# What do you feed your pregnant queen?



## Laurenj (Apr 16, 2012)

My british shorthair is 6 weeks pregnant and I'm about to switch her to a kitten food until her babies are weaned, I'm just wondering if any other breeders have preferences / suggestions on what they feed their queens. I have been giving her chicken, tuna, salmon etc as well as a mix of wet and dry. thanks


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## spid (Nov 4, 2008)

I feed them no different than I feed them normally I just let them eat as much as they want.


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## Laurenj (Apr 16, 2012)

Thanks  what do you feed your cats, what brand and is it wet or dry food?


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## pipje (Jun 29, 2011)

I feed her:

i) good quality dry food (mostly Orijen fish.I also mixed some Royal Canin Kitten 36- simply because it says kitten haha and apparently one should feed kitten food to pregnant queens. That said, Orijen is actually for kittens too and it's still better quality. There's also some RC British Shorthair in her foodbowl because the kibble is huge and she chews a bit more. 

ii) wet food include Grau, Bozita, RC Kitten Instinctive and Hill's Kitten food.


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## lymorelynn (Oct 4, 2008)

Like Spid my queens eat the same all year round, pregnant, lactating or not. When in kitten and nursing they have as much as they want.
Currently they have raw (Natrual Instinct ) Bozita, Natures Menu, Smilla and I've just bought some Carny for them to try. I try not to feed any dry at all but occasionally one of them decides that's all she wants and refuses to eat anything at all until I give in :rolleyes5: She then has James Wellbeloved or Royal Canin


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## spid (Nov 4, 2008)

Laurenj said:


> Thanks  what do you feed your cats, what brand and is it wet or dry food?


Absolutely NO dry. I feed Bozita, Grau, Smilla (what I have left not buying any more), Carny and Butchers as well as raw (Natural Instinct and Woldsway) - I feed about 70% raw and 30% wet.


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## sharon_gurney (Jan 27, 2010)

hi

I dont tend to feed anything different, although I normally feed a mixture of wet food and raw, whilst expecting kittens the raw content tends to go a bit higher. I feed the raw all through the kittens being born to being weened and the kittens tend to ween themselves straight on to raw.

Dry isnt something that I feed very much of. I put some out for the others but I cant say that they eat that much.


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## havoc (Dec 8, 2008)

> apparently one should feed kitten food to pregnant queens


So I've heard but have yet to hear a good reason why


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## havoc (Dec 8, 2008)

> There's also some RC British Shorthair in her foodbowl because the kibble is huge and she chews a bit more.


Bit lost with that one, you're going to have to spell it out for me. What are the benefits in chewing kibble?


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## gskinner123 (Mar 10, 2010)

I'm not convinced there's any benefit in feeding food 'designed' for kittens to pregnant or lactating queens. I think it might be benefical for cats to chew large kibble... if it was the size of Yorkie bar.


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## BrynleysPygmys2012 (Jun 11, 2012)

havoc said:


> So I've heard but have yet to hear a good reason why


i have read that the reason for this is that kitten food has high protein levels required for kittens growth and that this helps the mother and the kittens because when tshe eats her usual food the kittens take all the nutrients so kitten food provides both mother and babies with there required nutrients etc ........ only what i have read not concrete evidence!


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## spid (Nov 4, 2008)

Many eons ago when I first joined this forum I did some research into this - I will see if I can find it - but basically if you wanted better protein for the F and the W foods then you needed to go for Senior not kitten - other than that there was very, very little difference - certainly not enough for a pregnant cat to get much benefit.

Off to have a search

EDIT: sorry after 200 pages can't find it .


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## havoc (Dec 8, 2008)

I looked into it some years ago too when everyone was trying to convince me that I was starving kittens by not feeding kitten food. What I found was that in any given brand the kitten version was higher protein than the standard adult. However, the levels varied between brands so you could have a lower protein percentage in brand A kitten than in brand B adult. As the protein source is also, well lets say questionable, in most brands I decided to stick with real food and I haven't managed to starve a kitten yet.


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