Home Cooking For Pregnant Cat

[ameezers]

Hi guys!
My cat Tula is currently pregnant (due at the end of November).

All my cats are free fed Orijen cat and Kitten dry food and I have been giving Miss Tula 1/2 a 6 oz can 3 times a day (so 9 oz wet, whatever she doesn't finish my other kitties eat)

She is extremely picky when it comes to wet food, only eating weruva paw lickin chicken and 9 livers. I literally have tried probably over 40 different wet cat foods, and she won't touch them (lucky for me my other cats will eat anything so it hasn't gone to waste)

I have noticed that her bowel movements are WAY stinkier since upping her wet food...

I am more than happy to cook for her but I haven't been able to find any recipes for pregnant cats. I want to make sure that she is getting all the nutrition that she needs.

If any one has experience cooking for a pregnant cat and is willing to share their recipes or insight it would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much for your time!

 

[Merlin77]

Hehe, I wish I had proper experience with pregnant cats but we never even realized our cat was pregnant when she had her kittens. But I still have a good idea of what to do.

Since you mentioned stinkier stools, I think that might be due to either a slightly upset tummy due to the kittens or simply a change in diet that didn't sit well with her. I would cut back a little bit on the wet food as long as she still gets enough nutrition from the dry and the rest of the wet. If the problem persists I would try feeding a bit of pumpkin to her, that should do the trick.

(Sorry I have to go but I will check back later)

 

[Merlin77]

Hehe, I wish I had proper experience with pregnant cats but we never even realized our cat was pregnant when she had her kittens. But I still have a good idea of what to do.

Since you mentioned stinkier stools, I think that might be due to either a slightly upset tummy due to the kittens or simply a change in diet that didn't sit well with her. I would cut back a little bit on the wet food as long as she still gets enough nutrition from the dry and the rest of the wet. If the problem persists I would try feeding a bit of pumpkin to her, that should do the trick.

(Sorry I have to go but I will check back later)

Okay, I'm back. Continuing on...

Since she is eating 9 livers and the Paw Lickin Chicken (I love the Weruva formula names), you can add some homecooked chicken (no bone) or a little bit of liver, because I'm guessing the formulas have that in them. Make sure to keep it to around 1/2 a liver to 1 liver every 3 days or so, because liver is quite rich and could upset her stomach. There is also vitamin A poisoning but it would take a lot of liver for that to happen. Also, keep the amount of chicken and liver 10% or less of the entire diet, because then yu might have an unbalanced diet.

Have you tried boiling or scrambling an egg for her? Cats, from my experience, love eggs.

You can feed raw chicken, liver and egg yolks (the whites have to be cooked), but I would freeze for three days before feeding. Just in case. Mix the extras into her current food, maybe at a ratio of 4:1 tablespoons (Weruva food to home sourced). Only one or two meals a day should have the extra food so you don't go over the 10%, and so that there aren't too many calories.

On that note, make sure to monitor her body condition. She is pregnant now so you shouldn't really see a waisy, but if her shoulders and hips still look lean she is healthy.

Have you tried other Weruva formulas?

 

[ameezers]

Thanks so much for your reply! I will try the chicken and liver (and eggs) as you suggested and see if she will eat it.

I have tried every weruva formula they have, plus almost every formula from other brands I can get my hands on... she won't even taste them.

 

[Merlin77]

Hmmm... maybe she will eat other brands/flavours if you mix the 9Livers and Paw Lickin Chicken with them?

 

[ameezers]

I've tried that too.

Such a fussy little thing she is! I tried the egg, she took maybe two bites and that was it. My other cats are the rest.

 

[DeweytheLion]

I wouldnt worry about feeding her too many calories because the kittens need it.
There are vitamin supplements cats and kittens need implemented in their diet, like B12 and such things.
Here's my "recipe" (though I always suggest ringing your vet before feeding it to your cat)
I take about a teaspoon of white rice, an 1/8 cup of water (you can double it), and put it in a small pan (not a pot) and start cooking a bit over medium heat. You can add the rest of the ingredients as you go, but I start with the uncooked meat so it has time to cook. You can use turkey, chicken, buffalo burger, or elk burger. Stay away from pork. I try not to use beef. Make sure there are no bones. Every so often you can cook up salmon and ADD it to the main meat, since fish has mercury and cats can get "addicted" if fed too often. Boil the meat in the water, don't fry it. While it's cooking, crack a whole egg or two and scramble it. Add about a half tablespoon of chopped carrots and a tablespoon of chopped potatoes. You can switch up the vegetables as desired, but cats are strictly carnivores and don't benefit much from large amounts of greens. Also make sure that you aren't feeding her something that would be toxic. Stay away from broccoli because it'll make her gassy. The carrots and potatoes are pretty much fillers and add some vitamins I couldn't put in myself. I like to use small amounts of cranberries occasionslly, and cut cat grass. I freeze either canned KMR or mixed powder KMR and put it in an ice cube tray then add a cube or two after the meal has been cooked, to help cool it and add some beneficial vitamins for mom and kittens. Then incorporate it with some canned food if she won't eat it by itself.
I never suggest feeding raw simply because I had an incident once where, even though everything was froze, a foster got worms. (It's possible it could have been from something she caught before I had gotten her, but I never knew for sure.)
Never microwave her food as it changes the molecules and isn't as good for her. Don't even defrost in the micro.

This way, she gets less canned food, and everything is easy to digest. Her smelly poo should get better and her kittens she be fat and healthy. You can save leftovers, don't let your other kitties eat it. They will get fat. She can eat it 2x or 3x a day.

 

[ameezers]

Awesome! Thanks so much for taking the time to reply

 

[orange&white]

If you'd like to provide a balanced home-cooked diet, I would start with meat or meat and liver and purchase a pre-mixed supplement to make sure the food is nutritionally complete for her. This is always good, but particularly important while she's pregnant.

You can use the above suggestions as homemade treats...less than 10% of the diet, but figure if she eats 6 ounces per day, then .6 oz is a treat. That is 1-2 teaspoons of food per day. So if you're going to the trouble to cook for her, why not make it balanced so you don't have to worry over percentages or complete nutrition?

These are some popular pre-mixes:
Alnutrin http://www.knowwhatyoufeed.com/
Balance IT https://secure.balanceit.com/ -- NOTE: Clarification on the use of Balance IT premixes - TCS thread
Call of the Wild http://www.wysong.net/products/cotw-dog-cat-supplement.php
Warning: Call of the Wild by Wysong may have iodine levels that are too high. Please see http://www.thecatsite.com/t/269085/warning-call-of-the-wild-high-in-iodine
Food Fur Life: http://www.foodfurlife.com/
TCfeline (Canada) http://tcfeline.com/
U-Stew http://www.knowbetterpetfood.com/cat_food_u-stew

Some of them you mix into meat-only and some are for meat + liver.

Pre-mixes are a little pricey compared to adding your own supplements, but testing out a batch with a premix is not a bad idea just to see if Tula enjoys the food.

Homemade food really should solve the stinky poop problem. My cats (and dog) are on raw food and their poop seriously does not stink.

Also, to your main point, a pregnant cat shouldn't have significantly different nutritional requirements: she just needs more food that is well-balanced and highly-nutritious than a non-pregnant cat.

 

[valentine319]

Any unbalanced raw should be under 10 percent. I would do hearts not liver. Liver when doing a completely raw diet is only 5% because it contains non soluble vitamins A and D.

Orange&white gave great advice. Many feed a combo of wet and raw. You could also buy some premade raw or freeze dried foods.

Cats are obligate carnivores and have no need in their diets for rice, potatoes, yams, peas and such. Deweythelion was great at mentioning it's not necessary.

If you're in a larger city your pet food stores may carry premade raw. It might be easier to get some and see how kitty likes them.

It's best to cook egg whites they contain avidin that can cause vitamin b biotin deficiency. The egg yolk is fine raw. It's very good for kitty.

I buy whole carcass rabbit from hare today, not your only option of what to feed, and mix in nutrients (via a recipe) or get something like alnutrin to mix in. Whole carcass rabbit has everything kitty needs other than adding in the additional supplements. It's the perfect kitty blend of 80 percent meat/10 percent bone/5 percent liver /5 percent other organ meat. You mix it like meatloaf. I freeze a day of food in a quart bag and 7 of those in a gallon bag in the freezer. Whole carcass is just easy.

My only big warning is never ever cook any raw food with bone in it. Cats can easily eat raw foods with bone.raw with bone is different. If you cook it then the bone can splinter and be very dangerous to kitty. No raw fish and try avoiding excessive fish in kitty food.

If you can find raw in a pet store that's a great way to see how kitty likes it. Until then cooked egg white with raw or scrabbled yolks, some raw or cooked under 10% total food is fine.

 

[valentine319]

My cat poops every other day on raw (this is normal). It's dry, hard and doesn't smell. When my cat was on canned she needed tummyworks probiitic just so didn't fart and always have soft poop.