My cat is pregnant, help?

Aoifey!

So my cat's about 11 months old and we're pretty sure she's pregnant. We lost her for a week about 6 weeks ago and we think we got pregnant while she was gone. The problem is I know nothing about pregnant cats, cats giving birth or what to do with newborn kittens :P so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Should I feed her more now? She's on 1 tin of cat food a day now, is that enough?

Should we set up a place for her to have her kittens? She's an indoor cat.

Someone was saying we shouldn't touch the kittens for few weeks after they're born, is that true and for how long?

And any other advice?

SillyMangoX

You should start feeding her more, or better quality. Royal canin babycat is great for lactating mothers and the babies can start to munch on it when they are old enough but if this is too far out of your price range then any kitten food will do, feed as per instructions on the pack! You can build her a little nest but she may just choose her own place to give birth. If you are building her a nest, a large cardboard box tipped up sideways and plenty of old towels (you will not be able to re use them after so make sure they aren't valuable!!) would be a good start. Put it in a quiet warm place in the house that won't have a lot of human traffic. If the mother cat will let you then you should be okay to touch them but there is no need to over handle them and it might upset the mother cat, they have very good instincts so she should be okay but just keep an eye to make sure they are all gaining weight and none are being sat on etc. If she has a lot then she may need some help from you to bottle feed them to take pressure off but you won't know that until they are born. They usually have 3-6 in a first litter, but no guarantees! Is mammy wormed? If not talk to your vet about getting a wormer that is safe to use in pregnant and lactating cats as worms can be passed on to the kittens through the mothers milk. And of course don't forget to neuter her once the kittens are weaned as the country is over run with unwanted cats and kittens!

And share pictures when they are born

Anything else you need to know just ask!

Nody

Well for starters get your cat neutered once the litter is done and make sure all the new kitten owners do the same...

Also please make sure you don't give any kittens away until at least 10, preferably, 12+ weeks old to make sure they grow up properly with their mother and keep them all indoors at all time. Make sure the kittens get used to be around different humans and as Mango said touch them if you can (you want them used to humans and human touch from a young age).

Pumpkinseeds

I think that the first thing you need to do is have your cat checked over by a vet. You need to be sure that she is pregnant and that it isn't something else. I'm just assuming that she's put on some weight and that this is why you think she might be pregnant?

Themadhouse

Has she been vet checked?
If she is not too far along you can terminate and neuter her.

Having kittens is hard work.

Momma needs to be on a high quality food, preferabley a queen food designed for pregnant cats or a good quality dry adult food mixed with kitten food. Royal canin do both. We feed kitten or baby cat to our pregnant cats.

You need to get nutridrops and colostrum. Nutridrops in case momma needs an energy boost or kittens the same and colostrum in case a kitten doesnt suckle from mammy in the first 24 hrs.
You need to get royal canin baby milk in case you have to hand feed.

Birthing can be hard and your cat is so young, you are going to have to help her. Also make sure you have an emergancy number for your vet.
Read up on pregnancy and birthing so you know what to expect.

Momma should be somewhere quiet a week before she givs birth, your bedroom is ideal as if she gives birth during the night she will wake you first. You should have a cardboard box set up with some towels during this week so she can nest. She will give birth in that. The kittens will need somewhere that is not bright for the first while, soemwhere where momma feels safe.
You will mor than likely have to handle the kittens and that is fine. You might have to cut the umbilical cord, help them attach to a nipple etc.
Keep them until they are at least 12 weeks old, vacc at 8/9 weeks and second 2 weeks later.
You also need Parazol wormer and start worming at 6 weeks old, every 2 weeks until they are 12 weeks and then they can be done monthly after that.

As I said, it can be a lot of work so please read up on it all!

Aoifey!

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

I think that the first thing you need to do is have your cat checked over by a vet. You need to be sure that she is pregnant and that it isn't something else. I'm just assuming that she's put on some weight and that this is why you think she might be pregnant?

We're pretty definite she's pregnant at this stage, her nipples are very prominent and pink, she has a big pot belly but doesn't seem to be putting on weight anywhere else and she's been lying on her back a lot.

SillyMangoX wrote: »

You should start feeding her more, or better quality. Royal canin babycat is great for lactating mothers and the babies can start to munch on it when they are old enough but if this is too far out of your price range then any kitten food will do, feed as per instructions on the pack! You can build her a little nest but she may just choose her own place to give birth. If you are building her a nest, a large cardboard box tipped up sideways and plenty of old towels (you will not be able to re use them after so make sure they aren't valuable!!) would be a good start. Put it in a quiet warm place in the house that won't have a lot of human traffic. If the mother cat will let you then you should be okay to touch them but there is no need to over handle them and it might upset the mother cat, they have very good instincts so she should be okay but just keep an eye to make sure they are all gaining weight and none are being sat on etc. If she has a lot then she may need some help from you to bottle feed them to take pressure off but you won't know that until they are born. They usually have 3-6 in a first litter, but no guarantees! Is mammy wormed? If not talk to your vet about getting a wormer that is safe to use in pregnant and lactating cats as worms can be passed on to the kittens through the mothers milk. And of course don't forget to neuter her once the kittens are weaned as the country is over run with unwanted cats and kittens!

And share pictures when they are born

Anything else you need to know just ask!

Thanks for the help, going to put her on high quality food starting tomorrow, and I'll get going on setting up a place for her to have the kittens too. I'm not sure if she's been wormed or not, I know the girl we got her off said she had gotten her 2 sets of injections before we got her.

Oh don't worry, she'll be neutered as soon as we can after the kittens :P and there'll be plenty of pictures

Nody wrote: »

Well for starters get your cat neutered once the litter is done and make sure all the new kitten owners do the same...

Also please make sure you don't give any kittens away until at least 10, preferably, 12+ weeks old to make sure they grow up properly with their mother and keep them all indoors at all time. Make sure the kittens get used to be around different humans and as Mango said touch them if you can (you want them used to humans and human touch from a young age).

Yeah we're going to keep them til they're at least 12 weeks old, to be honest it's going to be hard to part with them at all but I don't think I can afford to keep them all long term :P. I'm sure if anything we'll be trying to keep people away from them so I don't think we'll have any problem with them not being used to humans.

Themadhouse wrote: »

Has she been vet checked?
If she is not too far along you can terminate and neuter her.

Having kittens is hard work.

Momma needs to be on a high quality food, preferabley a queen food designed for pregnant cats or a good quality dry adult food mixed with kitten food. Royal canin do both. We feed kitten or baby cat to our pregnant cats.

You need to get nutridrops and colostrum. Nutridrops in case momma needs an energy boost or kittens the same and colostrum in case a kitten doesnt suckle from mammy in the first 24 hrs.
You need to get royal canin baby milk in case you have to hand feed.

Birthing can be hard and your cat is so young, you are going to have to help her. Also make sure you have an emergancy number for your vet.
Read up on pregnancy and birthing so you know what to expect.

Momma should be somewhere quiet a week before she givs birth, your bedroom is ideal as if she gives birth during the night she will wake you first. You should have a cardboard box set up with some towels during this week so she can nest. She will give birth in that. The kittens will need somewhere that is not bright for the first while, soemwhere where momma feels safe.
You will mor than likely have to handle the kittens and that is fine. You might have to cut the umbilical cord, help them attach to a nipple etc.
Keep them until they are at least 12 weeks old, vacc at 8/9 weeks and second 2 weeks later.
You also need Parazol wormer and start worming at 6 weeks old, every 2 weeks until they are 12 weeks and then they can be done monthly after that.

As I said, it can be a lot of work so please read up on it all!

Oh I know it's going to be hard work, but it'll be worth it when there's a litter of happy kittens running around the house . We have a couple of places in mind to set up the nest so I'll get going on that in the next few days as well as bringing her to the vet.

Do you have any idea how much the vaccinations and worming are? Trying to get a rough idea on how much all this is going to cost so I can be prepared.



Thanks for all the help everyone, keep the advice coming

Themadhouse

First vet check for kittens will be 35-40 euro. Our vet is very good to us so im not sure of the exact price for vacc, probably about 25-30 per kitten and this will be done twice.
Parazol wormer is about 12 euro and will last until the kittens leave you.
Dont worm the mother.

http://www.cat-world.com.au/pregnancy-in-cats