HELP! Pregnancy questions?????

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-02-2004
HELP! Pregnancy questions?????
5
Thu, 08-05-2004 - 9:55am
Please help, if you can...

I have never owned a cat, due to allergies, until I moved in with my boyfriend. I don't know much, but am learning to adjust. Jake is a very timid cat and it took us a long time to get acquainted. She is an inside-only cat, but got out almost two months ago. Yes, she was in heat, and very determined! I didn't see her until last week, when she came home, obviously pregnant. I coaxed her back in the house and thought that my boyfriend would be so happy that she had returned. Boy was I wrong! He flipped-out and said I should put her back out and leave her there. I felt that was cruel, and said "NO WAY". Now, she is my responsibility.

I have looked up info about cat pregnancy, made her a nesting bed, and altered her diet as suggested. All of the info I have found is very general, and I am looking for advice - the kind that you can only get from experience. Like is there a way to tell how much time is left before the kittens arrive? (Her belly is big, nipples are bright pink and have lost the hair from around them, and over the past few days, she has developed her milk sacs.)

Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated, by both her and I!

Thanks

Kim

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Thu, 08-05-2004 - 10:10am

*WELCOME* to Cats Kim!

Cat =^..^=
Avatar for cl_lcni
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Thu, 08-05-2004 - 10:25am

Hi Kim.


Photobucket

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-01-2003
Thu, 08-05-2004 - 11:27am
I am so sorry she was not fixed and got out. I hope you can care for the kittys

Avatar for howelady
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Sat, 08-07-2004 - 10:39am
Hello! My cat just had her kittens 2 1/2 weeks ago. I knew that she was going to have them because she was starting to act really funny. She could not find a comfortable position to lay in. She just kept moving around. She started to breath heavy and fast too. I also made her a bed to be in when she had the kittens, however, she didnt have them in there. She tried to have them in my 4 month olds crib!! Needless to say, she didnt but had them under it. SO I had to move her box to her and put her and the kittys in. They are doing great too. Hope this helps...a little bit anyway.

Megan

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 08-09-2004 - 5:39pm
When I got my cat Molly she was pregnant but I didn't know it. I ended up going to the library and reading a lot of the books about taking care of a pregnant cat and little kittens.

A lot of what it says in the books is helpful, but like with human pregnancies, they're all different.

I set up a box for her to have the kittens in, but right around her due date she started going into drawers, the closet, and that kind of thing. The day she delivered, I was laying in bed and she came up and laid down by my stomach. Then she started kneading me like a kitten would with its mother!

About an hour later, a yellowish fluid started to come out of her birth canal. I called the vet hospital, and they said it was normal and she'd probably start having the kittens in a couple of hours.

I just kept an eye on her. They say not to pet them or hold them too much when they go into labor, because it can slow labor down. Well she just kept following me around the house. She ended up plopping down in the middle of the living room floor and started having contractions.

So she gave birth in the middle of the floor. I got the kitten box and kind of put it behind her sideways, and little by little scooted her and the kittens into it. She seemed really scared before the first kitten came out, and I swear she kept giving me this look like "What is going on?"

I thought the neighbors might call the police for animal abuse because of the noises she was making when the first kitten came out. But after she smelled it, it was like nature just kicked in and she suddenly realized "oh I'm a mom now" and the rest of the deliveries weren't so difficult.

Somehow after they were all born I slowly scooted them on the towel into the box and got it turned over, and then I put a towel partially covering the top of it so she would have privacy. I think the kittens nursed for about 24 hours straight the first day.

I didn't touch them at all until they were a couple of days old, she didn't have any problem with me touching them or holding them at all.

Well I hope this helps you out somewhat! Let us know what happens!