HINTS ON CARE AND MANAGEMENT 37 



kittens. Try and secure a foster to assist if the litter is a 

 larger one. It is when kittens are about a week old that the 

 mother begins to feel the strain upon her. A nursing mother 

 should have four good meals a day. 



It is well to book a foster cat if our queens are not good 

 mothers. The difficulty is generally to fix the date of the 

 arrival of the foster mother's kittens. It is best to have the 

 foster in the house a few days before the litter is expected. 

 A cat should not be allowed to take a railway journey having 

 just had a family, as the shaking is likely to upset the puss. 



There is really no difficulty in transferring kittens to foster 

 mothers, and it is well to keep common cats in view at 

 about the period when our valuable queens are due to kitten. 

 I have found the following plan answer splendidly. Take 

 it for granted your Persian queen and the common or garden 

 cat have litters about the same time. You proceed to pain- 

 lessly destroy all but one of the fester's family. Then place 

 two or three, or all of the valuable kittens in the nurse cat's 

 bed, mixing them up with the one kitten, baving in the 

 meantime removed the mother. In this way the new kittens 

 will become scented as it were with the surroundings, and 

 on her return the mother will give a few sniffs, and pro- 

 bably cuddle down quite contentedly, with only a vague 

 suspicion that something has happened. 



Some cats will be excellent mothers to a large family, 

 but if anything should happen to any of the litter and she is 

 left with only one or two she will desert them. It is better 

 to try and procure other kittens to put with her, and let her 

 foster these with her own. 



Kittens should not be taken from their mother before two 

 months, and those that are left another month are generally 

 the better for it. Not only is it well for the cat to suckle 

 her young as long as possible, but the natural warmth is 

 very essential for kittens of tender age. Avoid handling 

 your cat when she is in kitten, and when the family arrives 

 resist the temptation of picking up the tiny mites. Some 

 mothers resent this, and will often hide away their offspring, 



