Cats, Dogs and other Pets

This is the biggest question owners want the answer to. How long before you need to be fully prepared for the birth of your kittens?

Have you any idea at all? Has your cat been pregnant before and previously given birth to kittens?

One thing is for sure, knowing the length of a cat’s pregnancy won’t help at all unless you know the date when she mated with her chosen suitor.

As a rule, your cat keeps that information a secret!

Just when you think that your life is running smoothly, your pet cat comes home with more than she went out with…..

Your affectionate cat has been coming into season and all that cute rolling around hasn’t been for your benefit at all – she’s been working up to attracting every Tom, Dick or fur-covered Harry that she can get her paws on.

And now, quite suddenly, you have this niggling feeling that you are going to be a grandparent to a litter of kittens and have no idea just how soon they might be arriving.

So, just how long will it be before you can gaze on your tiny new kittens?

The avarage length of feline pregnancy is 63-65 days – around nine weeks – but kittens may be born as early as 58 days or as late as 70 days gestation.

But as you will be your cat’s midwife-in-chief, you will only be able to make an educated guess at the most likely delivery date unless you witnessed your promiscuous puss-cat in action with the local tom cats.

It’s far more usual not to have any idea that your beautiful, pregnant cat is ‘with kittens’ until she is 35-42 days into her 65 day pregnancy and starts to show certain signs.

By the time you begin to recognise the physical changes in your cat she will already be over halfway through her pregnancy.

If you know your cat well, you may have noticed a definite pinking up of your cat’s nipples. Her milk glands are the first part of her body to undergo changes in readyness for full-scale milk production and this will happen after just 3 weeks into pregnancy.

About this time, you may also notice that your cat loses interest in her food. Could it be feline morning sickness perhaps?

Mind you, it’s not unusual for any cat, pregnant or not, to go through fussy phases in their eating, so it’s not very likely that you would particularly associate this with pregnancy.

Whether you have noticed these signs or not, you are unlikely to attach any significance to them unless your cat has been through pregnancy before and you are alert to the subtle changes that she has previously experienced.

It will be around weeks five and six that you will become certain that your lovely pet is expecting kittens and by this time, you will only have 21-28 days to go before they are born.

Of course, as a loving and responsible cat owner, you will feel that it is your duty to make sure that you are fully prepared to help your cat give birth safely and calmly. It is up to you to arm yourself with the knowledge you will need to care for your newborn kittens and their mother to the best of your ability by finding a comprehensive ebook that will easily guide you through all the stages of pregnancy, labor, birth and nursing.

But above all, just enjoy the thought that very soon you will become a kitten grandparent!

Trackback URI | Comments RSS