We were rather surprised when Cherry produced this litter of 15 kittens - not because we hadn't planned them (we had), but rather that they were born alive and well nine days overdue. In some rare cases, it appears that implantation of the litter can be delayed if conditions are not quite right for breeding. Not only was it winter, which isn't really ideal for breeding, we had moved all our rats to another room at around the time that Cherry was mated, which probably disturbed her more than it appeared.

Cherry was a very relaxed Mum, who is more than happy for me to hold her kittens. She made an excellent job of bringing up her little (large!) family. Unfortunately for her, our other litters were practically weaned, so I wasn't able to foster some of her babies to another doe to make her job easier.

3 days old	Feeding time! (17 days old)
It's already clear which kittens have blazes	The kittens are fast developers and were running around with eyes open at only 10 days old.
4 weeks	4 weeks
Some of the does	Some of the bucks - the nosey roan went to live in Cornwall
6 weeks & 6 days old	Doe kittens at 8 weeks
All the buck kittens together for the last time	The three blacks went to live in Wiltshire and one roan is off to Wales (the other is Corrie)

For the previous litter, click here. To see a list of all our litters, please click here.