How to Take Care of a Pregnant Cat

My cat, Waffle and her kittens

When we begin to realize that our cat was pregnant, of course we started anxiously. It felt so glad to have little kittens, but also anxious because we do not know how to take care of a pregnant cat. Moreover, we are concerned how the cat gave birth later.

Keep in mind that the cat is pregnant for about 2 months or about 55-65 days. It's important to know when our cat was mating, to be able to know how long she was pregnant.

The age of cat is also very important. Cat that have been aged 18 months will have a much smaller risk than those younger one. Apart from that, the selection of suitable males should also be a concern, choose males that his body is not too big, so the size of kittens are not too big, because later may cause trouble once born.

To find out if our cat is pregnant or not is not an easy thing. Your veterinarian will usually recommend to perform ultrasonography examination in gestational age of more than 3 weeks. Although it can estimate the pregnancy by touching the back of the cat's abdomen, ultrasonography is obviously much better and accurate. After a gestation cats over 6 weeks, can also be done radiography or x-rays to estimate the number of baby cats.

When cat is pregnant, she has different nutritional needs. Pregnant cat requires a higher protein, like a kitten. Therefore a pregnant cat can be given kitten food until two months after giving birth. A comfortable and safe rooms should also be given. Do not let our pregnant cat too much running or jumping. During pregnancy, cat should not be given any drugs or other chemicals that can interfere with her pregnancy.

If the cat has entered the final stages of pregnancy, we must prepare the appropriate place of birth. Using a modified cardboard and covered with cloth or newspaper can be helpful. This place will also be used to keep the kitten.

We also need to know the signs of cat ready to give birth. When approaching birth, the cat's breast enlarge and usually begin issuing milk when palpated. Cat would rather be alone and looking for a darker and secure place. Cat appetite usually decreases and her body temperature will drop. 

For cat who have been given birth before, the cat's habits should be noted, such as the length of pregnancy and birth process. In this case, if the pregnancy is longer than previous pregnancy, the cat should be taken to the vet to do radiography to see position of the baby cat. Your veterinarian will decide if the cat will be given an injection of an incentive to give birth with caesarean. 

Normally, if the kitten is more than one, birth process is usually range within about 30 minutes to 1 hour, and varies up to 4 hours. If it is too long or the next kitten did not come out, cat should immediately be brought to the vet.

Some mother cat can not give birth properly without human assistance. For this cat, the owner must know how to help a cat give birth. Cloth, vacuum, scissors, thread and place for kittens are a few things to be prepared. Shortly after the kittens came out, we had to open up the placenta kittens then cut the umbilical cord. Make sure that there is not much blood out and wipe carefully. The vacuum is used to suck fluid from the kitten mouth and nose. Then rub the kitten's body until she was breathing and cried. After making sure the kitten crying, she can be brought closer to her mother to get milk.