sexing kittens

Question
my cat recently had a successful litter of five kittnes. they all seem very healthy, and they are only a day old so i was wondering when they can be handled? and also when is the earliest time to tell which are boys and which are girls?

Answer
As long as your cat is OK with it, you should start handling them as young as possible. This will start getting them used to loving human contact as soon as possible and will make them better pets later on. However I must point out to you that kittens' health cannot be judged in a day or so. They are in their most critical period the first couple of weeks and could succumb to certain kitten illnesses during that time. You should take them to the vet and get them on a schedule for deworming, innoculations and blood and stool tests. You should watch mom-cat and may find that she is having trouble getting them all fed. Often there is a runt in the litter who will get pushed around and not feed enough. It is usually best to help mom by supplementing her feeding with bottle feedings. You can do this with a special kitten formula available in pet stores - do not use milk. Once fed, they need their bellies rubbed gently to stimulate urination and defecation which they cannot do on the own for a while. It may seem mom can take care of them all but to ensure they all survive, your intervention is best. This is what breeders do. Also, I must mention that if you are not a breeder, you should really get mom spayed as soon as possible and get the kittens spayed and neutered as soon as they are ready. Your vet will tell you when. As far as sexing, it is very tough until they are several weeks old. It takes experience to judge. Often you will find that males urinate in a strong straight stream whereas girls will do it in more of a spray. You can see this if you hold them and stimulate their urination after eating using the belly rubbing as I said above. Otherwise you will have to wait a while until you can see the form of the testicles in the males.