I'm sure now that Molly is pregnant. I think she's due for the first or second week of June. We've already prepared a couple of boxes, so that she can choose where she has her kittens, and I do hope she won't decide on our bed or my wardrobe :rolleyes:

Anyway, she's been sick a couple of weeks ago, but she's better now, but she's gotten very skinny. I've been trying to give her a lot of food and she eats enough, but she doesn't gain weight, aside from the tummy. I've been mixing egg yolks in her food twice or three times a week, and I give her extra vitamins, but don't really know what else to do. She eats food I prepare myself, so no 'real' animal food. Gosh I'm not giving her things I wouldn't dare to eat myself :bigeyes: Maybe this causes her to get too little fat? Any advice on rich or considerably fatty food that I could give her?

Also, she's been biting her fur and has several bald spots, especially on her belly and her back legs. The vet has seen this but he said this was because she was in bad shape. She should be better now but maybe this has to do with the pregnancy. I did see a documentary on TV a couple of weeks ago, and there was a black cat who just had kittens, and I saw her tummy being with bald spots as well. In fact, she looked just like Moll - look there, Molly's on TV! :mrgreen: So I don't really know about that one.

And as for when the kittens are born. How does it work? What should I do? Do they have enough with a box lined with something? What's the easiest to keep the box clean? Is it better to try and keep the tomcat away from mom and kittens?

I know the kitties should stay for at least six weeks. When can I start give them a little solid foods? Do I have to deworm them?

Are these enough questions? :mrgreen:


I'm very excited over this and I feel that Molly comes to me more often, as if she knows this is more of a woman's thing :wink: but I'm also a little worried to make sure she gets all she needs in order for her and her kittens to be healthy and happy.

So any advice is very appreciated! And I'd love to hear about your experiences!

Congratulations! :gabigrin:

Momma kitty will have the kittens where ever she feels safest. My kitty always had them under my bed. You'll notice her starting to "nest" a few days before she's ready to have them. Provide her a box now and put some old sheets or soft towels in there that you don't mind throwing away. If she feels comfy in the box, she'll have them there. You can make a "birthing area" and contain her in a room, but you pretty much just let her do what she wants so you don't distress her.

Let her have the babies on her own. You can stay with her if she's happy to have you, but again...the distress thing. Check up on her and make sure that she doesn't go too long between kittens (don't know exact time, you can research and find it though). If she does, you may lose some or all of the remaining kittens.

You might want to offer her some liver (raw) and see if that helps her out. I always went out and bought a small piece of liver when my kitty was prego and would feed her some now and then. I think that's why she got prego so often...lol.

Good luck. I hope everything turns out well. I want to see pictures of the little babies!

EDIT - I forgot! Put her on kitten chow. Go get the good brand (Science Diet is my fave). It has all the extra vitamins and nutrients she needs.

Edit again - duh! You don't feed your cat cat food. Also, keep Mr. Kitty away. You can change the sheets in the box after she's done birthing. Keep her food and water near the box w/ the kittens so she doesn't have to go far for food. You can relocate them if you want so it's more convenient for you to access. If you keep the food close to her, she will teach the kittens to eat by herself. They should start eating around 6 weeks. When you notice solid poos in the litter box (keep close as well) that will start to clue you in to the fact that they are starting to eat solid foods. I always wormed the kittens the day before I put the add in the paper. That way, they're through with all the nasty stuff by the time people start to come looking at them.

Again...I want to see pictures!!!!! I LOVE kittens, but all my kitties are fixed now :(

Whoa that's a lot of advice :mrgreen: Thanks so much shylye, that helped a lot! :smooch:

Congratulations Granny :wink: I'd have her checked by the vet to make sure it is kittens just in case.Has she had kittens before.Hope all goes well :flowers:

Queenie! Kittens are so much fun! :D

We had a few batches over the years. Let's see ...

If you have Molly on kitten chow the kittens will start to try to eat the food on their own just by watching and following her around and seeing what she's doing. They're more curious than anything else on earth, so they will try! And when it comes to the litter box, they'll usually figure that out for themselves too (if they can get in it) by exploring around. They'll get the idea so quickly.

She sounds like she might be a good momma cat, but if it's her first time do keep an eye on her when she goes into labour. We had one cat that I ended up midwiving because she was just not too great at it. I had to cut the placenta off most of her kittens as she just didn't seem to get it, and she didn't eat the placenta after either, which is what most mother cats do. She was O.K. at the basic mothering aspect of it all, but really hated nursing them. You could tell. She only had three kittens once, and they would literally be holding her down while they nursed when they got old enough to! :smile:

I'm jealous. Right now we just have one sweet little boy, so no kittens here. I miss them.

Congratulations to the expectant mother! Kittens are wonderful! Our cat delivered a litter of 5 in 1979, on a Sunday. Her sides were contracting and getting very hard, so I directed her to the middle bedroom closet, where her birthing area was ready. She labored for 4 hours without having the first kitten, so I called the vet. He told me how to help her, and if a paw appeared to gently wiggle it back and forth to assist the first one to emerge. When it emerged face-first, I broke the sack and everything was fine. The other 4 followed without further incident.

I handled the kittens from the time they were born. I changed their bedding daily, as they do pee-pee. I don't recall when, but I did introduce food very early to them. I mixed a formula of baby rice cereal with evaporated milk and water. Our kittens began eating on their own very soon, maybe 4 weeks or so. (?) I then began feeding them kitten chow softened with water and Pet Milk (evaporated milk). They absolutely thrived.

They also started going in the litter box on their own, although they did poopy around the middle bedroom where they lived prior to figuring out the litter box.

As for the female, please feed a good quality dry cat food. It will instruct on the box or bag how much to feed her according to her weight and how many calories an expectant female should have now and when she is nursing.

Good luck to all, and enjoy the little darlings. Time flies when you're having fun!

I really reccommend giving her a high-quality kitten food, because there might be nutrients she needs that people food can't give her (I mean, cats eat ALL parts of things, like mice and birds...so they get nutrients from the little hearts and livers and other organs they're ingesting)...the kitten food is especially formulated for high nutirents...I used Iams with my two little ones (I've had them since they were 3 weeks old), and they grew very big and strong...

My other big reccomendation is kitten milk. You can get the formula at Wal-mart (powder that you mix with water), to supplement her diet...kitties love milk, but cow milk doesn't have the nutrients they need like the kitty formula does...but this would be a nice treat for her, and might help fatten her up a little...

We had lots and lots of strays on the farm growing up, but never helped with any birthings, so I'm useless for any advice on that (any house cats have been spayed/ neutered)...you do need to keep the Tom away because they might kill the kittens (at least this is what my grandma always said, not sure if it's true, but why chance it?)

Mamma cat will teach them everything they need to know about using a litter box and eating...BUT when they're old enough to walk (about 4 weeks or so) and to start using the litter box, it's a good idea to put a shallow metal pan with litter in it nearby for them to use...when they are fist able to use the litterbox they won't be able to go too far, and a regular litterbox will be too high for them to get into!

I love baby kitties...my two angels are a year old now...it goes so fast!! So you MUST post pictures...good luck, and give mammacat Molly a petting from me!!

Queenie -- sorry I'm a moron!! I just looked at your post and realized you're in Belgium...so you most likely do not have Iams or walmart! Basically, any good quality kitten food is good, and the formula should be at the pet store -- ask them for the kitten milk you would give to abandoned kittens or kittens whose mother died...I'm sure they must have something like that for those situations...

Good luck!!

Oh, hey, I forgot that we always started the kittens off on pablum before they began to eat more solid food! Duh!

And here's the picture of our old cat, Keller, when she had those babies holding her down to nurse. She's a very small cat, and you can see her back leg over Opal on the right, and her front paws on Harper at the left. That's baby Dusty in the middle. :)

http://img59.photobucket.com/albums/v179/cglory/kellerkits.jpg

I hope it's O.K. to post it here, and I hope it works!

CG, those are so cute! In fact, your Keller looks like Molly :mrgreen:

Mariah, like you expected, we don't have walmart around here :gabigrin: but we do have Iams - thanks for suggesting it. And kitten milk sounds ideal, too! I'll see at the pet store what they recommend.

Nastasska - I'm only 21 years old and already going to be a granny? Argh :mrgreen:

Thanks all for your great advice and your well-wishes. I'm feeling a little less worried now, just going to make sure it's all prepared and then just wait for those little critters to pop out huh :gabigrin: Can't wait!

:grouphug:

Biting at herself and creating bald spots could be caused by an allergy. My cat, Branwen, was allergic to fleas. I didn't even know she *had fleas. I never got bitten by them and she didn't seem to be scratching more than usual. We took her to the vet because she was biting herself and ending up with bald spots and he showed us how to check for flea dirt. Brush her fur out over a white paper or sheet, then add a couple drops of water to any black specks that fall out. If they turn reddish, it's flea dirt.

Just something to rule out! Good luck :)