Good nutrition is vital in keeping a cat healthy throughout its lifetime, never more so than during pregnancy. Like kittens, pregnant or nursing cats need an extra boost of protein and energy to help them through a period of physical stress.
A simple adult formula cat food won't provide the extra nutrients required, so an ideal solution is to switch your pregnant cat back to a commercially produced kitten formula, both during gestation and for some weeks after the birth. The additional calories and higher levels of other key nutrients are just what a pregnant cat needs.
Keep in mind that food consumption may vary during pregnancy, from one and a half to two times normal intake, so feed the amount needed to maintain good body condition (click here for more information on assessing your cat's body condition). Throughout gestation, the female may show a slow, steady increase in body weight and at the same time a gradual increase in food intake, particularly during the last 20 days. Hormonal and behavioural changes that occur during reproduction may cause periods of under eating, overeating, or even not eating at all.
If there is a sustained period of under eating, or if the female's body condition begins to deteriorate, take your cat to the vet. Usually, the mother's appetite will slowly increase within 24 hours after delivery.
Feeding during lactation
Producing milk is another one of the most nutritionally demanding tasks in a mother's life. Food intake typically doubles, but may even quadruple, during lactation and you should feed your cat several times during the day, with fresh water in a clean dish always available. Dry food should be fed moistened during lactation to increase food and water intake, and to encourage kittens to start nibbling solid food.
When kittens are three to four weeks old, they start showing an interest in solid food as the mother's interest in nursing declines. The key to successful weaning is time and patience. A sudden change can be traumatic. Your ambition should be to gradually remove the mother from her kittens around feeding time, supporting her natural instinct. At the same time the kittens should be offered their first solid food and water. Dry food moistened with warm water may help stimulate their appetite. A gradual weaning transition should see the mother reducing, then stopping, her milk production.
The mother's food intake can thus be reduced, similarly gradually, over the same time, back to pre-pregnancy levels.