Does my cat seem pregnant?

Hi everyone. Though I am not a new cat owner, I have never had experience with pregnant cats or newborn kittens. Please bare with me.

Four weeks ago my roommates and I (we are seniors in college/university) took in a stray cat that had been hanging around the parking lot of our friends' apartment for over a year, and they were convinced it was a stray. They said we could take her or they were gonna take her to animal control, so we took her. We weren't sure how long we would keep her so we haven't taken her to the vet yet (or even given her a proper name). 

We started to notice that she was putting on a lot of belly weight, but we thought it was just from her eating a lot all of a sudden. Lately though, we are thinking more and more that she may be pregnant. She is only getting big in her belly, and it feels pretty hard, not squishy like fat. She doesn't seem to have pink, swollen nipples, and she never showed morning sickness, but she does eat a lot and beg for food quite vocally and persistently. She's been going into closets somewhat and hiding under the couch, but that could just be normal cat behavior.

We have made an appointment for Monday morning (Nov 3) with the vet, but since cat pregnancies are so short, a week could make a big difference. I am hoping that someone on here can give me an opinion. Here are some pictures of her and her belly:  (sorry for the bad word in the first one). She has been inside the entire time he have had her, so if she is pregnant she would have to be AT MINIMUM 4 weeks.

I have heard there are some other possible reasons why her belly could be like this, like she could have worms or a tumor or something. Maybe she is just gasy or bloated. She doesn't seem to be in pain, though she doesn't love her tummy being touched. Does anyone know any other things that could cause this?

If I was betting, my betting would be she is pregnant.

One, question: is it OK for you with a rather late spaying / abortion?

If yes, try to get her to a good vet asap, and do it.

Its not so disgusting as it sounds.  Kittens dont manage "deliveries" earlier than 3-max 4 days before the proper time.  Unlike humans.

If not - we will of course come with all support necessary.  Although the work itsel you must do, together with her.

Good luck!

We probably would just go ahead and let her have the kittens, though I definitely understand the encouragement to abort. One of my roommates in particular is against abortion in humans, and although it is different, I think it is very unlikely that the three of us will really agree to abort kittens, especially if it is late in the pregnancy. Our cat will DEFINITELY be spayed either after giving birth (if she is pregnant) or as soon as we can figure out an affordable way to do it (we have heard of programs in our area for this). It's possible she already has been spayed, assuming she's not pregnant. She was a stray (we think) when we found her, but we are pretty sure she has had owners before because of how easily she made herself at home inside our apartment. So it's possible she has been spayed and just has another problem.

I do have another question. If she is pregnant, how old to the kittens have to be before they can safely travel by car for up to two hours? I ask this because we are living in our apartment so we can go to school, but we all live at least two hours away in our home towns, and our winter break starts mid-December. I am basically just trying to figure out some possibilities of what we can do if the kittens are born and we have break soon, like whether someone will have to stay longer for a certain amount of time, and when we could possibly move them to one of our homes for the break, or if we will have to do some combination of one person staying later and another coming back early (our winter break is 4 or 5 weeks long so its a big chunk of time to deal with). 

she seems to be 6+ weeks pregnant. she seems rather well-fed...

if you keep her, google "low cost spay clinic" and see what comes up for your area. spay+rabies and other basic options should cost less than 100$. but the appointment made for you may be 2 months ahead. i made an appointment for my cat and earliest time i got was dec. 10!

sorry, can't advise more than that. your cat is beautiful.

Have you felt the kittens move? She looks like a cat that would let you feel her stomach. If you can feel or see them move then she is at least  6 weeks along. 

I have tried gently stroking her stomach and i haven't felt any kitten movement. My roommates and I are paranoid we damaged the kittens in previous weeks by handling her too roughly when we didn't think she was pregnant.

Kittens - indeed all babies - are very well protected in their mothers womb. Short of using her like a football - which I am sure you did not do! - I really doubt that you or your roommates hurt the kittens.

However I would say, absolutely, that pregnant or not, it is never a good idea to be rough when handling a cat.

Like Catapault said, it is hard to damage the baby by just handling her. When you are petting her stomach try putting your hand on her lower stomach and leave it there for a little bit. If you don't fell anything then you can put just a little bit of pressure as if you were feeling a women's pregnant belly.. That was how I had to see if my queen was pregnant. 

I read on a few sites that picking up the cat or like, touching her belly too much could damage the kittens. This did seem a bit odd to me, considering cats in the wild could get into all sorts of situations without hurting the kittens. We haven't done anything too rough, but sometimes someone will pick her up oddly or something, and one of my roommates has never had a cat so she doesn't quite know the proper way to handle them. GOod to hear though, that we probably haven't hurt the potential kittens.

I finally found one of her nipples last night, on low on her belly on a bit of saggy skin. The nipple wasn't bright pink, maybe a soft pink, and didn't really seem enlarged. I am not sure how common it is for pregnant cats to not experience pinking/not experience pinking until later in the pregnancy. I guess it will truly be confirmed whether she is preggo when we take her to the vet on Monday.

Good luck for Monday. Then you can really start planning. AS for travelling, if you can get her and the kittens into a proper cage and line it well with blankets they would be OK to travel from about 10 days. Sometimes we who rescue cats are forced to put cat families in cars much younger than that and they all survive. If you have no cage then a large cardboard box would be fine - line it with plastic sheet first to protect the cardboard, then lots of towels. You do not want the cardboard disintegrating and the mother escaping as you open the car - that happened to a friend of mine once. Fasten the lid down with tape but make lots of holes in the box for air and do not drive with the heating on. Two hours should be fine like that.

So the cat's nipples are finally becoming visible. They are a soft pink, but the fur around them is missing so that they are all very visible from the right angle. 

We have been noticing that her poop smells especially bad the last few days. Is this a common thing in pregnant cats, or could it be something we are feeding her?

I don't know about the poop, but just out of curiosity, what are you feeding her?

huricaneallegra said:

 
We have been noticing that her poop smells especially bad the last few days. Is this a common thing in pregnant cats, or could it be something we are feeding her?

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What are you feeding her?    Is she properly dewormed?

Last days before delivery, its quite common they get rare poo - even some diarrhea.   Changed consistency makes it smell more, as the usual sausages dont smell much...  May it be this??

I am just gonna say right now that I am aware that most (if not all) manufactured pet food is awful. That being said, the healthier the food is the pricier it is. I am not even sure what the best food is for a cat to be honest, I guess some kind of raw meat diet? I am a vegetarian and I don't purchase meat for myself, so I don't even know what the prices are like or what it is like to buy raw meat. Not saying I wouldn't buy it for my pets, but I am sure it is more expensive than kibble.

We started out feeding her Iams and are now feeding her Purina. We give her wet food sometimes too, and have been doing it more often since we figured out she is probably pregnant. We chose Iams and Purina because we figured they were better than Friskies, but I know it's all bad. We are college students that don't have a lot of money to spend on cat food for a cat we weren't even planning to keep initially. At home, my mom feeds our cats Iams because we don't have a lot of money and since she is the one paying for it, and not me, I feel like I should've nag her too much about it. Maybe you'd think people that can't afford high quality pet food shouldn't have pets, seems to me like it's better than more dead shelter animals.

If you guys have suggestions of good brands of cat food that are sold in the US or if you have other diet tips, I would love to hear them. When we go to the vet tomorrow I am sure he will give us recommendations as well. 

I feed my cats Taste of the wild. It is a better food than most. I think some of the best food is chicken soup for the cat lovers soul. Though both of those brands are expensive. Whatever you feed her if she is pregnant she needs to be on kitten food. And it would be best if you just give her free rein of it, but you don't really need to do that until she is nursing the kittens. She is going to eat a lot of food when she starts nursing. 

Well guys, the vet says kitty is not pregnant, just chubby. We are a bit disappointed because we wanted kittens, but we know it is really a win for kittens because so many others need homes. The vet said otherwise she is in perfect health, impressive for her being (presumably) a stray. We will be changing her diet though because she needs better food, and she also could lose some weight,

I guess it is a blessing and a curse. I am sorry and happy for you all at once.   

huricaneallegra said:

 
I am just gonna say right now that I am aware that most (if not all) manufactured pet food is awful. That being said, the healthier the food is the pricier it is. I am not even sure what the best food is for a cat to be honest, I guess some kind of raw meat diet? I am a vegetarian and I don't purchase meat for myself, so I don't even know what the prices are like or what it is like to buy raw meat. Not saying I wouldn't buy it for my pets, but I am sure it is more expensive than kibble.

We started out feeding her Iams and are now feeding her Purina. We give her wet food sometimes too, and have been doing it more often since we figured out she is probably pregnant. We chose Iams and Purina because we figured they were better than Friskies, but I know it's all bad. We are college students that don't have a lot of money to spend on cat food for a cat we weren't even planning to keep initially. At home, my mom feeds our cats Iams because we don't have a lot of money and since she is the one paying for it, and not me, I feel like I should've nag her too much about it. Maybe you'd think people that can't afford high quality pet food shouldn't have pets, seems to me like it's better than more dead shelter animals.

If you guys have suggestions of good brands of cat food that are sold in the US or if you have other diet tips, I would love to hear them. When we go to the vet tomorrow I am sure he will give us recommendations as well. 

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Its easier to make decent canned / wet food than dry food.  Thus, most even cheap canned are OK / good.

The real problem is, not all cats are fond of wet.   Mine residents, for example, ate this just occasionally...  Although its a little better now then before.

Using wet food, its also a good way to slow, natural reducing of excessive fat.      

So, if she does ates  canned, have it as the base.  And good quality dry, and meat, as extras or when you cant  be home whole day,  depending on...

huricaneallegra said:

 
Well guys, the vet says kitty is not pregnant, just chubby. We are a bit disappointed because we wanted kittens, but we know it is really a win for kittens because so many others need homes. The vet said otherwise she is in perfect health, impressive for her being (presumably) a stray. We will be changing her diet though because she needs better food, and she also could lose some weight,

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Thanks for the update! I hope you don't mind me saying that, but I'm really happy she's not pregnant and you get the chance to spay her in time. Like you said, so many kittens are in dire need of good homes, it really is a shame to add to the problem.