Nom nom nom nom!

The other day the fennecs were eating their dinner and I decided to film it. We all know fennecs can be pretty loud as adults right? Well the phoenix kits are also pretty loud and they were only 6 weeks old when I made this film AND their mouths were full!

They are so cute and so very funny I watch them for hours when I have the time.

People have asked me allot what the fennec kits have been eating and normally I just reply bugs and turkey/chicken mince but actually they have a few more things such as live meal worms and baby food. . . Yep you read right, baby food.
The fennec kits were having awful trouble with their veggies so I decided to purée them which they loved but made such an awful mess in the blender that the dishwasher did not do well at removing and I HATE cleaning the blades by hand as I fear I will cut myself SO I bought them baby food as it is pre blended. They have Plum brand Spinach , parsnip and basil which I mix into their ground meat. They have tried the parsnip, apple and pea but that did not go down so well and they seemed to try to avoid it when they were eating.

I bet you are wondering why the fennecs have salt on their food, maybe it's a bit bland for them?

Hehe nope, it is actually taurine and calcium which I sprinkle on their food I then mix it in and then it becomes this:

A brown icky mess. . . But they like it so the vomit inducing look of it can be excused. 

The Phoenix kits have their food in the same bowls most people use for reptiles as they are shallow but also hold a fair amount. They have a flat base too which means their food is not spilt everywhere when they eat which means I have to clean up after them a little less. . . Only a little though. 

PS:

Wesley Kenyon owner of a fennecfoxes.webs.com has decided to attempt to slander my name as I am sure anyone who has ever read his blog or joined his website will know. I am not like him and I know I do not need to go around spouting nonsense to gain friends but anyway here is my side of it all: 

http://www.raskbb.com/sybilsden/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8209

It also has other breeders views on him after he too messed them around. 

Fox kits. How cute?!

So a few days ago I went on an outing with Valla, Sapphire, Sprite and the Phoenix kits to my friend Alice's house for coffee and catching up.
Sprite and Sapphire had an amazing time playing in Alice's garden:

As you can see that Sapphire has her harness on but no lead. This is as she seems perfectly fine in enclosed gardens without either as she cannot climb nor jump very high. She is also quite slow in a straight line due to her legs being pretty short in proportion to her body.

It amazed me how much she has grown in such a short space of time!
This was her on July 16th:

She now dwarfs Valla! 

The Phoenix kits also enjoyed their trip but I did not take many photos of them as Alice did not want her photo taken and she was hugging them CONSTANTLY! 

Here are some photos of them the night before:

That is Princess behind my Dad's arm. All of the fennec kits adore my Dad but to be fair I have never met an animal that does not like him. 

Churchill yawning! 

Churchill exploring the play pen. 

The playpen they are in is actually for rodents but it is more then big enough for them to play in.

Churchill climbs over giggles as apparently going over is much better then going around. Giggles does not look like he agrees hehe!

Giggles recovering from being trampled by his brother.

There were four in the bag (well carrier) and the little one says 'Where we going?!'.

'Guys! It's not sleepy time!'

It amazes me every day how fast they are growing. It amazed me with Valla too but I have seen these little ones from day 1! 

I am currently trying to get them into the idea that the camera is not evil and the litter tray is the place to go to the bathroom. . . We are having more luck with the litter tray then the camera hehe. 

About two days ago a lovely play pen arrived for the fennecs which makes it so that I can have the fennecs, Valla and Sapphire in the same room without having to worry that one of the older kits will try to play too rough with them. 

Valla loves this new system: 

She loves just laying on the top watching them. She comes to get me when they make noise too which is adorable. 

She has been playing with them through the mesh on the sides too. Valla will run up and down the room and the kits run up and down their octagon. 

Sapphire does not give a damn about the kits, so long as she has someone to play with she is happy. 

Harry and Elspeth really like watching them through the baby gate but I know they really are a bit too big to have around them. 

Have you ever wondered what four sleeping fennecs looks like? 

They look like four little rabbits:

Have you ever wondered what one sleeping fennec looks like?

ADORABLE!:

That is Princess who is the fennec that I am keeping. The thing is I don't know if I should name her Princess. When I hug her and call her Princess I get Valla, Sprite, Sapphire and Elspeth trying to get to me as I call them all my little princesses. . . I had wanted to name her Hatshepsut but that is a bit of a mouth full so then I thought Pharaoh as Hatshepsut was a female Pharaoh but a friend's male fennec is names Pharaoh so it could get confusing when we talk SO I will probably call her something Japanese like Inari and Kitsune I just don't know what! 

Here are some random photos of the foxies for you all to enjoy:

Mummy, I am all ears!

So two days ago the Phoenix kits ears started to rise, then then yesterday they were a little more upright and now one of them has her ears the whole way up and the other 3 are not far behind her!

Little girl last Tuesday 21 days old:

Little girl today at 27 days old:

(She is the one on our left.)

The little guy in the back on the one below is called Churchill, he was 'Grumpy' but now he is not at all grumpy but he just looks like a Churchill.

I am sure when he goes to his forever home his parents will pick a much more adorable name for him but for now Churchill suits him to a tee!

Here is Churchill leading his 'troops' out of bed and to breakfast, the other three follow him everywhere!

Today the kits tried solids for the first time, they had turkey mince (the same sort us humans eat) and Greek yoghurt. They seemed very into the yoghurt but not so much into the mince, I am sure they will like it more when they work out that you eat not walk through it! 

At the moment the are sleeping most of the day and all the way through the night which is really good. After walking the 7inches to their yoghurt they were exhausted and went right back to bed once I had burped them and there they fell to sleep for AGES before coming back out to explore and have some milk. 

Sapphire, Phoenix kits and more!

So the other day we decided to take Sapphire out in the garden but once more we decided to go to my other half's parents house as their garden is enclosed.
She seemed to really enjoy the cool morning grass, the sights and the smells. She was quite interested in the pond but it was all green for some reason so I showed her that it was much more fun just to play around on the grass.

It seems to Sapphire that myself and my partner are there for two very different reasons; he is there to provide her with breakfast, and second breakfast and if she makes those puppy eyes third breakfast. I however am there to play games with the most important of which involves her rolling onto her back and whining until I tickle her tummy and then roll her (as she is quite round form all the breakfasts) from side to side telling her she is a little piggy to which she will smile and squeal happily to herself.

I find this all quite odd as normally I am the one our animals see as the cuddly one, not my partner, normally he is the fun one but I must say I quite like being the fun parent!

Now the following photos are far from impressive as I has been rolling around in the grass with Sapphire but this is the happy little Arctic:

Now you see that HUGE smile on her face? Now that is not from catching a mouse or even a butterfly but instead from catching a leaf, a brown (we would later find to be crunchy) leaf.

We made a video too:

Now not everything has been sweetness and light in the land of the Flashman foxes, in fact at one point it was quite worrying;
Our female fennec fox who just 3 weeks ago had a litter of four kits had had enough, she picked up the babies and dumped them all around her bedroom and went to escape from them up a scratching post and would not come down no matter how much they cried for her so we pulled the kits. This was one day before we were advised to do so but they clearly needed someone to feed them as no matter how much Inari put them back into bed she was not going to return.

When we picked them each up they were much more chunky then they had been even days before, I suppose I could see why she had abandoned them; four babies each about half your size draining you of milk 24-7 must have been such hard work. Now that I am the one feeding them I can see how much milk they can get through and how very quickly.

So without further ado here are the Phoenix kits!:

These photos were taken last night when they had one of their night time feedings.

Yesterday morning in the post something, well two things I have been waiting for a while for finally arrived Sapphire's sapphire collar and Valla's ruby collar (I could not very well leave my princess out could I?). Their collars are of coarse not real diamonds or Sapphires or even ruby's but I thought they looked nice and seeing as the girls are foxes they do adore shines!

Sadly Valla's is FAR to big but with any luck she will grow into it in the near future.