How do I get a pregnant cat to eat the right food?

I recently adopted a stray kitty, brought her into the house about three weeks ago. I had been feeding her kitten food because I'm pretty sure she's less than a year old. That was even before I found out she's pregnant. It seemed to be working pretty well, but the last 2 or 3 days I've noticed that she's ignoring the kitten food and eating the adult cat food that I put out for my other two girls.

The food dishes are in different parts of the house, but I don't really want to shut the cats in different rooms. They've always had the run of the whole house.

Would it be all right to feed all of the cats kitten food for a while just to make sure Goldy gets what she needs? The other two are almost 16 months old.

Thanks

What food are you feeding the other two? Is it a pretty good quality food? If so, I would just let her have that and maybe give her some extra kitten food once a day in a private place. Perhaps just sit with her in another room with a portion of kitten food.

I am no pro on this, but that's what I would try. I'm sure others with more experience will be along with probably much better recommendations.

Your other cats should be fine with a little kitten food for now. At a little over a year old, they really won't be at risk from the extra calories as I am sure they are still pretty active and will burn it off.

Should you find you have questions about your pregnant girl kitty, stop in over at the Pregnant Cats and Kitten Care forum here at TCS.

Welcome to TCS. We hope to hear more about you and your cats.

I've been feeding Shareena and Miss Patchwillow Purina One for Sensitive Systems. Going by the list of ingredients it appears to be slightly higher quality than the other Purina cat foods. I had started the two cat on Purina Kitten Chow, but switched to Iams Kitten for Goldy. Again, the list of ingredients looks a little better.

I also give each of them about a tablespoon of wet food once a day, mostly for a treat. It's definitely not enough for a full meal.

The two older cats are actually more active than Goldy. I don't know if it's because she's pregnant or if she just naturally has a mellower personality.

I'd rather not go entirely to wet food, so I guess I'll try adding some dry kitten food to all of the dishes and see what happens.

How about feeding all the cats canned foods no gravy which would be much better for them all. Dry food ius dehydrating for an animal that doesn't usually drink but gets it's needs from the prey/food. Kitten is 'suppose' to have more protein then regular food but many do not and you cannot tell the difference when broken down. The food is also loaded with carbohydrates which isn't great for a carnivore. The ideal food for a kitten oir a cat will have a muscle meat like chicken as the first ingreiant instead of meal or organ meat and have no grains which many cats have trouble processing. The no grain canned foo is a bit speny but you will fine that your cats will eat less if fed quality foods
Best of luck

Originally Posted by optionken

How about feeding all the cats canned foods no gravy which would be much better for them all. Dry food ius dehydrating for an animal that doesn't usually drink but gets it's needs from the prey/food. Kitten is 'suppose' to have more protein then regular food but many do not and you cannot tell the difference when broken down. The food is also loaded with carbohydrates which isn't great for a carnivore. The ideal food for a kitten oir a cat will have a muscle meat like chicken as the first ingreiant instead of meal or organ meat and have no grains which many cats have trouble processing. The no grain canned foo is a bit speny but you will fine that your cats will eat less if fed quality foods
Best of luck

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While I would normally agree with you on all points, the OP is caring for a pregnant cat who will be providing 100% of the nutrition for a litter of kittens for at least 4 to 6 weeks after delivery. We want this queen to receive enough calories to maintain not only herself, but also the litter without losing valuable resources. The period during lactation will be the most critical to provide a high enough level of food to prevent weight loss and to weaken the risk of malnourishment, which breaks down the quality of the milk received by the kittens.

The other two cats will not be harmed by eating the kitten variety foods for the month or so they will have access to them. Especially, as previously mentioned, if they maintain a high level of activity - get a feather wand or fishing-pole-type toy and give the cats a good workout if they get lazy.

Thanks for all the ideas. What would you consider a high-quality kitten food? I've been reading the ingredients on both the dry and wet food, but it's a little confusing. I'm used to reading ingredients for people food, which gives the various nutrients in grams per serving. The cat food just gives percentages.

I'm also concerned that Goldy was apparently starving for a week or so early in her pregnancy. She showed up at my house around the middle of June and hung around for 10 days. I didn't feed her then, but she looked pretty healthy. Then she disappeared for a little over a week. When she came back she was really skinny, not much more than a bit of fur and bones. That's when I brought her into the house. According the the dates the vet gave me, she probably got pregnant just about the time she first showed up. That means the starving time was during the first trimester. I think she's gained at least 1.5 pounds in the last three weeks.

My cats do drink quite a bit of water, but I don't know how much is enough.

As I said before, the other two are very active. They get most of their exercise chasing each other from one end of the house to the other, jumping over furniture (and me ) on the way.