# pregnant stray



## belle&beau (Oct 13, 2009)

ive been feeding a stray for a while she came unnourished and full of flea's , ive sorted her out for the past few weeks, ive been away with work for awhile and came back to see that shes pregnant,
i can feel kittens in her tummy and sometime her tummy moves loads, shes not that big,her nipples are very swollen and shes passing alot of wind,
ive heard to try feed her some kitten food,
shes staying here quite regualy now and gets on with my cats fine,

if i can feel the kittens kicking am i expecting an arrival soon?
as im deploying away with work in a week or so, and id love to try sort this cat out,id class her as one of my cats now and im looking to get her sprayed straight after birth...

any advice would be appriciated, coming from a bloke whose always had dogs before ....

can anyone point me in the right direction..

cheers Garry


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## belle&beau (Oct 13, 2009)

p.s shes sleeping loads and is not attempting to leave the house


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## steph2010 (May 12, 2010)

Hi there,

I am in the same situation but my cat is not a stray and she is about 7 weeks pregnant, from what i have read from here you will have about 2 weeks at the most from when you saw and felt the kittens move but some people have said that there nipples can swell quite close to when they are getting close...

As i said i dont know very much about all this but i hope this helps you..

steph


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## doliglwt (Apr 27, 2010)

Hi Garry

A kitten diet would be so good for her right now, a high protein diet will help her and her kittens loads over the next weeks.

She'll need a cardboard box with bedding and cut a little door so she can step out to eat and toilet, while kittens are safe inside. Dark inside, as eyes are shut for a reason, they're not fully developed. A dog crate would be really handy if you have? with box, food, water and litter tray safe inside ...or a separate room from your other pets? I appreciate they're friends now but she coud be frightened soon with babies to think about =^_^=

Feel free to email me if you need regular advice. Hopefully, lots of people will contribute to the feed to help you along the way.

Kay.


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## belle&beau (Oct 13, 2009)

cheers for the brief insight,
i dont have such a luxery as the dog carrier but ive managed to get a quite large cardboard box, cut oneside down and put a fleecy blanket in there at the moment,

i have two very young daughters so space is quite limited in my house ufortunatley, 
me and the wife have spoke about sorting one of our wardrobes out and placing it in there and stick her in with us the next few nights so she gets used to be ''upstairs'' ,
going to buy a litter box tomorrow, do you suggest any sort of litter, i tend to use clumping litter but i read this is a 'no-no' as mother might drop her kittens in the litter box would you suggest wood based litter?
bought her some kitten food from the off license earlier on, bless her she just licked all the jelly off, even though shes getting plenty of water( in kitchen most of day drinking from the sink, does not touch her bowl of water )

Thanks once again


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## tillyfloss11 (Feb 25, 2010)

Hi,

If you want a wood based one, I would highly recommend Pets at Home's own brand wooden pellets, they are really great, not very expensive at all and really seem to keep the odour to a minimum. We were recommended it in the shop by an old man and Ive never used anything else since.

When she is close to the birth, she may get a bit restless, moving around and looking as though she cant get comfy etc..dont be surprised if you wake up to the kittens as a lot of the time they have them in the quiet without making any noise 

Hope that helps 
Tilly


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## doliglwt (Apr 27, 2010)

wood based will be just right.

regards the food, they often just lick the jelly off! what I would do in that case is to mash it with a fork first, so she has no choice but to eat it properly and get all the goodness.

make the kids an omlette one night for tea and save one of the egg yolks back for her. that would be a great vitamin boost for her.

good luck, hope all goes well.

K.


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## belle&beau (Oct 13, 2009)

is it okay to bathe her


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## Aurelia (Apr 29, 2010)

She might get a bit chilly if you bath her properly, as she might be too big to groom herself properly. Though you could use a wet flannel or something. When it was really hot the other day I gave my girl a flannel wash and she loved it 

You're doing a lovely thing by the way. If you need any more help no matter what time of day there is usually someone around these parts to help.

Oh and where exactly are the obligatory pictures of this queen may I ask?


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## belle&beau (Oct 13, 2009)

cheers everyone,


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## belle&beau (Oct 13, 2009)

my wife thinks shes not pregnant and just got alot of wind,
surely this cant be right ive felt loads of movement (hard bumps) moving around her abdomen area for a few days now,
shes trumping loads (very smelly aswell )
is this normal


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## tillyfloss11 (Feb 25, 2010)

Hi, if you can feel hard lumps moving around then I would be certain she is pregnant..they do get very windy too..so I would say she sure is!!


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## Aurelia (Apr 29, 2010)

I've heard that some queens are a bit trumpy :lol:

It's a good idea to pop to the vets with her. If you explain the situation and that you're trying to help, they may give you a break on cost too. They may also scan for a microchip! It will be good for her to have a once over, the vet will be able to give you a rough idea of how long to go as well.


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## belle&beau (Oct 13, 2009)

heres a pic of 'tramp' cat (in a nice way) trying to stay cool on the kitchen floor, think it might be time tonight shes starting to lick her 'lady bits' quite alot


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## belle&beau (Oct 13, 2009)

test picture


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## Honeybunch (Apr 25, 2010)

aww just read your thread she's gorgeous reminds me of a cat I used to have. She def looks pregnant so won't be long, keep us updated


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## hazel pritchard (Jun 28, 2009)

Hope all goes ok
As an animal lover THANK YOU AND YOUR WIFE for taking this cat in and caring for her,after she has had her kittens please get her checked for a micro chip,someone may be missing her,my daughters cat went missing awhile ago and she and her children were so upset,her cat was found but it was a very upsetting time for the family while it was missing


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## belle&beau (Oct 13, 2009)

took her to the vets to make sure shes okay and tried to get a estimate of how longs she got left,
vet checked her with the scanner and she didnt have a chip:frown:
checked her over and gave me some worming granules,
reckons she might give birth over the weekend,
so ill be sure to update you with details and maybe a few piccies


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## miholove (Dec 28, 2009)

people like you (& your family) are so wonderful & amazing - she looks quite similar to my girl and i really feel for her, hope she'll be doing fine over the weekend and looking forward to hear some good news! x


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## belle&beau (Oct 13, 2009)

cheers everyone ,
think im going to take fulltime care after shes giving birth,getting her straight to get 'done' and get her chipped shes a wonderful temperment cat, vet said she was still only a kitten aswell less than a year she thinks, brilliant with my young girls,
will update when things start to take motion


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## Milly22 (Sep 15, 2008)

You will have to wait until the kittens are weaned to take her for her operation but keeping her under house arrest should work. Best of luck. She looks just like one of my Mums cats.


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## belle&beau (Oct 13, 2009)

yeah im going to make sure the kitts are okay first and keep the windows shut as before shes came in through my bedroom window( dont ask how shes done this)


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## Milly22 (Sep 15, 2008)

belle&beau said:


> yeah im going to make sure the kitts are okay first and keep the windows shut as before shes came in through my bedroom window( dont ask how shes done this)


Cats are the masters of escapology!


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## colliemerles (Nov 2, 2007)

aww shes lovely, isnt she lucky to have found you, keep us posted and good luck xxxx
ps make sure you have a camera ready, we will want lots of pictures of the kittens.


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## belle&beau (Oct 13, 2009)

anyone shed any light on this?

i read something about olive oil and clean with cotton but there not really coming clean


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## Milly22 (Sep 15, 2008)

Could you try bathing it? It looks like dirt rather than blackheads caused by hormones. What does it look like to you? Warm water might help or a bit of vaseline a few times a day to loosen it.


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## belle&beau (Oct 13, 2009)

dont think its dirt as its on all her nipples and shes quite a clean cat


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## Milly22 (Sep 15, 2008)

Must be her hormones then, vaseline will work well to loosen it off.


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## belle&beau (Oct 13, 2009)

No signs yet got a great picture of her today lounging on my stairs


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## belle&beau (Oct 13, 2009)

just found her asleep with my cat in her nesting box (first time she's used it )


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## lizward (Feb 29, 2008)

Nipples look perfectly normal to me, no cause for alarm there.

Liz


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## purrlover (Mar 27, 2009)

my honeys look exactly the same .... i take it, it is hormones then?


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## jeblee (Aug 13, 2009)

One thing I would recommend is putting a bit of lino at the bottom of the box or anything waterproof even a bit of cardboard wrapped in clingfilm. My kittys birth was a bit messy and although mum is very clean and licks/eats everything up, if it gets into the cardboard it isn't particularly nice and smells, you might be able to replace the box after the actual birth but this could stress mum?, I just found it easier to clean up afterwards as after giving birth to 5 kittens all mum wanted to do was go and have something to eat so I doubt she'd have noticed if I quickly changed the box. We also had a few flannels on standby, our cat was a young first time mum with 5 kittens and although she did fantasticly well she struggled to eat all the placentas and she started getting tired whilst cleaning them so I lent her a hand jsu gently wiping the kittens. But don't intervene if she looks in control, it might be an idea to get a book or look online as there will be lots of advice if things do go wrong (which is rare though). Our cat went over the vets estimation, I think it can be hard to tell, she just got bigger and bigger then one morning her waters broke and 4 hours later we had 5 kittens!
But good luck, its a great thing your doing, try to be there when they're born as its a fantastic experience.


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## miholove (Dec 28, 2009)

ooh.. thanks for posting her pictures! she looks like such a friendly girl.  can't wait to see her babies. x


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