HELP! How much should I be feeding Mama cat?

I'm doing all sorts of research online, and I'm hitting a lot of dead ends

I will call the vet tomorrow to ask, but until then--do any of you have any idea how much we should be feeding her? We leave Kitten Chow out for her to eat as she wants, but she barely touches it. She wants canned food all the time. We feed her 1/2 can in morning, 1/2 in the afternoon, and then another whole can at night. And she STILL seems like she's starving!

I know she's nursing 7 kittens and I really don't want to starve her--but I also don't want to make her sick.

Re: HELP! How much should I be feeding Mama cat?

Not sure, but I would think since she's nursing, she should eat as much as she wants? I can't imagine her eating till she gets sick. See what the vet says, JMO.

Re: HELP! How much should I be feeding Mama cat?

we had to ween(sp?) my cat off the wet food for medical reasons (plus it smells, ew) so we just kept dry food in a bowl, always full and she eats when she wants.

If you want to keep feeding her the wet, i think we were told it was half a can twice a day ( so 1 full can a day basically) but I am not sure since she is nursing if she is supposed to get more so def see what the vet says

Re: HELP! How much should I be feeding Mama cat?

With that many kittens, she definitely needs as much as she will eat. She can also give her kitten milk replacer and canned food.
She'll want to keep an eye on the kittens, and make sure they're all getting enough to eat.
With that many, she may end up needing to seperate them into two groups (usually best to seperate the smaller from the larger, or by sex), and rotate them out every 2 hours or so during the day, and leave them all together at night, to insure everyone has a chance to eat enough.
She may also need to supplement some with bottle feeding, so make sure she has stuff for that handy.

hth

Message edited 7/12/2008 12:19:00 PM.

Re: HELP! How much should I be feeding Mama cat?

Re: HELP! How much should I be feeding Mama cat?

1 full can 4 x daily plus dry and water. Adult food is the norm unless the mother cat is extremely thin/emaciated, then opt for kitten, otherwise it is not necessary. Adult food will give her all the nutrients she needs and the kittens will get all the nutrients they need from her milk.

Message edited 7/12/2008 2:21:58 PM.

Re: HELP! How much should I be feeding Mama cat?

Re: HELP! How much should I be feeding Mama cat?

Posted by MrsRivera

Posted by Fourleggedfriend

1 full can 4 x daily plus dry and water. Adult food is the norm unless the mother cat is extremely thin/emaciated, then opt for kitten, otherwise it is not necessary. Adult food will give her all the nutrients she needs and the kittens will get all the nutrients they need from her milk.

WOW...4 cans a day? We're trying her on 3 today. So far so good--she ate a full can at 11am, and another one just now at 4:30. We'll feed her again around 8:30. We just can't believe how much she eats!

We are pleasantly surprised to see that all of the kittens are well-fed. We have the bottles and milk replacer, and are prepared to supplement if needed, but the vet told us that we only really need to do so if the kittens are crying after feeding--and none of them do! She feeds them all at once! (7 kittens and 8 teats...can you imagine??? ) We are so proud of her!

Re: HELP! How much should I be feeding Mama cat?

Doubt you will need the supplement, that is usually when mother will not nurse or she is sickly.