Found a stray pregnant beauty, advice welcome!

I'm knew to this site and haven't helped birth kittens in maybe 20 years. I had this kitty who kept showing up at my house so I started feeding her because she looked pregnant. I brought her in the house about 2 weeks ago after I worked on getting trust built with her. She's been to the vet, their guess was that we would have St Paddy's day kitties. She's doing some nesting, we've given her three quiet needing beds to choose from though I think her mind is made up. Just the waiting game now. My question is, how long is this waiting game? Her nipples are prominent, you can feel milk under them, but she's not showing any other signs. The babies still seem high in her belly. Any advice?

You can get some count from the day you began to feel the kittens move.  Its at most 3 weeks before, usually about 2.  The last day, when she droppes, they dont move as much. Otherwise, its essentially the waiting game.

Here some links, but dont hesitate to ask and report!

Good luck!

Most of these links have been readied by our forumist  Red Top Rescue:

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 regarding birth, delivery and newborns for you 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

How to Tell if My Cat is Pregnant?

Cat Pregnancy

How Do I Know When My Cat Will Give Birth?

Pregnant Cat? What to Prepare For the Birth

Help! My Cat is Having Kittens!

Premature Kittens

Post-Birth Complications in Cats

And also:

http://www.icatcare.org/advice/my-cat-having-kittens     ( This is a link to a group of articles on cat pregnancy, birth and kittens.   Read the ones on normal cat birth and on " when to wait and when to worry"  )  

Fleece or flannel good to use in the bedding for kittens.

Thanks so much, still in the waiting phase. I just keep thinking that she can't get any bigger. I have a couple of places for her to birth the kittens and she goes and lays in the them some, but she is spending the majority of her time in the litter box kicking most of the litter out. I'm guessing this is nesting, but in the litter box? I've kept it very clean though just in case she were to have them while I was working this week. I'm thankful I have the weekend off and I'm so hopeful they might come this weekend but I see no signs of labor yet. She is still wanting to eat as well and I read somewhere that they usually stop eating.

She also bit my hand tonight when I went to rub her head. It wasn't an agressive or angry bite because it was followed by her purring and loving on my hand, but boy did it hurt! Hormones or pain maybe? The beds I have are lined with blankets that we plan to toss afterwards. The bed that she sleeps in most has a heating pad in it turned on low and it's covered well.

Hoping I'll be posting kitten pics soon!

This is a picture of her tonight.

Speaking from experience, if the bite broke the skin, try to get it bleeding really good to push out the bacteria, then clean it with really well with some alcohol or iodine. Cat bites get infected very quickly. I had one several months ago from an older feral kitten I was fostering and I wasn't able to clean it for a couple hours and it ended up getting infected. My hand swelled up like crazy and I had to be on antibiotics to get it resolved. Not fun.

She is so pretty! I've fostered two pregnant cats now since last summer. You might want to switch to pellets or shredded newspaper for the litter box just in case she decides to have the kittens in there. You don't want her having to clean cat litter off wet kittens. And have some old towels handy in case you need to throw some underneath her if she's on a nice rug, it can be a bit messy.  It's always a waiting game when you don't know the conception date. Many of us here have been through it!  Every day you think "it HAS to be today!"  My current mommy was a stray that was called in to the organization I foster for. She was huge and I was worried she would deliver as soon as I got her home, but she held out for another week. Her kittens will be five weeks old this coming Monday and they are running around like crazy and absolutely adorable and so much fun!

Best of luck and bless you for taking her in!

No advise here, just leave her to her own devices! She is a spunkette very nicely marked and it looks like she loves to be brushed, she looks well groomed.

huney79 said:

She also bit my hand tonight when I went to rub her head. It wasn't an agressive or angry bite because it was followed by her purring and loving on my hand, but boy did it hurt! Hormones or pain maybe? The beds I have are lined with blankets that we plan to toss afterwards. The bed that she sleeps in most has a heating pad in it turned on low and it's covered well.

Click to expand...

It could be some precontraction going on, but she felt sorry for the bite.   But I think it was supposed to be a love bite, but got a trifle too hard.   

I agree with the advice of Gmm80  what to do if the bite happens to punctate the skin.

Good luck!

Ps.   try and rub & massage her tummy, if she allows it!   It helps things going!

Thanks so much for the advice, the bite didn't break the skin but my hand feels pretty bruised today. No kittens last night.

I can't rub her belly or she will scratch me and get mad. She gets the tail twitching and everything. ;-). She obviously never had much love before I took her in. There are times where I lay on the floor with her and she'll come over and nuzzle on my face but if I kiss her head she runs away scared like "what did that human just do to me?" Lol. She is precious and with time will do well. We've only had her upstairs at our house. We have two dachshunds at home that we've had for years. I haven't introduced them because I want to keep her stress level as low as possible. I have a gate to keep my dogs downstairs and they know she's here but they couldn't care less now.

As far as litter goes, we originally had clay clumping litter but switched to the recycled news litter last week. It definitely seems better, and it's not dusty.

She finally birthed 5 healthy little kittens this morning. She started on the hard wood floor and didn't want to care for the first one so I quickly got her and the little one to the crate with the heating pad and after the second one her maternal instincts kicked in. They are all nursing well and she seems comfortable now. She finished about an hour ago. How soon before they want to get up for water and such?

Splendid!   Well done, you and the biological mom!   Good you were there present and could step in.

The babies are essenitally colored as she is, this Van pattern is fairly dominant.

Re this with water, there is no firesure rule.  Make sure there IS water and food nearby, and the litter just a few steps further away, in the other direction.

You can even try to offer her some water in a soup spoon.

Good luck!

My cat drank 3 bowls of lactose-free cat milk that I brought to her in the nest, shortly after she finished birthing her kittens. She seemed really thirsty. Of course her food and water were nearby. My cat was done birthing by 10:30am last Sunday morning, but did not get up even once for about 12 hours! Then she finally went to use the litter box. She really doesn't leave her kittens for more than 5 to 10 minutes at a time, frequently relaxing on the floor next to the nest. Her eating picked up each day, and her bottom seemed sore for about a week. She & kittens are all great now at 9 days. Hope this helps! Congratulations to you & good luck!

I wouldn't worry about the kittens, they will get all that they need from Mum. Mum however will be hungry so some good hearty wet food and water available all the time while she is nursing. She will also need a lot of sleep after her big event.