First Ever Litter

Hey all,

My cat is pregnant with her forst ever litter. Shes around 18 months old, we werent expecting this at all, weve had her a few months now when we collected her (her owners were moving to an unsuitable house) they told us she had been spayed. Anyhow we now have a rather big pregnant cat, the vets advice is around 7-8 weeks. Weve never had kittens in the house before.
She seems to have taken a shining to my office so ive set her up a bed under my desk with plemty of blankets and ive also put a little kit in my desk draw of a few towels, dental floss, kitten replacement milk powder, some plastic syringes, scissors and a little bowl incase i need warm water and a microwavable heat bean bag.
I have seen a cat give birth before when i was a lot younger, my nans cat had 6 kittens. So im not completely alien to it and im hoping i can just watch from a safe distance and all will be fine, but im a bit of a nervous wreck waiting now and was just wondering if theres anything else i shoild know, havent got or any words of wisdom that can be offered

A scale is good to have too...  

Any specific kind of scales? Our pet shop is good but they are more interested in selling us the most expensive thing rather than the ones most fot for purpose

KristyD said:

Any specific kind of scales? Our pet shop is good but they are more interested in selling us the most expensive thing rather than the ones most fot for purpose

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A kitchen or postal scale.  Best are electronical measuring in grammes.  They dont need to be costly!   And nay, pet shops dont sell them.  Sooner shops selling Iron-ware...  Walmart has them.  Otherwise you can prob borrow one.  You wont soil it if you weigh the kittens in a cardboard box or something.  Just neutralize (tara) the weigh of the box.

It never ceases to amaze me that people give away their cats and say they are spayed when they are not.

Here are some helpful links:

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/cat-pregnancy

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/how-do-i-know-when-my-cat-will-give-birth

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/pregnant-cat-what-to-prepare-for-the-birth

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/help-my-cat-is-having-kittens

I hope things go smoothly for you both, but we're here for questions! Thanks for taking this on! [emoji]128522[/emoji]

StefanZ said:

A kitchen or postal scale.  Best are electronical measuring in grammes.  They dont need to be costly!   And nay, pet shops dont sell them.  Sooner shops selling Iron-ware...  Walmart has them.  Otherwise you can prob borrow one.  You wont soil it if you weigh the kittens in a cardboard box or something.  Just neutralize (tara) the weigh of the box.

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My mom has some like that that she uses for baking I'm sure she'll let me borrow them

And thank you sarthur I don't mind giving it ago, I wish she had had of been spayed but I suppose it's one of those things. I would of still had her if she wasn't but we would of had her spayed ourselves before this happened. I'm just keeping a close eye on her for the time being, don't think she's quite ready yet but I can see them moving a bit now which is amazing

Still no sign of the kittens. We dont actually know when she got caught as we didnt look for signs of heat thinking she was spayed. But i think shes getting close, she seems to be licking herself a lot more today and shes not eating as much. Also she keeps flinching, is this normal? Also she hasnt touched her milk at all today (cat milk i should add not cows milk)

KristyD said:

Still no sign of the kittens. We dont actually know when she got caught as we didnt look for signs of heat thinking she was spayed. But i think shes getting close, she seems to be licking herself a lot more today and shes not eating as much. Also she keeps flinching, is this normal? Also she hasnt touched her milk at all today (cat milk i should add not cows milk)

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The flinching might be contractions or pre-contractions. What kind of cat milk are you giving her? Kitten milk replacer or whiskas?

talkingpeanut said:

The flinching might be contractions or pre-contractions. What kind of cat milk are you giving her? Kitten milk replacer or whiskas?

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our vet gave us a kitten milk powder to make up and give her and then talked us through what to do if we need to hand feed the kittens with it too. Shes drank it fine up until this point but she's barely touched anything all day. She's gone from 3 pouches a day with biscuits to 1 pouch today. I've been keeping a close eye on her and I've got the baby monitor in her room now for if she starts crying

Cats tend to go off their food as they get close to labor.

Hopefully that's what it is then.

Still no kittens to report on, she's still just a heavily pregnant cat. Not liking the waiting game at all lol. Her lady bits do look different today which prompted a quick panicked call to the vets but apparently it's normal, it looks possibly a bit swollen as it looks s bit bigger down there so hopefully things are moving in the right direction and we won't have to wait much longer

It's a process - slow but steady! [emoji]128522[/emoji]

I will post some pictures so you can all see once she's had them. I'm gonna be one very proud nanny lol.

We love pictures! [emoji]128571[/emoji]

Can't wait to see pictures xx good luck hope all goes great xxx

Still no kottens to report... im thinking maybe ive got her dates a bit out. The vet said she was due the last week in march but no joys yet

I'm sure it will be soon. It's always difficult to be precise. It's also no fun waiting!

I'm so anxious waiting now... I have a feeling it may be tomorrow seen as it's April fools day. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed