Hi all I'm new here, I'm Laura and I'm from the UK (I've noticed a few UK users when browsing through the site)
Ok so my story is I took in a stray a few weeks ago when I realised she was pregnant as at the time we were having really bad weather and the thought of her being cold & alone was too sad. I've had cats in the past but not since my eldest child (he's 13 now) was a toddler (divorce & house move forced me to rehome) back then the cats I had were spayed / neutered as soon as old enough so this is all new to me, I obviously don't know exactly how far along Daisy (my daughter named her) is so ill give you a bit of a timeline:
week before Xmas my son noticed a cat outside when he was putting rubbish out, he came in with a sob story oh it look hungry and lonely etc, I was going away the next day and had some cooked meat in the fridge that was still in date but would go off while we were away so I put some on a plate outside for the cat, came home day before Xmas and she was still hanging round outside, I blamed myself for having fed her so vowed to leave her alone so she'd go back where she came from, she had no collar but I was assuming she lived somewhere, anyway fast forward to first week in Jan she was still hanging round, darting inside if the door was left open for more than a moment and the kids were all nagging me to keep her, my compromise was buying some cat food and putting food out each day,
15th Jan I was in hospital for 2 nights and my parents stayed with the kids when I came home my mum said she thought the stray cat looked pregnant, I checked on her, picked her up stroked etc and decided that no she didn't seem pregnant to me, the weather was really cold and wet at this point so I was allowing her to come in to dry off if I saw her hanging round looking wet, about a week later I decided that actually maybe she was pregnant as she had seemed to have got a little fatter in that time and so by the end of January she was living with us.
Now from what I've read the earliest a cat looks pregnant is 4-5 weeks which to me means she is due literally any day now, her nipples are big and pink with bald patched around but a gentle squeeze shows no milk as of last night, she's become more affectionate in the last few days and this morning didn't eat much food and was sick a couple of times an hour or so after eating which I've read can possibly be a sign, can anyone tell me what else to look out for? Or at least reassure I'm not the only crazy nut spending day after day thinking oh this must definitely be the start of it now only for it not to be lol
Oh and here's a pic of her big belly
Ok so my story is I took in a stray a few weeks ago when I realised she was pregnant as at the time we were having really bad weather and the thought of her being cold & alone was too sad. I've had cats in the past but not since my eldest child (he's 13 now) was a toddler (divorce & house move forced me to rehome) back then the cats I had were spayed / neutered as soon as old enough so this is all new to me, I obviously don't know exactly how far along Daisy (my daughter named her) is so ill give you a bit of a timeline:
week before Xmas my son noticed a cat outside when he was putting rubbish out, he came in with a sob story oh it look hungry and lonely etc, I was going away the next day and had some cooked meat in the fridge that was still in date but would go off while we were away so I put some on a plate outside for the cat, came home day before Xmas and she was still hanging round outside, I blamed myself for having fed her so vowed to leave her alone so she'd go back where she came from, she had no collar but I was assuming she lived somewhere, anyway fast forward to first week in Jan she was still hanging round, darting inside if the door was left open for more than a moment and the kids were all nagging me to keep her, my compromise was buying some cat food and putting food out each day,
15th Jan I was in hospital for 2 nights and my parents stayed with the kids when I came home my mum said she thought the stray cat looked pregnant, I checked on her, picked her up stroked etc and decided that no she didn't seem pregnant to me, the weather was really cold and wet at this point so I was allowing her to come in to dry off if I saw her hanging round looking wet, about a week later I decided that actually maybe she was pregnant as she had seemed to have got a little fatter in that time and so by the end of January she was living with us.
Now from what I've read the earliest a cat looks pregnant is 4-5 weeks which to me means she is due literally any day now, her nipples are big and pink with bald patched around but a gentle squeeze shows no milk as of last night, she's become more affectionate in the last few days and this morning didn't eat much food and was sick a couple of times an hour or so after eating which I've read can possibly be a sign, can anyone tell me what else to look out for? Or at least reassure I'm not the only crazy nut spending day after day thinking oh this must definitely be the start of it now only for it not to be lol
Oh and here's a pic of her big belly