DELIVERY

When her time has come, the cat will get labour pains and contractions. Stay with her, be very quiet, with well-washed and disinfected hands. After a while a membrane shows, with the head visible in it (sometimes the tail shows first: breech birth).  After a few contractions a kitten comes out still wrapped in a membrane. See to it that the mother stays in the box. Sometimes the membrane has not broken, and if the kitten inside doesn't move the mother may sometimes ignore it although it may still be alive. In that case open the membrane quickly and get the kitten out. Usually from then on mommy will take over. She then starts to wash and lick the kitten dry. This will also stimulate it's breathing. Only intervene if the mother doesn't do anything at all with the kitten. She will also bite through the umbilical cord. If she doesn't do this, you may help her by squeezing with your sharp nails, and thus cutting through the umbilical cord, about 3 centimeters away from the kitten's abdomen. Do not pull because this will cause a navel rupture. Best is to place a clamp on the umbilical cord, and then cut the cord between the clamp and the abdomen with a sharp disinfected pair of scissors.  Disinfect the scissors as follows: first wash your hands, and then disinfect the scissors with 70% alcohol or Betadine iodine 10%. The disinfecting should be done at the very last minute or it will be useless. The mother will eath the afterbirth; this is very important for her nourishment and lactation. Once the mother quiets down, the kitten will probably crawl towards the nipple. The very first milk is very important for the kitten (colostrum).  If the contractions continue without a kitten being born, don't wait too long (no longer than an hour) before contacting a vet. With every birth an afterbirth should come out: count them !!!! If it doesn't they should come in a later stage of the delivery. If they don't come out a few hours after delivery, also contact a veterinarian. In short: when in doubt about the well-being of mother or kittens, allways have a vet come over immediately.!    AFTER DELIVERY: See to it that it's very quiet in the delivery room, and don't receive any visitors the first 2 weeks. When the kittens are handled by the caregiver to weigh them or clean the nest (s)he should allways first wash the hands with a disinfectant soap. Do not try to remove the leftover umbilical cord: it falls off all by itself. The first days after the delivery the mother will have a little discharge. Pay attention that this discharge doesn't start to smell foul. If that's the case: please contact your vet.  Some mothers refuse to leave their nest to use the litterbox. In that case take charge and place the mother in it, and put the litterbox close to the nest. But do watch that mother doesn't leave the nest too often: kittens will not be warm enough and will suffer from hypothermia. Place food and drink close to the mother, so that she can feed herself as much as she needs to. Give high-quality food, and milk (Lactol, KMR or Litterlac - see below) and/or Nutrix rice pudding mixed with this milk. Enough water should be available. During the time she nurses you may give the mother kittenfood as additional feeding. This kittenfood contains more fat, so it supplies the mommy with more energy. And please pay close attention to this: a female cat can go into heat and get pregnant again immediately after delivery while still nursing her kittens !! This of course endangers her health. Kittens must gain weight at least 10 grams per day. Buy scales that can weigh very accurately each gram. Write down the birth weights in a notebook, and enter also color and gender of each kitten. For the next few weeks keep making notes. The kitten's weight should be noted daily at the same hour of the day. As soon as a kitten does not gain weight, or even loses weight, this can indicate a problem. Again contact your vet if this happens. If all goes well the only thing you need to do is clean the nest for mother and kittens.   After about 10 days the eyes will open. Keep checking the weights. If the litter has many kittens, you may have to supplement the mother's feeding. There are excellent Kitten Milk Replacers like Lactol, KMR or Litterlac (ask your vet or buy online). You also need little bottles with a nipple in case the mother has no (more) milk or doesn't want to nurse. If a kitten doesn't gain enough weight and you have to supplement food, add some dissolved dextrose to the kittenmilk. Dextrose can be bought at a drugstore or pharmacy. After about 4 to 5 weeks you can start supplementing with solid food. Best is Nutrix rice pudding mixed with kittenmilk. Warning: never give Brinta (wheat product) which has too much fiber and can cause diarrhea. Give only easily digestible porridge like Nutrix, mixed with Litterlac, KMR or Lactol. As soon as they can eat that, after a week you can slowly add a tiny amount of canned kittenfood in the rice pudding. Do this very carefully!! Every few days add a little more canned food, until there's only that to eat and no more rice pudding. At the age of 6 weeks you can start mixing a bit of soaked kittenkibble with the canned kittenfood. Slowly add more kibble with less canned food and at 12 weeks kittens almost allways will also eat kibble.   Is this a female or a male? The difference between female and male is often much harder to see than on this drawing.

 

© M.A. de Boer 2003-2004. All rights reserved.  Nothing may be copied in any form without permission of the author who can be contacted via the email-link above.