypothermic. I had to carry him around in my shirt for a while and then gave him back to her and told her she had to stay and keep him warm. She finally got the idea.


----------



## Wehner Homestead (Mar 16, 2019)

Some updates on Ella...I did some math and day 56 is 4/17. Since we didn’t note the exact day, it gives me an idea of when to keep a closer eye on her. (We know better!) 

Cupcake was also witnessed being bred. We now have two litters of kittens coming. I guess I’ll have to change this to Ella AND Cupcake’s thread. Cupcake is still wild. She’s slowly trusting more but very difficult to get pics of. 

Pics of Ella’s pregnancy progression: 

2/26



 


 

 

3/12


 

3/13 Ella and Cupcake (Zoe is the black cat behind Ella) 


 

3/14


 

 

Today, 3/16


----------



## MiniSilkys (Mar 17, 2019)

As of the picture, it looks like Cupcake is pretty small. Be prepared, her kittens may not make it. Ella is very pretty.


----------



## Wehner Homestead (Mar 21, 2019)

Ella’s belly seems to have grown over the course of the day. I need to get in gear and start prepping for her to have her babies.

She’s had some kind of injury to her tail since last night. I sprayed it with vetericyn. It looked pretty clean. I’ll keep an eye on it. I think she tangled with one of my sister’s dogs that were here while she was on vacation. They got picked up today. I’ll keep a close eye on Ella for issues with this.


----------



## MiniSilkys (Mar 22, 2019)

How is cupcake?


----------



## Wehner Homestead (Mar 22, 2019)

Cupcake is still completely avoiding us. Her future with us is in jeopardy because she will have to be spayed after this litter and I have to be able to catch the kittens. I’m trying to avoid a hasty decision. I don’t know what she’s been through. She freaked yesterday when DH and I were both working in the barn and accidentally cornered her. I’m trying to decide if she’d be a danger to the kids (due to her extreme fear.)


----------



## MiniSilkys (Mar 22, 2019)

I understand. You don't want them getting scratched or bitten.


----------



## Wehner Homestead (Mar 22, 2019)

Ella tonight... any guesses on how many?


----------



## MiniSilkys (Mar 22, 2019)

4.


----------



## frustratedearthmother (Mar 22, 2019)

5


----------



## Bruce (Mar 22, 2019)

A HUNDRED!
OK, 8.


----------



## Wehner Homestead (Mar 23, 2019)

@Bruce DH would have a cow! Literally! He told the kids they could keep the kittens (except one that his brother has agreed to let his niece have.)


----------



## Bruce (Mar 23, 2019)

Keep ALL the kittens no matter how many she has? Poor planning there! Maybe she will have only 3


----------



## promiseacres (Mar 23, 2019)

7


----------



## Bruce (Mar 23, 2019)

No no Promise, did you read where she has to keep all but one?? 
 small litter!


----------



## promiseacres (Mar 23, 2019)

Bruce said:


> No no Promise, did you read where she has to keep all but one??
> small litter!


I did....  I think her DH doomed them....


----------



## Wehner Homestead (Mar 23, 2019)

It’ll definitely be entertaining to say the least.


----------



## rachels.haven (Mar 23, 2019)

I vote 6 live kittens.


----------



## Dani4Hedgies (Mar 24, 2019)

Yea Kittens!!!! I'm voting for 4 kitties


----------



## MiniSilkys (Mar 24, 2019)

@Wehner Homestead, that's what happened one time with my cats. I had three girls. They each had 6. All in a week, I was up to 21 cats!


----------



## Wehner Homestead (Mar 25, 2019)

Ella is still growing rapidly!


----------



## promiseacres (Mar 25, 2019)

She looks like she's dropped..


----------



## MiniSilkys (Mar 26, 2019)

for a small amount and mostly boys. You don't want to have to pay for so many spayings. $99 here for females.  and no discount for farm cats. Shelby county does them for $25 each!


----------



## Wehner Homestead (Mar 28, 2019)

Last neuter I had done was $150!!! 

Ella still hasn’t exploded. I really have no idea how.

Here’s her updated maternity photos from this evening.


----------



## MiniSilkys (Mar 29, 2019)

Wow, and I thought ours was high!


----------



## Wehner Homestead (Mar 30, 2019)

@MiniSilkys i wish ours were as cheap as yours. That be almost two for the price of one.


----------



## Wehner Homestead (Mar 31, 2019)

We have kittens!!! 
Ella has five kittens currently and I’m not sure she’s done. DH saw her this morning and she didn’t greet us for evening chores. We hunted the barn and shop without luck. I went through the barn loft twice and threatened to move every bale. 

The yellow tomcat was present when I was in the loft and DH saw another black tom this morning. I knew if I didn’t find them, that one of them would first. I couldn’t take that chance. 

I was checking in Sweetheart and Flower’s heat barrel because Ella often sits on it and I was getting desperate for where they could be. I heard the tiniest “mew” but couldn’t locate it. I then heard a suckling sound. I narrowed it down to a particular wall of the barn but that left several places to look. 

DH came to listen to make sure I hadn’t lost mine mind. He heard them too. There’s a panel wall with a gap between it and the tin on the barn. We checked the two I could get to from Nellie’s Kidding pen. There was one in the main doe pen that I wanted to check next. If they weren’t there, I had a narrowed down area of the loft to search.

Ella was behind the four foot wall and I could see several kittens nursing. There was no way to keep them safe from the toms though. 

We hurried and set up a crate because I still hadn’t done that. DD1 was set down in the gap but due to a 2x4 running parallel to the ground, she couldn’t get all the way down in the hole. (She wasn’t standing on old loose hay that was in there on the one end but couldn’t reach Ella or the kittens.) 

I snapped a pic of Ella down in the gap. DH and I tried several ways to reach her without success. I was 4-6 inches from the top of her head. (Ella is on a small space of the floor, there’s a main post in front of her.) 



 

I was ready to rip out the paneling. DH looked like he was going to throw a fit before I did that! He then said maybe he could pull the tin out. 

I stayed in the barn and when he was outside, I knocked on the tin until he found the right area. He then shown a light under the tin until he was right where Ella was. He was thrilled to find that there was a seam right there. While he waited on me to get outside to help, he took the nail out. The kids were holding flashlights for us. DH pulled the two pieces of tin out and I was able to scruff Ella and pull her out. I unfortunately drug some nursing kittens out with her so DH gathered them up quickly. He pulled the tin apart again as I held a purring Ella. He got the remaining kitten from the gap. We had a bucket with some straw and a fleece blanket ready to put them in, then the blanket tail was laid over the top of the bucket to keep the wind off of them. 

We hurried to the garage with our precious cargo. DH carefully carried the bucket, older two kids had lights, and I carried Ella and DD2! 

Once in the garage, I held Ella (still purring) while I carefully placed all FIVE kittens in their makeshift cave/bed. I then set Ella in front of it and she quickly joined them in the bed. 

I peeked in on them quickly after we did another check of the gap to make sure we didn’t miss a kitten and DH fixed the tin and replaced the nail. All seemed to be doing well. Ella was purring and kneading, even bumping my hands a few times. Kittens were happily nursing. 

I’m not sure she’s done as her belly was still quite large but I didn’t push the issue and will let her be. 

So far there’s one calico and one tortoiseshell. Both of those have to be females. The other three I didn’t even try to check genders on since they are so little and I wanted them settled quickly. Two of those are gray tabbies. The last appears to be a smoky black but was still damp so time will tell. 

I did get a few pics. I was trying to be minimally disruptive.


----------



## Wehner Homestead (Mar 31, 2019)

I took a large dog crate and covered as much of the top and three sides with a sheet as I could. The completely open end is where the gate is. I then took a large diaper box and taped one side and one end flap shut to make the opening smaller and keep the kittens from being able to get out for now. I placed the box with the opening toward the side that was completely covered by the sheet. We gave her a litter box, water bowl, and some dry food in the other space of the crate. 

I have some canned food to supplement her with but I don’t expect her to be interested quite yet. 

I’ll need to figure out a way to keep the kittens from escaping around the bottom of the crate. This was something we had issues with when we had the bottle kittens last summer. I’ve got a few days to come up with a solution though.


----------



## Bruce (Mar 31, 2019)

I'm sure glad she made it easy for you!


Very happy you were able to find her and rescue everyone.


----------



## Carla D (Mar 31, 2019)

They are beautiful babies. Ella is a very pretty cat. I’m glad you were able to put them in a safe spot. Your girls are going to love watching them grow.


----------



## promiseacres (Apr 1, 2019)

silly cats... your DH sounds like mine....


----------



## Wehner Homestead (Apr 1, 2019)

Real quick snapshots before I left for work this morning. 



 

 


Some pics from this evening...Ella had eaten and drank several times. We offered canned food and she dove in. I petted her some and she purred. 

I went ahead and reached for a kitten and despite a few tiny cries of protest, each of the kids got to hold a kitten while I checked them over. 

Thus far, everyone is healthy and seems to be energetic with full bellies. 

We have one calico, two tortoiseshells (the smoky black dried out to be a tortie,) and two gray tabbies. Knowing that the calico and torties should be females, I compared “parts.” The two Gray tabbies are boys. My son was in tears until I told him that we did in fact have a boy. 

DH’s niece has requested a male and a friend has requested a female so I think everyone is spoken for, allowing one for each kid. 

These are pics without the kiddos in them.

L to R: tortie, two gray tabbies, calico, and tortie.


 

 

In the next few days I’ll try to figure out how to tell the torties and tabbies apart.


----------



## promiseacres (Apr 2, 2019)

so cute! 5 was the perfect numbee.


----------



## Bruce (Apr 2, 2019)

Who won the 'contest'?


----------



## Mini Horses (Apr 2, 2019)

Some chicken wire around bottom of cage? 

Congrats on the lovely kittens!  Yep, she was "hiding" them in a safe place.  Darned cats!  There were other "safe" options, I'm sure.   But all is well!


----------



## frustratedearthmother (Apr 2, 2019)

Bruce said:


> Who won the 'contest'?


I believe that would be MEEEEEE!!   I said 5 - I win, I win!

Oh wait - was there a contest?   

Cute babies for sure!


----------



## Wehner Homestead (Apr 2, 2019)

frustratedearthmother said:


> I believe that would be MEEEEEE!!   I said 5 - I win, I win!
> 
> Oh wait - was there a contest?
> 
> Cute babies for sure!



@frustratedearthmother wins! She’s the one that guessed five. No idea what she wins though!   How does bragging rights sound? 

I guess I could ship you Cupcake and you could have your own kittens!!!


----------



## frustratedearthmother (Apr 2, 2019)

Bragging rights work for me!


----------



## MiniSilkys (Apr 3, 2019)

They a lovely! I just love kittens. My tomcats never hurt the babies but I have had other toms that snuck around and killed older kittens. I'm glad everyone is happy and gets a kitten.


----------



## Pioneer Chicken (Apr 11, 2019)

Congrats on the kittens!!! They are soooo cute!!! 



MiniSilkys said:


> They a lovely! I just love kittens. My tomcats never hurt the babies but I have had other toms that snuck around and killed older kittens. I'm glad everyone is happy and gets a kitten.


One of my neutered cats (when we kept him outside) found a kitten and killed it. I was  so mad at him. He acts like a tom in so many ways. : (


----------



## MiniSilkys (Apr 11, 2019)

One year I when I had my silver feline, she brought home a newborn kitten. I didn't think she had been pregnant so I grabbed her to check her. I found no signs she had given birth and she had no milk. So she must have found some other cats kitten and stolen it. We tried to feed it and we kept it alive for a few weeks but it eventually died. This was before wal-mart started selling kitten milk.


----------



## MiniSilkys (Apr 11, 2019)

@Wehner Homestead, this is my Boots:



 
Any new pictures of the kittens? Just wait until she starts brings home food for they and then live food for them to dispatch of.lol.


----------



## Wehner Homestead (Apr 14, 2019)

Ella and her kittens are still in our garage. One of the toms is still hanging around. He has a tail injury and won’t let me near him. 

Kittens are three weeks old today. All have their eyes open. They haven’t tried escaping their box yet. Ella lays outside the box on occasion now. She deserves a break once in awhile. 

Pics are from today. I’ve taken some in between but never got them posted. 

Princess Cinderella (female tortie) 


 
Smoky (male tabby)


 
L to R: Rascal, Glitter, Lulu


 
Left: Rascal Right: Glitter (will be long or medium haired)


----------



## promiseacres (Apr 14, 2019)

Sweet babies!


----------



## MiniSilkys (Apr 15, 2019)

So cute! Love Lulu! This is where things get hard. When you think everyone is safe and a tom comes lurking around. A mean Tom killed his own daughter when she was 8 weeks old. Of course he was not mine and her mama still wanted to nurse her. I had one female that nursed her kittens even when they were 6 months old. I had to keep making her stop. Lol. Smoky looks like my Briar before he was taken by a bobcat.


----------

