Read the cat article, "Feeding Your Cat During Reproduction".
Feeding Your Cat During Reproduction
While nutrition is always a key factor in keeping a cat healthy, its
importance is heightened during gestation and lactation. The diet must supply
essential nutrients in the proper balance to the developing kittens and prepare
the female for the stress of lactation.
Diets for adult maintenance, intermittent feeding or therapeutic uses are
generally inadequate for gestation and lactation. Any diet fed during this time
should be labeled as nutritionally complete and balanced for all life stages of
the cat and this claim should be supported by actual feeding studies.
The diet should contain more than 1700 digestible calories per pound of food
and at least 30% highly digestible protein (based on dry cat foods containing
approximately 10% moisture). The easiest way to ensure proper nutrition is to
feed a good quality cat food that is complete and balanced for all life stages.
If a maintenance diet is fed prior to breeding, a gradual changeover should be
made to a diet appropriate for reproduction in advance of the time the female is
bred.
Breeders sometimes believe dietary supplements are needed in addition to the
regular diet to provide the extra nutrition pregnant and lactating queens
require. This need for extra nutrition can be met by feeding a high quality
complete and balanced diet. During these periods, food consumption should be
allowed to increase slightly. During the final three weeks of gestation, body
weight will increase more rapidly and the female should be allowed to eat all
she wants.
The hormonal and behavioral changes that occur during reproduction may cause
periods of undereating, overeating, or not eating at all. Diet changes are not
needed during these brief periods of irregular eating habits. However if
undereating is prolonged, or if the female’s body condition begins to
deteriorate, she should be checked for health problems.
As littering nears, the female may lose her appetite. Food refusal during the
ninth week of gestation is frequently a good indication that littering will
occur within the next 24 to 48 hours. Usually within 24 hours after delivery the
females appetite will return and her food consumption will increase.
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