If you're having problems getting her to eat the new food, don't switch abruptly. Mix in a bit of the stuff she was eating before with the new stuff, and gradually increase the percentage of new stuff in it.
And I totally understand about not paying for really expensive food. I feed my kittens Eukanoba (and the second half of that looks wrong... ). It's high quality enough that their coats are shiny and they're active and healthy. I also leave enough out during the day that their bowl isn't ever empty. Rowan, my former stray, used to gorge himself every time he saw the bowl, but he realized pretty quickly that there was always going to be food, so he stopped. He's actually a lot skinnier than Bella, who has never missed a meal.
And if you're worried about the kittens, you might want to build some 'ladders' for her to get to her high places more easily. I moved recently, so I have a lot of boxes that I pile up, kind of like a pyramid, so that the kittens don't have to jump so far to get up to the windows (I'm in a basement, so the windows are about 5' up). You could probably find something more classy, but I know how worrying cats can be with all of their jumping around (Rowan especially seems to need the ladders, as he's a total clutz and misses about 1/4 of the time when he's trying to jump somewhere).
And don't let the folks here convince you to spay while the mother is still pregnant if you don't want to.
And I totally understand about not paying for really expensive food. I feed my kittens Eukanoba (and the second half of that looks wrong... ). It's high quality enough that their coats are shiny and they're active and healthy. I also leave enough out during the day that their bowl isn't ever empty. Rowan, my former stray, used to gorge himself every time he saw the bowl, but he realized pretty quickly that there was always going to be food, so he stopped. He's actually a lot skinnier than Bella, who has never missed a meal.
And if you're worried about the kittens, you might want to build some 'ladders' for her to get to her high places more easily. I moved recently, so I have a lot of boxes that I pile up, kind of like a pyramid, so that the kittens don't have to jump so far to get up to the windows (I'm in a basement, so the windows are about 5' up). You could probably find something more classy, but I know how worrying cats can be with all of their jumping around (Rowan especially seems to need the ladders, as he's a total clutz and misses about 1/4 of the time when he's trying to jump somewhere).
And don't let the folks here convince you to spay while the mother is still pregnant if you don't want to.
