Weight loss

Hope someone can give some advice. I have a red persian queen who loses weight drastically whenever she is feeding kittens. I know that it is normal and that some books even mention a weight loss average of 6 grams per kitten being fed per day! Although her appetite is good and her main food is Royal Canin, I still feel she is losing too much weight. This latest litter is small - three kittens. Last litter she had five! When she is pregnant or feeding kittens, I feed her the Royal Canin kitten food as recommended by the vet. The rest of the time she has the Royal Canin persian food. The vet insists that her weight loss is normal and her muscle development is good. He assures me I should not be worried, but I can't help worrying when my cat gets so skinny! Of course, she also loves tuna and beef mince, but eats very little of these.

this is very normal. It seems that she is so skinny because she looked so huge while preggers! There is also water weight gain that takes a little longer to lose. When she nurses the kittens it helps pull the excess water from her system. If she didn't lose weight after the kittens came THEN you can worry. Retaining all that weight and water would be very stressful to her organs.
Send us pictures of your babies! We love pictures!

It is obvious you love her. By your words of concern and by asking the vet. Sometimes they becme more like our children than our pets.
When I have a concern about a mom or cat I also look at the following.

Stools...to many to loose to hard?

Babies gaining? Maybe weaning them alittle early? Or bottle feeding them as a suppliment

Vitimins?

I check for fleas they can do loads of dammage to diet/eating

If I am real concerned I make a milk/mayo glop that mom and babies 3 weeks and over adore and full of junk tht pumps them all up.

Patty

Thank you for your replies. Nope, definitely no fleas in this house! I am fanatical about fleas and will not tolerate even one. The persians make knots when they even think they have a flea! Maybe I will try the mayo/milk glob. Is that a mixture of the two, even quantities? I must say, she gets back to her normal self pretty quickly after the kittens are weaned, but she has also always been slightly smaller than other persians I have had over the past 20 years. I guess I'm worrying unnecessarily, but she is the love of my life!

I will post some pics soon. I did post some on the newby forum when I first got on here. Thank you again for your help, concern and support.

Krissy...

Recipe
1- 13.5 oz can of evaporated milk not sweetened or 2%

1-13.5oz of water

1- 3oz packet of knox gelatin

2-tablespoons of mayo Not MIRACLE WHIP or 2%

2-tablespoons of plain yogert HIGEST FAT CONTENTS

Boil
Water and gelatin together while mixing in 1/2 of the can of evaporated milk

Add mayo/yogert and -mix well

Add the rest of the evaporated milk

Put
in the fridge, Will be "jelly like"- will be ok up to 3 weeks

or pour in ice cube tray- placing as many as needed in micro

SEARVE SLIGHTLY WARM OR AT ROOM TEMP.

wonderful for new moms, babes or ailing or the frail.

Afterwards I saw your from South Afriaca but I do not have the metric measurements I am sorry~
Patty

Patty, thank you! You're a gem. Don't worry about the metric. I will be able to convert the measurements. I will let you know how it goes.
I have posted some pics of her last litter - the same ones I posted on my newby threads - but will give you an idea of the beautiful babies she makes! Her last litter was 14 months ago, so those babies are fully grown and magnificent right now. My son's girlfriend has the one red persian male and he is awesome. They are all interactive cats - wonderful pets that stay very close and talk nonstop.

So sorry - the site won't let me post duplicate images. Let me look for some more pics to scan ..... don't have a digital camera. Thanks again for the help anyway.

I kept this baby boy from the last litter and it broke my heart when he died under anaesthetic when he went for neutering. Vet claims he had some sort of reaction. Who knows?

Oh...he is so adorable. I am sorry for your loss. That would make me sick.
Patty

Patty, I fed Mushka some of the first batch of glop and she definitely likes it. However, it has to be fed to her, she won't eat it from a bowl. Never mind, I will persevere. She is not a big eater although she loves her Royal Canin crunchies. I will just feed her a bit of the glop at a time as a treat and see how it goes. Her kitten is only 17 days old so is still too small for the glop. Thanks again.