How to know if your cat is pregnant
You want to know if your cat is pregnant. This may be because its a possible unwanted pregnancy, or it may be you have a pedigree cat that you want to breed. Either way, what are the signs to look out for?
Has your cat been in heat?
A female cat will not mate with a male cat unless she is in heat. You may hear the terms “cat is calling” or in oestrus. This just means she is ready to mate. This usually happens in the summer months but can happen any time of the year.
If your cat has been in heat and she has been in contact with an intact tom cat there is about a 60-80% chance she will be pregnant. The more days the female cat is mating with the tom cat then the greater the probability she will be pregnant.
A female cat can mate with more than one tom cat and the kittens in the litter can have different dads!
Pink nipples are the first sign
“Pinking up” or the nipples getting pinker are the first signs to look for. This usually happens about 3 weeks after conception. Be wary of false positives though. We had a cat who we thought was pregnant because her nipples were pink. In fact he wasn’t pregnant but had just been lying on the radiator which made her nipples pink!
So lets look at an example. Here we have one of our cats Mabel.
There is a bump developing
The only way you can know for sure if your cat is pregnant is when you can see a noticeable bump developing. This usually happens around 4 weeks onwards.
How many kittens does she have?
Towards the last couple of weeks of the pregnancy the kittens will start to kick. At this stage you can take your cat for an ultrasound to see how many kittens she has. But please note, I know of people who have done this and the vet has been completely wrong. Its probably better just to wait until she gives birth.
Signs she is about to give birth
Nesting is probably the first sign. She will start looking around for safe and warm places to give birth. This could be in the back of your wardrobe or under your bed or maybe the box you have carefully prepared for her.
Looking for a suitable nest usually happens an hour or two before her water breaks.
The next sign is when her water breaks. There is a reddish balloon shape that develops at here vagina and will eventually burst. This is not blood but amniotic fluid.
After that she will start having contractions. Then a head, foot or tail will appear. This is completely normal as kittens can come out anyway. DO NOT PULL at the kitten if you think it is stuck, just let mum do it naturally. Cats do not have the same birthing problems as dogs.
The time between contractions is usually 20 minutes so expect a kitten about every 20 mins. There can also be a long period between births. Our cat stopped after giving birth to 3 kittens then 8 hours later actually gave birth to the last one.
During the birth
First a kitten will come out followed by a blob of afterbirth. the kitten will be attached to this afterbirth by an umbilical cord. Mum will usually bite the umbilical cord and eat the afterbirth. You may want to remove the afterbirth if it starts getting in the way. You can cut the umbilical cord yourself with sterilised scissors if mum doesn’t do it. Be careful though umbilical cord and a newborn tails can look surprisingly similar.
After mum has given birth remove all the wet towels and afterbirth and make her place warm and dry. Mum will take over now.
