If under a year, or older than eight years, your cat will not have an easy time with birthing, and the possibility of deformed kittens is increased. Pregnancy is normally about 60-65 days long. In cases of large litters, length is usually lessened. In cases of a small litter number, length may increase.

Is my cat pregnant?

If you think your cat might be pregnant, the first check her nipples. These become more prominent and pinker by three weeks of gestation. By four to five weeks after conception, your vet will be able to feel golf-ball sized swellings in her abdomen. At this time the developing fetuses are usually quite easy to count. Shortly afterward, her belly becomes a visibly enlarged.

Risks during pregnancy

The greatest risk to unborn kittens occurs during the first three weeks of development in the womb. Both drugs and infections might seriously impair healthy development. If, for example, the mother is exposed to feline infectious enteritis (FIE, or panleukopenia) at this time, the surviving kittens will be born with severe brain damage. Even exposure to live panleukopenia vaccine is dangerous. Cats should be vaccinated before they are pregnant, to increase the amount of passive protection they pass in the first milk to their kittens.

Recognizing When Your Cat is In Heat

Most cats have a very distinctive behavior when they are ready to be bred. They typically roll around playfully on the floor and rub their posterior against you and the furniture. They often become vocal and try to escape outside. They stand arched with their tail strait up and their back and rear legs stiffen whenever they are touched. Heat periods will usually last 4 to 7 days. They become longer and more frequent if the cat is not bred. A female cat will mate several times during her heat cycle so kittens in the litter may have different fathers.

Exercise

Regular exercise and walks will help your pregnant cat keep her muscle tone and general health. Obesity is potential danger in pregnant cats when delivery time comes so control any tendency to fatness with exercise and careful attention to her revised caloric needs. It is much safer to restrict diet before the cat becomes pregnant than after. During the final three weeks of pregnancy the mother should be separated from other cats in the household as well as cats from outside the family.

Parasite Control

Cats that are bred should be negative for intestinal parasites. Bring a sample of their stool by your local veterinarian for a parasite check prior to breeding... If not, it should be wormed at least twice with pyrantel pamoate before it is bred. Mother cats that have intestinal worms can pass these worms on to their kittens through the womb and through their milk. Some of the cats that do this are negative on fecal examinations because the parasites are encysted in their muscles. This is particularly true of cats that live in kennels with many other cats. When kenneled cats are involved the kittens should be wormed at six, nine and eleven weeks of age with pyrantel pamoate.

Preparing For The Kittens

Prepare a room for the birth to occur. This room should have an impervious floor that makes cleaning easy. It should not be drafty and should be in a quite area of the home. Prepare a bed for the cat, a laundry basket lined with towels or unused clothes works well. Get her used to using it. If the mother won’t stay in it, you can encourage her to by petting her and giving her small food snacks. You can lead her to the designated nursing area when labor begins but don’t expect her to stay there. She will almost certainly have her kittens outside of the pre-assigned area, let her. When she has completed the delivery, move them all into the designated bed. Cats don’t like to be bothered when they are having their kittens. There is no need for you to spend time comforting her. After the birth of the first few kitten, the mother usually is preoccupied with her babies and not as upset at your presence. Give her the space she needs, but keep checking in on her regularly. It is quite possible that you will miss the birth process entirely. You will probably wake up one morning or return from work only to find you have a brand new litter of offspring contentedly nursing on their mom. If your nursery room is not warm enough, you can warmer it by wrapping a heating pad in a towel, setting it on "low," and placing it under one half of the nursery bed. This allows the mother and kittens to move away from the heat source if they choose to.

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