Playtime in November

Yesterday I visited the kats in fine and warm weather. I came right for feeding time, everybody got one big mouse.

The pups will be 4 moths now in a couple of days.

I was a bit concerned about Swingkat, as he still looks skinny with his hip bones still protruding. H

e ran away with his mouse and at first I didn`t see him eating, but later I watched him eat his whole mouse unmolested from anybody.

Some time later he had snatched another piece from someone else and Snoutie came up to him making enthusiastic begging calls. As Swingkat did not respond and hipslammed him, Snoutie bit into the other side of the mouse and both had a real tug of war, with Swingkat winning.

Both Caruso and Snoutie devoured their mice making enthusiastic moop-moop-moop-sounds, in particular Caruso was very loud. I wonder wether she will still be that chatty as an adult.

The adults no longer respond to the begging calls, but the pups still try to snatch a treat from the adults.

Sayuri is more quiet and she still fiddles about with her mouse for a long time. It looks like she is rather sucking it than biting into it ;-) She is a sweet little ball of fur and still smaller than the other two pups.

I talked to their keeper about Swingkat`s condition and he also remarked that Swingkat is eating well, but is still a bit skinny. He said that he is torn between what to do for Swingkat as he is still thin and the others, who are very well fed... Möfzi and Orlok in particular are getting middle age spread.

Stubby Tail`s treatment was successful, his sinus trouble is better, but it`s not gone completely yet.

After feeding time the pups came over to play and dig in the rustling leaves that had gathered in some places of the enclosure. They also had some little play-wrestling matches.

I was slightly concerned, when a large hornet tumbled into the enclosure and Snoutie started inspecting it and later biting into it. But he did it very well and ate it without being stung.

When the 5 adult males were about 8-9 months old, Flat-Ears caught a bee, but did not bite into it correctly.

The bee was still buzzing inside his mouth and he got a nasty sting. Flat-Ears collapsed within seconds, the other kats came running to check on him. Christian jumped into the enclosure to check on Flat-Ears, as no keeper was around and Flat-Ears lay completely still, but then he ran to fetch the keepers.

Flat-Ears was collected by one of the keepers and we thought that he was dead.

About 30 minutes later, he was transported back inside a cage and alive and kicking! They had put a frozen mouse onto his throat and within minutes he was back.

That`s why I was really concerned, when I watched Snoutie exploring this hornet... but he managed better than Flat-Ears.