Expert: Karen Craft - 7/10/2010

Question
Our cat gave birth to 4 kittens 12 days ago. she is great with taking care of the kittens and feeding them. but starting from the 6th day, she won't eat much at all. she seemed like she was hungry and she meows for food. but when i gave her kitten milk, kitten canned/dry food or adult canned/dry food, she only eats a little. I am guessing that she is hoping to get friskies canned food which i got 5 cans for her right after she gave birth since i didnt had time to go pet store yet. But i know it's not a good choice for her and the kittens, so im giving her blue buffalo kitten dry food now which was recommanded by the sale attendant at petsmart. I wanna feed her high quality food now since she was just given adult dry food the entire time when she was pregnent and she ate so much, her bowl was always empty no matter how much we fed her.

So far i think she's doing fine with producing milk. kittens are well fed and growing fast, hardly hearing them cry or whining. these two days, i tried give her whiskas cat milk and she started drinking all of it. also i tried to moisten the kitten dry food by adding hot water to release the flavor, and she will eat a little. but still way not enough for a nursing cat(3-4 times more).

I'm just worried that if there's anything wrong with the mother cat? what should i do to make sure she gets all the nutrients she needs to produce the milk for kittens? also, i dont wanna give in and spoil her to just buy her unhealthy canned food again.

please help me figuring this out! thank you so much!

-lavie

Answer
Hi Lavie,

Congrats on your new family. Cats are funny creatures. They should love what is good for them but they don't. I would feed her what she likes. And canned Friskees isn't that bad.  She needs to eat for her kits.  And don't fall for pet shop hype on foods. Read this for what you really need to know. http://www.catinfo.org/?link=cannedfoods
The link deals basically with canned foods but I would suggest you read the whole site. It is very enlightening. And feed her the Friskees for now. Worry about transitioning her to a better food later. Good luck.

Ciao,

Karen