The cat pregnancy is divided in two semesters: in the first semester the cat doesn’t give any sign that it would be in calf. The animal acts normally and has the same habits like usual.
During the second semester of pregnancy, the cat is influenced by progesterone (hormone produced during pregnancy) and by the growing of the abdomen and starts to calm down and to reduce the daily activities level. The cat spends more time resting. After four or five weeks of pregnancy, the Venter becomes visible.
There are some caution measures that the cat’s owner must take in order to help the animal during the pregnancy. The biggest risk is in the first three weeks of baby’s development into the mother’s uterus. The medicines which are bad administrated and infections may harm the health of both cat and babies. For example if the cat is accessible to enteritis during the gestation, the babies which will manage to survive will be born with brain malformations.
Even the vaccination against this disease can be harmful. The cats should be vaccinated before getting in calf to increase the protection of the babies. A cat which is in calf should never be vaccinated.
During all the pregnancy and after it, the diet of the female will suffer some modifications: the food should be richer in proteins and water must not miss at all. The owner of the cat must not feed the animal only two-three times a day with big quantities of food (because of the babies, the cat is not capable to eat much), but he/she should give it frequently small quantities of meal. There even is a special food for cats in calf. In the last three-four weeks it is indicated to keep the cat in the house in order to avoid eventual accidents which may be fatal to the cat or the babies.
The approach of birth can be remarked from the cat’s actions, the way the cat acts twelve-twenty-four hours before the birth: the animal seeks for a place to birth (starts analyzing all the closets and the most “hidden” places in the house in order to find a “nest”). Milk loses also represent a sign that the birth is getting close.
Properly the birth lasts between ten and sixty minutes. By uterine contractions the foetus is pushed outside and the placenta too, in the same time (if not, it can be pushed out in the next twenty-four hours). When babies are born, they are covered by a membrane (sort of sac) – the mother cleans the babies naturally and eats the placentas and the umbilical cordon. The cat stimulates the babies to breath by washing them using the tongue. The cat will start feeding the babies right away.
The cat and the babies must take an examination from a veterinary in maximum twenty-four hours from birth in order to avoid the post-natal problems.