Martius Had No Fur

It is possible I have blogged about this before. When I brought my 600 g Martius home, I examined him on my kitchen table in full sunlight, after the 3-4 days we spent acclimatizing him to our house. I discovered my little one had felt which has aspects of baby down, but no fur. I remember almost crying. I did not know if this was maybe nutritional, or if it was his age or what. What I do recall was an overwhelming feeling of a sense of responsibility to make sure this little kitten grew fur. So, I did research on the best ways to grow hair. I called the vet for advice.

We put Martius on the top cat food. I remember buying CatMilk. Then, when I got it home and read the fine print, there were warnings about no human drinking it, or there were potential problems. The standards were not the same. Of course, I could not feed it to my kitten then. The CatMilk sat around. I should have returned it. If it cannot be consumed by me, it cannot be consumed by my cat. I did try Martius on cow's milk. He discovered for himself that he was lactose intolerant. He drank it for awhile, and then he stopped. He had had enough. I also fed him essential fatty acids off the tip of my finger.

This is how it evolved that I had bought a dog sweater for my cat. He wanted to go on the deck, but his fur was far too thin. He needed non-stop infra-red heat from us to keep him warm enough. For months, I babied him. I kept checking him for growth of his adult fur or rather just fur. I recall the first time he shed, I hurrayed. I know all kinds of people who complain about their cat shedding. I was just plain joyous he could shed.

Today, Martius has fine fur with dark markings. His coloring has darkened a bit as he has grown. His eyes have changed color a bit too. He still does not have the thickest fur, but it does the job for inside. It does the job outside on warm days. I have not tried anymore clothes on him. We passed that phase.