My cat Kitten.. is she producing milk for her babies

My cat Kitten came into our family about a month and a half ago. She was either abandoned at the apartments or was a stray. Not long after coming to live with us we took her to the vet to get het spayed and found out she was pregnant. Well last night she had 3 kittens and Im not sure if she is producing milk. I tried to rub/stimulate the nipples and didnt notice any type of wetness. Am I doing it wrong? I guess my real question is how do I tell if she is producing milk? I have a can of KMR and bottles just in case but would rather they feed from mom if at all possible as my wife and I work alot so dont have the means to bottle feed every 2 hours. Please help ... Thank you

Josh and Casey

also should I het her kitten food? Wet or dry?

You should let her eat as much kitten food as she wants, wet or dry, and make sure she has clean water available to drink.  The kittens will wean themselves when they are ready by watching and copying her.

Weigh the kittens every day at about the same time.  They should each put on 10g or more per day, though you might get the odd day with no gain.  If they are growing she is producing enough milk.  Ideally you use a set of electronic digital scales, and weighing in grams saves fiddling with decimal points.  Make sure to record the results, I put them in an Excel spreadsheet.

If you start bottle feeding you can have lots of possible problems:

• you can infection via the bottle
• if you feed them in the position and/or too fast the milk can go down the wrong way - they don't have a cough reflex at this age
• mixing the feed not right can result in constipation or underfeeding
• her milk is produced on supply and demand and if you reduce the demand by feeding the kittens the supply will reduce

Remember she can get pregnant again very quickly, so keep her in until she is spayed - ask your vet how soon after delivery he will spay.  You also don't want to end up having to hand-rear because she has had an accident.