Pregnant Cat Tips
Pregnant Cat Tips for when your cat is expecting – A new mother cat is often frightened and confused and requires special care and attention. In the first few weeks, you need to make sure your cat is getting the right diet. Moreover, you need to keep an eye out for warning signs of health problems. In this article, we explore some important post-pregnancy cat care tips you can use.
1. A good Pregnant Cat Tip, is Create a Comfortable Space for the Mother
The most important post-pregnancy cat care tip is to create a comfortable space for the new mother. Here are some tips you should keep in mind while doing this:
- Pick a confined and quiet space. Cats that have recently given birth should be allowed to freely access the house due to the various dangers present. Moreover, they might decide to bring their kittens into a tough-to-find or unsafe spot. Ideally, you should pick a room that has a door, such as a bathroom, laundry room, or guest room.
- Remove any risky items. A lot of things that seem harmless can actually be risky to a mother cat and her children. Don’t use deep cat beds, as a kitten can get stuck in them and suffocate. In addition, remove tall cat trees and restrict access to climbable furniture such as tall shelves. Ideally, the space should be quite minimalistic, with access just to kitten-friendly materials such as baby blankets.
- Don’t allow other pets to enter. Even if your pets are friendly, introducing them to the new mother is going to create a dangerous and stressful situation. Feline moms can be quite protective of their kittens and can attack pets that get too close.
2. More pregnant cat tips – Give a High Calorie and Protein-Rich Diet to Your Cat
Did you know that after giving birth and during nursing, a mother cat can lose 40 per cent of her body weight on average? Consequently, vets recommend offering good quality, calorie-dense, and protein-rich kitten food to both the mother and her children.
You can also feed the new mom salmon, chicken, or canned tuna if she’s a picky eater. Contrary to popular belief, cats are unable to digest cow’s milk, and it can lead to serious stomach discomfort. Thus, you should avoid giving her that.
Last but not least, you need to ensure your cat has access to fresh water all the time. Nevertheless, make sure you don’t put a deep bowl of water in a space with new-born kittens, as they can potentially drown. Give them drinking water in a shallow bowl.
3. Check the Mother Cat’s Teats Everyday
Nursing cats can often develop an extremely painful mammary infection known as mastitis that requires immediate vet intervention. In case you observe signs of redness, swelling, tenderness, inflammation, or bruising to the mammary glands, contact a vet immediately. Antibiotics might be necessary, and you might have to bottle-feed the kittens until the mother has recovered.
4. Keep Male Cats Away
If there is a male cat that is not neutered around your female cat, she could get pregnant again before she’s even done weaning the first litter.
Most vets choose to wait until nearly a month after she’s done weaning to spay her. Doing so allows time for the uterus to shrink in size and makes the surgery safer.
If you’re in this situation, get your male cat neutered soon after you learn about your cat’s pregnancy.
5. More great Pregnant Cat Tips is to Keep the Bedding Area Clean
Keep a blanket or a few towels in the new mother’s nesting site. Once the cat has given birth, you’ll have to change the bedding regularly. Initially, you will have to change it every day, but generally, you need to do it as often as necessary to keep the area clean and dry.
One way to go about this is to lay down several layers of towers at a single time. Simply remove a dirty or wet one to reveal a new and clean layer underneath it. This is going to make the process easier and quicker.
6. Check the Mother for any Illness
Feline immunodeficiency virus and feline leukaemia virus are diseases that can impact a large number of cats. A mother cat can transmit these diseases to her kittens through her milk. You can get the mother tested for these diseases beforehand and determine how likely the kittens are to contract them. In addition, you can take the kittens to a vet when they are 1 to 2 weeks old for a check-up and for treatment if required.
7. Keep the Area Free of Fleas
Kittens are highly vulnerable to flea anaemia. Thus, it is extremely important to keep the mother, the kittens, and the bedding area flea-free. You can use flea repellents on the mother but not on the new-born kittens, as they are too young. Moreover, you can bathe them with dishwashing liquid and use a tiny flea comb as required to remove the fleas.
8. Schedule a Wellness Check
As soon as you can, get your vet to check your cat and ensure that she is up to date on her shots. They can even check and let you know if you should get your cat neutered for a variety of safety and health reasons.
If you don’t already have an established relationship with a vet, make sure to talk to family members and friends in the area who are satisfied with their vet. Keep in mind that apart from you and your family, your vet is the most important person when it comes to the happiness and health of your cat.
Last Few Words on Pregnant Cat Tips
Cats that have recently given birth require some extra tender love and care. Thus, you need to make sure you take the best possible care of your cat and feed her a healthy and nutritious diet.
At Petnap, we provide a vast range of products that you can get for your nursing cat. Some of our products include flea spray, pet fleece bedding, disposable kittening box setup, and a lot more. Visit our website to check out our range of produc