My Cat is Pregnant!!! What do I do?

My Colorpoint Shorthair, Mimi has been Pregnant for about a month and a half. Yesterday I was petting her round belly and I felt her kittens kick! It felt like a thump and it was so adorable. Mimi isn't exactly my cat, I was walking in the rain and she just ran up to me. I thought she was going to attack me but she just came up to me to say Hello or Meow!  She was already tamed because she rubbed up on my leg. I put an ad on Craigslist to see if she belonged to anyone. My landlord thought she got lost or she was dropped off in the area because her previous owner couldn't take care of her anymore...  I am trying to train her to stay outside. But when it rains I let her come in because I feel soooo bad for her. Anyways if you guys go on my YouTube channel you'll see two videos with her.. My name on YouTube is KKCutiez^_^... When her kittens are born I will post pictures... Which will probably be in about a week or two... Her kittens will be so weird because she's multi colored and her mate is black with brown spots so I am pretty excited to see how these newborns would look! Bye for now! 

We have a good collection of articles in the Cat Health section which you can access by scrolling up to the brown bar, clicking on Articles,and then choosing the Cat Health section and scrolling through the choices.  To make this super easy for you, I am copying the links in here.  After reading this information, let us know if you have any more questions.  And good luck with your approaching new arrivals.

Birth, Delivery and Newborns

View media item 212113Cat Pregnancy

How to Tell if My Cat is Pregnant?

Pregnant Cat? What to Prepare For the Birth

Help! My Cat is Having Kittens!

Post-Birth Complications in Cats

How Do I Know When My Cat Will Give Birth?

Premature Kittens

My Colorpoint shorthair Mimi had her kittens a few hours ago. She hasn't used the bathroom outside yet. I am afraid that she'll poop and pee on my carpet and I cannot afford a litter box. Can you guys tell me how I can keep the kittens quiet when Mimi is outside?

You must try and make do some sort of litter inside, willy or nilly.

Letting a mom of small kittens outside is highly dangerous.  One of the reasons is, they can get in heat   already one week after delivery.   And being in heat, they wander out, "without head"  taking all the risks there are.   And putting you in risk to be caring for small orphans...

Dont let her out as long as she has small kittens to care for, and she is unspayed.

Take a cardboard box, and take some sand from childrens playing place, and make do a litter of it, if you cant do anything else.

And take away that carpet if it makes you so anxious.

Good luck!

You need to find something that can be used as a litter tray.
Oven dish, roasting dish, plastic container of some sort anything will do. You will need a litter tray anyway in a few weeks for the kittens to use. Otherwise they will be peeing and pooping all over your carpet if not provided with one. Tiny kittens only just starting to walk can not go outside to toilet.

Do you realise how much it is going to cost to raise a litter of kittens ? I can see four kittens in picture. That's a lot of cat food to buy, kittens when being weaned eat 5-6 meals a day- way more than an adult cat

The mother cat should NOT be allowed to go outside while she has kittens for many reasons -
She will be pregnancy again in a couple of weeks, cats come back into heat very quickly after giving birth. It is not good for them to be continually pregnant all the time. She could get hurt, lost or killed then you will be left to hand raise the kittens.

Congratulations on the new arrivals and BLESSINGS to you for giving Mimi a safe home for her and her babies - she is soooo happy

At the very, very least, give her some old newspapers to soil.  there are numerous things you can use for a litter box: disposable plastic cake holders that delis and bakeries use; aluminum pre-made-lasagna pans; disposable pie plates....these are just a few examples that I have taken out of dumpsters to use for unexpected emergency rescues (they seem to happen when I have flown out of town so I don't have my complete cat-rescue-kit with me). 

For litter, Stephan's idea is best - sand or dirt, which she is already used to.  You can use shredded newspaper, pine shavings, etc.   Chicken feed (laying krackettes, krumbles, or mash) also work very well and keep the smell down.

If you know a caregiver, ask them if they can give you a few "incontinence pads" to place on your carpet, to keep between the litter box and the carpet.  You can also use a plastic trash bag, but any moisture that gets on it will likely drip off, possibly onto your carpet.

If you can, reach out to local cat lovers, transients at the Walmart parking lot (you'd be amazed at how many cats & small dogs are on the road in those motor homes) - don't be shy - it's for Mimi & the babies, right, and who doesn't want to help out with kittens

PLEASE, PLEASE do not let mama kitty outside until the babies have their eyes open!!!!  Should something bad happen to MIMI, the outlook for the kittens is not good (they can be saved, but only with LOTS & LOTS of hard work, lack of sleep on your part) and there is NO easy way for the vet to put them down for you. Besides, they are BEAUTIFUL as is Mimi - they look like they are already showing beautiful coat patterns.

We look forward to getting updates on how the little family is doing!

THANK YOU EVERYONE! I APPRECIATED THE REVIEWS AND ADVICE. PLEASE DO YOU GUYS KNOW ANYONE THAT WANT A KITTEN? I AM AWARE THAT THE KITTENS NEED TO BE 6-8 WEEKS OF AGE.

Here's a good thread about finding homes for your kittens when the time comes.  I made a long post (#18 of 56) which has some good info, and a lot of  other folks did too.  Read it and you will be prepared as the time comes, but you do have lots of time now.  Take lots of baby pictures, you can use those in ads.

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/277559/distressed-about-finding-new-forever-homes-for-our-babies

Thank you