Pregnant Bottle Baby

[quaint_times]

Okay she is not a baby any more .. but i am worried that she will not care for her kittens since she was bottle fed as a baby. Is there any data out about bottle fed cats that have kittens if they are more or less likely to care for their kittens?

My hubby thinks i am insanely worried about her and her kittens, but she is my little girl. She is not an outside cat, but was "let" out and came in Nov. 2 and when we had come home i had seen a large black and white tuxedo Male Tom cat exiting the general area she was found. I am concerned that she might be over her due date .. she is so full in the tummy that when her kittens move around you can see them clearly moving, even though she is a long haired cat.

We are living with my inlaws for a while, because of my husbands medical problems causing him to loose his job and then trying to get disability.

My Inlaws know that my cat is an inside only cat because she is not fixed, and she is smaller then other cats and pure black. My hubby and I were gone for a few days because i am working at a Hotel and working 60-70 hour weeks, because of people being out sick so i had a room for a few nights. We came home and my cat was totally missing. I searched all over looking for her and couldn't find her. Then i called outside and came back in and she was sitting wanting in from the front portch. I was angry because she had been going into heat before we left. I had even made a comment about it before we left that she was starting to go into heat. For her to go outside he would to have had to have forced her because she will not go out, even with a door standing wide open.

When it became noticable that she was pregnant. My father in law started talking about what were they going to do if she had kittens.. he was talking about putting her on the back screened in portch to have her kittens. It is COLD here and there would be no where for her to make a den and keep them warm. That peeved me off.

My father inlaw decided that she needed to start going outside instead of using the litter box inside here recently. He told me that he had been trying to get her to go out. We got into a fight about it, later i went back and told him that i wished he would respect my decision for her to be an inside cat. His response to me was it was his house and he made the rules.

Now we have several birthing boxes in our room and the litter box and food and water. Most of the time my cat is in the room as long as i am .. but if i am not in there then she starts scratching the door and my in laws let her out.


Sorry for the rant. Needless to say even though we really do not have the resources to do so my Hubby is going against DR's advice and has gotten a job because this issue was the last straw for him( and me ).

 

[kumbulu]

Hi quaint times and welcome to TCS.

I'm sorry you find yourself in such a difficult situation - life sounds like it's really hard for you at the moment.

It is possible that because she was hand-raised, your cat may have problems adjusting to becoming a mother, because she has not experienced being raised by a cat herself and hasn't learnt all the things she needs to know. Having said that though, instinct can be very strong and you may find that she is a great mother.

How old is she?

It's great that you can see the kittens moving. She is close to delivery and it sounds like it will only be a few days away. This thread: http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46743 is a good resource. There is an extremely good chance she mated on that first day she got out, which would make today day 64. Cat pregnancies can last 59-70 days so I wouldn't worry about her being overdue just yet.

It sounds like you have been avble to convince your FIL to let her give birth and take care of the kittens inside. The porch would have been much too cold for her and the kittens. She should be a bit more content to stay in your room once the kittens come as mumcats don't like to leave their kittens much, especially when they're very young.

When you say she would have to be forced outside - hormones are funny things and if she was going into heat, she would have been doing anything she could to get outside and mate as the drive is very, very strong. It is very important that she does not go outside from now on. The last thing you want to happen is that she gives birth outside somewhere and you cannot find the kittens. She can go into heat as soon as a few days after the birth so please keep her inside after the birth too. Can I ask why she wasn't spayed?

Where do you live? We can give you some low cost spay and neuter resources in your area.

 

[goldenkitty45]

I hope your situation inproves soon for everyone (people and cat). What I'm afraid of is that when you are not around and the FIL puts the cat outside, she will have the kittens outside and you won't find them.

Try your best to explain why the cat can't be outside at this time. She may or may not be a good mother. What will you do with the kittens? And are you planning on getting her spayed soon (after the kittens are weaned)?

Good luck with everything.

 

[kumbulu]

If you live in the USA, here's a list of low-cost spay and neuter clinics, listed by State.

http://www.lovethatcat.com/spayneuter.html

 

[quaint_times]

I am scared she will not take care of them. I am really hoping for a low number of kittens, so if she does not care for them then it will be a little easier to care for. I have already went out and gotten everything i will need if she doesn't care for them, which made me feel better and more prepared. Although i am also holding off on getting some mayonase because my father in law would throw it out if he saw it in the fridge, but the yogart he doesn't mind. (They went on a diet after we moved in and anything thats not on weight watchers, soy, no sugar, fat free or uses splenda is pitched when my father in law sees it. It is a constant struggle to keep normal food in the house to feed me and my hubby. My hubby needs real food.. and i tried before staying on their diet and i got EXTREMELY sick. It makes me worried to have the formula in the fridge. When i make Magi hers i make a scrambled egg so i only use part of the egg yolk.) I have the same recipe i had for my girl ( Oh BTW her name is Magic Woman.. we shorten it to Magi any who). But i also got wet kitten food, but no dry yet since that will be a few weeks off.

Here is my Kitten Glop Recipe

INGREDIENTS:
* 12 oz can evaporated milk or goats milk ( no non fat.. i prefer goats milk)
* 1 1/2 cup water ( or more)
* 1 egg yolk
* 1 tsp kayro syrup
* 1-2 drops of liquid vitamin
* 2 tsp sugar
* 1/8 tsp salt
* 1/8 tsp baking soda
* 2 Tbsp Plain live culture Yogurt and/or Mayonnaise ( no non fat)
* 1 drop of Grape Seed Extract
* Optional: meat baby food ( lamb, veal, beef, turkey, chicken)

I try to put as small of an amount of Grape Seed Extract in as possible.. but i add that directly into the egg yolk with the salt and baking soda to kill any possible salmanella.. i also use the freshest eggs i can find i wash the outsides with Grape Seed Extract before i use them and then my hands and rinse very well.. and when i seperate them i wash off the egg yolk packet gently in as hot of water as my hands can stand .. and then squeeze it over a bowl so i catch the membrane that holds it together.

Magi never had any eye problems, but i had another kitten i bottle fed before that did and i used to add a little beta carotine to his formula( so he had pretty light light pink formula*lol*.. my hubby called him sissy boy ) . Just a little bit from the gel caps on a toothpick. He also had problems with consipation really hard poops for a kitten so i would put a drop of fish oil in his formula as well and increased the water. I also changed his to 1 TBSP yogart and a baby food. He did very well and gained weight quick after i altered the recipe.. then i slowly altered it back to the normal recipe.

Then at 3-4 weeks i start them to eating some formula mixed with wet kitten food or a meat and veggie baby food. For some reason all the kittens i have bottle fed have prefered baby food over kitten food when first converting to a more solid food diet.

After 4 weeks i have dry kitten food out for them all the time, i try to keep it up til then exept at meal times because the other adult cats big out on it and then get to fat.

I have also been having short sessions where i sit and pet her til she is very happy and content and purring away and then use my fingers like kittens kneeding and suckling gently on her nipples, so that she will associate that feeling with something good. I am hoping to increase her chances of nursing on her own.

This is going to sound really silly.. but where we were living before my hubby got layed off because of being sick. We had a colony of outside cats of almost 20 and a lot of times we had cats just come through, not on purpose, but there was a local "animal drop" up the road and i just felt bad constantly seeing cats roaming around through the woods. And we had other inside cats who had decided to come in from outside and not go back out. We have a local Humane Society that does a lot of good spay/neutering. House cats are like $50-70 and strays are free... that was with rabies shot and fel Luke( test and shot). I could only get so many spaces per month when they took them. And i was trying to get all the females outside i could catch and the older cats in the house done. I figured the females outside being fixed was more important then Magi inside.

Then since we moved here i had to find homes for quite a few of the inside cats. I am upset for leaving the colony on their own, but there were others feeding them as well. We still have 2 cats one adult male,General Lee.. Lele for short *lol*, who is fixed and Magi. When we move i think that Lee will be staying with my inlaws, they have him going in and out all the time now. I worry that if we do not move into as safe of a neighborhood for animals as this one then he will get hurt going in and out. Plus he really enjoys my inlaws fixed Male cat.. they have taken a lot of weight off each other playing *lol*

Since moving in here i have been working so many hours when i come home i just want to crash. My hubby can not drive because of his condition. My inlaws..Grrrrr.. i talked to them about needing to get Magi fixed and they sort of brushed it off. Once she was pregnant i wasn't going to have her fixed, because i am firmly against abortion unless it is a risk to the mother.

Now of course my Father in law sits there and says well the only way to keep a cat from getting pregnant is to get them fixed. But yet tries to let her outside. He is my hubby's stepfather, and he has talked to his mother about it and his mom talked to her hubby about it and came back and said well he just for got that Magi wasn't allowed out. However this was just a day after this "My father inlaw decided that she needed to start going outside instead of using the litter box inside here recently. He told me that he had been trying to get her to go out. We got into a fight about it, later i went back and told him that i wished he would respect my decision for her to be an inside cat. His response to me was it was his house and he made the rules."


I am not sure what i will do with the kittens. The other day my mother in law was talking to my hubby's nephew who just turned 20, she goes "well tell Jessica ( his 18 year old sister who just had a baby) that i will trade her a kitten for one of her newborn puggles( pug/ poodle mix) cause they are so cute". If looks could have killed( my looking at her would have)!!

I strongly believe that even though we are living under their roof she is my cat just as if she was my child. And i make the rules and decisions concerning her, however they do a lot of things i do not like. Like feeding TONS of wet food, which because there is less crunching increases the chances for rotting teeth, which they have really cut down on. When we move out Magi is going to be weaned off the wet, since she is pregnant i have been allowing her 2 cats of wet a day because the only thing she wants from them is the gravy *lol*. I have also been giving her small amounts of kitten glop thinned down every day since i have started seeing kittens moving, so that she gets plenty of liquids and more neutrients.

I would really prefer to get her fixed after the kittens are weaned, so the meds will not effect the kittens. Plus i strongly feel that fixing a nursing cat.. unless its an emergency is cruel, becuse the kittens dig so much at the mothers tummy. Thats one reason i have all the stuff in our room, once she has kittens i am going to tell everyone to keep her in there, which i am trying to get her to spend more and more time in that room.

I do not want the kittens once they are moving around to get stepped on or accidentally squished by my father in law. He is a heavy ungaceful man and with kittens running under feet that would not be the best situation for him or the kittens. But hopefully we have our own place before it comes to that * crosses my fingers*

I plan on keeping the kittens atleast 12 weeks.. then i will see where they are developmentally at 2 months and start looking for homes and allow potential owners come look at the kittens, but not take them home til they are 12 weeks.. Plus this will give me a chance to watch the interaction and decide weither they would be good kitty parents KWIM. I have said no before and i will say no again.

Expecially if there are pure black kittens, around here there seems to be a lot of myths against black cats. We live in the bible belt, and even though there is a LOT of information and this is 2006 people still believe old myths and act horribly against black cats. They are supposedly witches or possesed with devils and things like that. They often go out of their way to hurt them.. throwing rocks, putting out poisen, and even shooting them. Not to mention Halloween, i am almost paranoid when it comes to halloween and Magi, there are a lot of disapearing black cats around that time around here. I wouldn't even let the door open so she could sun bath or look through the glass screen a month before or after.

I actually have an online job that i have been doing for a few years and they have been getting a TON of work in. So i asked if they could up my hours, expecially since the pay is better. And i have given my 2 week notice where i was working 60-70 hours a week, and there are only 3 more days left where i will be on call and i only work one of them. And that shift is at night when my hubby will be home.

Although i am looking for another job to top off the online job, i am looking for one with good pay where we will be able to move out of here ( i even got some interviews so YAY) One of the reasons that i am quiting the other out of home job is because of Magi being pregnant and my father in law insisting that she go out, so i can be home to watch her.

 

[quaint_times]

Yippes i didn't mean to be that talkative.. sorry

Basically i am nervious about birthing thats a new thing for me .. although i am used to taking care of kittens.

I have towels ,an old wash cloth, some thread, scissors, and a clean bucket to put hot water in for the wash cloth up in our bedroom ready..i read the pregnancy and birthing thread several times before posting. It made me nervious and better prepared at the same time KWIM.

 

[hissy]

Hi Quaint-

I would use the simpler recipe, and get rid of the grape seed, baking soda, and sugar and use instead a few drops of grapefruit seed extract.

I do bottle babies, and there is no concern about a bottle fed baby not being a good mother that I have heard of. My kittens are spayed when old enough, but the few times after they were adopted out, they weren't spayed and "got out" they turned out to be excellent moms.

You can find the Kitten Glop Recipe in this forum stuck to the top-

 

[kumbulu]

LOL, no worries. Well, it sounds like you've got everything under control. Spaying her when the kittens are 8 weeks is great and keeping them until they are 12 weeks is a very good idea. I hope all goes well with Magi and with your and your hubby's health and jobs. You've got a lot on your plate!

 

[quaint_times]

Thank you all .. i just had to break up a cat/dog fight between Magie and my inlaws med-size dog.. he has been constantly sniffing her bum and i think she finally had enough and let him have it.

Thats another reason i am keeping her in the room .. because i am afraid that if she had the kittens their dog would eat them since he is such a walking tummy. Thats just to much temptation for their hyper dog to hurt them.


Hissy~ Thank you!! that takes a LOAD off my mind knowing that.

Kumbulu~ Thanks.. i hope everything goes well too .. i'm waiting on my hubby to get home from his first day.. me being here and up doing things has Magi peeved she wants me to sit down and chill and relax with her i think *lol* She is sitting here half on half off my leg purring like a banshee.

 

[kumbulu]

You're right there. The dog needs to be kept well away. Magi may accidently hurt him if he goes sniffing around the kittens when she has them.

 

[quaint_times]

Yeah definately.. im not used to having a dog that is not calm.. every dog i have had has been a large breed and calm.. and this one is a Terrier type.. and he must have bowed up to her when she attacked him because there was a big thump upstairs and a weird howl and then they came running down the stairs Magie chasing the crazy mutt. She was all puffed out and hissing and the dog was sitting there wanting to sniff at her or play i think .. SO i seperated them and put the dog outside .. thank goodness they got an electric fence.. and i checked over Magi and held her til she de fluffed.

When Magi was little we had a HUGE Dog and he was so gentle with her and she would sleep with him all the time. Even though she was only the size of his paw and he could have probubly swallowed her hole. When he passed away she looked for him for a few months after that.

I have decided that i don't want a smaller dog then we had because it seems like everyone i ever meet is really nurotic and/or hyper ( or maybe its just their owners that made them that way ME BAD).

Alrighty back to work again again again *G*

 

[quaint_times]

Magi has been doing good .. she has wanted to be ON TOP of me all day today.. and her kittens have been moving good .. expecially while she was sniggled with me in bed .. i lightly tapped her belly and one of them stretched her belly out atleast between 1/4 and 1/2 an inch.. she got a little steamed when her baby did that though.

She has not had her plug come out that i have seen and no wetness around her rear.. I trimmed her hair on her butt as close as she would let me and trimmed around her nipples as much as i could about a week ago.. i need to work on it again .. i can not see through all that fluff she has.

I try to keep it trimmed back there for hygene reasons.. she can not seem to clean herself well with all that thick long hair around her privates KWIM.. expecially when she was a kitten ..Phew.. she fights and has a hissy when i try to trim though.. i try to get my hubby to help hold her down .. but he is like well she doesn't want it done leave her be. *rme*

I am just hoping she has them soon.. i'm not normally this impacient.. just nervious and wanting to see those cute little kicks in Magi's belly

 

[kumbulu]

Thank you for the update. I've been wondering how you and Magi were doing. It does become difficult for them to clean their bottoms when their abdomen is so large so baby wipes come in handy there.

Do keep us updated and feel free to ask any more questions if you have them.

 

[quaint_times]

Magi is still holding out .. i trimmed her claws yesterday.. i was trying to wait and do that the very last thing ..

Her babies have strong kicks to them and stretch and move a good bit. No panting or liquid from her vulva or contractions.

 

[kumbulu]

Ah, she's keeping us waiting.

It's a good sign the babies are moving. They sometimes slow down a bit in the last couple of days as there is so little room.

 

[quaint_times]

There is one on her right side right in the middle ..OMG.. s/he stretches and pushes out on her tummy between 1/4 and1/2 an inch.. i believe that one is going to be the dominate kitten in the litter. S/he also flips and turns and kicks the most of all of them.

Magi has started liking her belly rubbed here the last few days.. and purrs when its done.. which isn't normal.. i believe its because her milk is filling up her teets til its not comfortable and getting her belly rubbed feels good.

 

[kumbulu]

LOL at that kitten. It's funny, many pregnant cats like thier bellies rubbed ONLY in the final stages of the pregnancy and at no other time.

 

[quaint_times]

It sure is funny to see her roll over like a dog and want her belly rubbed *lol* .. ususally if you would try that you would get your hand grabbed and bitten and kicked at .. not hard .. but when she has sharp claws it doesn't make a difference how gentle she is people still get scratched.

 

[quaint_times]

still waiting ... her babies do not seem as fiesy today and she is wanting rubbed rougher then normal and if you dont she gets nippy

 

[quaint_times]

i was starting to get worried.. MAgi stared having contractions earlier this after noon but i was wondering when it would start .. she just lost her plug . most like it exploded .. and i think a water just broke with it and she is actively going at it .. ON THE COUCH .. im going to get some towels *LOL*