How To Tell If A Cat Has Given Birth?

[jennaniccole]

I have a stray cat (Alley) who has been hanging around my apartment complex for nearly a year. She's become pretty friendly with people, but we haven't been able to trap her to get her TNRed. Well, then she showed up about 4 weeks ago showing pregnancy, so I started feeding her kitten food and set up a bunch of nesting boxes around my patio.

Alley spent 4 straight days on my patio last week being uncharacteristically affectionate, so I was hoping she'd have her kittens here. But she never did show interest in the nesting boxes and now she's been disappearing and only showing up for meals. She's also eating less than before, and has become standoffish, which I think either means she's very close to labor or already had them. My biggest fear is that she'll have her kittens somewhere I won't be able to find them, because I'd like to get them socialized and adopted, and of course be there to help if she rejects them or anything goes wrong. I'm also worried she may already have had her kittens and I just can't tell? Her stomach "dropped" a bit and she looks a little less round, but it does feel pretty hard still, and hangs down for sure. I haven't noticed any discharge, but she's got long-ish fur and doesn't really let me inspect her much (picture is about a week old, I'll try to get a new one tonight.)

I can't take her inside and none of the local shelters that take in "outside cats" have room, so I'm not sure what to do. The best place I have for her is an outdoor storage closet, but I feel bad locking her in without ventilation; it's pretty hot around here during the days in southern AZ.

Anyway, any advice on how to best try to keep track of Alley and the kittens (or how to tell if they're already born...) would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[rubysmama]

I don't have any experience with pregnant cats or ferals, but have learned some things from reading this forum.

Did she disappear for a day or more, and then start coming back for meals? If so, that could suggest she's had the kittens. One tip I recently read was to play kitten meowing sounds on your phone, and that should make mama cat lead you to her kittens.

If you knew for sure she was still pregnant, and could trap her, perhaps you could keep her and the kittens in a crate until they were old enough to be adopted out, and mama could be spayed. Here's a thread by someone who did that:
Help! Have To Keep Pregnant Stray Safe In Outside Crate

 

[Sarthur2]

You can tell by looking at her mammary glands if she is nursing or not yet. What is the reason you cannot bring her in long enough to care for her and her babies?

Is there a rescue in your area who might be able to foster her and her babies if you could get them there?

It’s wonderful that you are feeding mom and trying to help her. Please keep us posted.

 

[jennaniccole]

Thanks for the replies!! She hasn't disappeared for quite 24 hours yet, after she stopped being here 24/7 she would appear for about an hour once it gets dark, and again once before it gets light. I read that too and tried playing kitten sounds last night. She quickly figured out it was my phone and stopped caring, haha. Either there aren't kittens for her to go to, or I should have hid my phone better!

I don't have a crate, but maybe I can ask around for one. I can try locking her in my outdoor closet if I think she's still pregnant, as long as the temperatures/ventilation aren't a danger? (It's not hotter in the closet than the rest of the patio area, just the smell is AWFUL when you leave a litter box in there.)

I can't really get a good look at her mammary glands because she doesn't let me touch her stomach and her fur is pretty long. I think they might be big enough to see through her fur if she were nursing, though?

I can't bring her inside because my apartment is tiny and doesn't have a separate area for her or any real doors to separate her from my two cats, neither of which like her and I doubt they'd give her peace inside. I've called all the local rescues except our high-kill animal control, and no one has space. A few aren't taking any new animals at all right now. Two said they can probably take the kittens at 8 weeks if I can get them socialized, since they can likely be adopted out quickly, but their fosters are full right now.

Here's two pictures of her from last night. She ate a little, but much less than she has been eating. If she comes tonight she should be by any time, and I can see if she looks any different tonight.

 

[jennaniccole]

She came by tonight! I'm fairly certain she is still pregnant. She ate a bit more than she has been eating tonight, and is now hanging out in my outside closet. She was also around for about 4 hours by choice, and I feel like she wouldn't stay that long if she had kittens hiding somewhere. Not sure if I'll lock her in all day, but it's probably safe at night when it's cooler, I think?

 

[rubysmama]

Awwww.... what a beauty. She looks young too. Thanks for caring about her. Keep us posted on her progress.

 

[Sarthur2]

I would not lock her in the outdoor closet for several reasons. Just leave the door cracked so she can come and go. She still sounds pregnant.

 

[jennaniccole]

I was sort of shutting the door so she could still open it, which she's been doing and disappearing every morning. She didn't show up at all yesterday night and isn't here during here normal time tonight, so I think she may have had the kittens. I wonder if she didn't want to have them here because of my two cats inside and the couple of actual ferals we have around, maybe she didn't feel they'd be safe enough here.

If she comes back, I'm planning to do my best to follow her or play her kitten sounds to see if she'll lead me to them. If I find them, is it safe to move them here? As long as she lets me take them to move them, I feel like there's a good chance they're safer here than where she might have had them, even aside from wanting to socialize them.

 

[Sarthur2]

It’s safe to move them as long as mom follows, or put them in a crate and see if mom will go in. Then close the door and carry them all back.

Where will you put them? Closing her in the outdoor closet is not a safe option.

 

[di and bob]

Looks pregnant still to me. I always try to observe their abdomen, nursing kittens will have the hair worn away or flattened around the nipples. She does look awfully young, she may need help in birthing. Please try to keep her inside if you can.

 

[jennaniccole]

I don't think she's super young, I think she's around 4-5. I know I saw her occasionally as an adult cat summer of 2016, so at the very youngest she's probably 2.5-3 years old. This could be her first litter though, she is BIG and I suspect it's a large litter.

It's been over 48 hours since I last saw her, so I'm a little worried. I took my cat for her walk around the apartments tonight (on her leash) listening for kittens in any spot I thought she might have had them, but I didn't hear or see anything, and neither did my cat. So either she's MIA and still pregnant, or she's had them off the property. If so, I'll just have to wait until she comes back, so I'm really hoping she does. I suppose it's possible someone else feeds her and had a place inside to put her, but I can't count on that since she's been obviously pregnant for a while and still wandering.

My plan to move the kittens was to put them in the patio closet and not close the door. (The patio is completely enclosed and on the ground floor, so they shouldn't be able to get out until they can jump high enough, which based on my experience with foster litters should be at least 5-6 weeks. Hopefully by then I can find a real foster...) And of course I'll only move them if she'll lead me to them and let me touch them, and can see where I put them. She could just decide to move the kittens somewhere else after I move them, but I'm hoping she won't. If I can get my hands on a large crate, I'll do that instead.

 

[jennaniccole]

Alley appeared for about 10 minutes last night (Wednesday) for the first time since Sunday to eat 2/3rd a small can of food, and she absolutely looked thinner to me, but she wasn't here long enough for me to really touch her or get a good look at her belly. When she left I followed her. She wasn't very happy about it, but she trotted off to the other end of the complex and started howling. I was hoping she might be calling her kittens, but instead a grey feral I see around a lot appeared, and they headed off together trying to avoid me. I followed them at a distance to an apartment complex behind mine and played kitten noises on my phone. Alley didn't care at all and hid under a car, and the grey cat was interested but is too shy and wouldn't come near me. Not sure if this grey kitty is male or female (do pregnant cats make friends? I thought she'd generally want to stay away from other cats right now. Especially because I've definitely seen her growl and hiss this cat off my patio recently.) I looked all around the complex I followed her to and didn't see anywhere that I thought looked like a reasonable place to hide kittens.

*sigh* Not sure what to do at this point, I may have to resign myself to never finding these kittens early enough to socialize and just hoping I can TNR the whole group eventually, if they're all okay. But I'll keep putting food out and hope one of them leads me to kittens eventually. Or that miraculously she decides on her own that those nesting boxes I have are a good place to keep her babies after all...

 

[Sarthur2]

If that picture is from today, she is still pregnant.

 

[jennaniccole]

It was from Saturday, I didn't get a chance for a pic last night. I can try again tonight. Good to know she was definitely still pregnant then, though!

 

[jennaniccole]

Somehow, this cat is still pregnant!

I know I originally got the date wrong that I first saw her showing, but it was definitely between April 10th-15th, which puts her at 70ish days now.

 

[Sarthur2]

Either the dates are off or she’ll have them soon!

 

[jennaniccole]

This cat still hasn't had kittens, and it's been at least 80 days now unless she showed really early somehow. I'm starting to get worried- she's huge, so either there may be complications or she may have something else, like some terrible case of parasites.

She's still eating and drinking well, and she doesn't seem distressed at all. But I'm trying to work out how to get her to a vet in the next week if possible.

 

[rubysmama]

Are you able to touch her? If so, can you feel the kittens moving? I just Googled and found one cat pregnancy that apparently went 75 days.

 

[talkingpeanut]

If your numbers are correct, I agree that she really needs to see a vet.

Are you able to move this cat inside?

 

[Sarthur2]

I think you should get her to a vet immediately for an x-ray and check-up. I would not wait any longer.