or maybe she's just getting fat? really fast? :S I just got two beautiful twin girls! they are about 4 years old, in great health, except one is getting fat... I've had them for three weeks, and the one is like double the size! in the belly region, lol my friend says the cat has chosen her "nesting" spot... sooo..how long do cats stay pregnant? the other problem is, the pregnant cat, is the shy cat, that doesn't really like me she will let me pet her, well she let me pet her today for the first time :S I know I can't touch the babies... but :S do I do anything? or what? I'm so lost!
Cats are pregnant roughly 9 weeks. You may be seeing babies before you know it if she is showing a significantly bigger belly than when you 1st got her. If I understood correctly, you have only had the cats about 3 weeks? Since the cats are not young (4 years old), I would bet the only reason the female is being stand-offish is because she is just getting to know you...and it is quite possible that the longer she is there, just one day she'll come up and start loving you like it was always that way! Some cats adjust well to different people and places, but many are quite put off. She just needs a bit more time is my thought on that. To get her affections...don't push yourself on her, but do be in the same room with her as much as you can and softly pet her while she eats, if it doesn't make her leave the food. Over the years, I found that cats (like most animals) respond quite well to low, soft talking...I have talked several cats down out of trees over the years. My cats now are just as happy with me talking actual words as the nonsense syllables and sounds that I find myself lapsing into when we "talk". :sunny: Good luck, and let us know what happens.
I also meant to add that she will need to eat the placenta after she has the babies (yeah, I know gross...but, still, that's the way it is.) And - I have made up a "birthing nest" from a box with one side cut out with a couple of old soft towels and showed the pregnant cat this. I promise the 2 times I did this, the females had the kittens there in those boxes both times.
I don't know if this applies to cats like it does dogs, but our vet told us not to let our dauchsipoo eat the placenta because all it really does is give the bitch diarrhea for a few days.
The female cats we've had always ate that afterbirth (yuck!) and they never experienced diarrhea or any ill side effects I could tell. Oh, there was one female cat that didn't eat it...and she wasn't interested in nursing her kittens or having a thing to do with them! Don't know what that was about....except that I've seen that (more than one) female animals don't always have maternal instincts. Like humans, some animal females should simply NOT have babies.
Congratulations? Not much you can do at this point, all that can be done already has been by someone/something else. May as well enjoy the kittens.
Make sure you socialize the kittens properly, ideally of course by socializing the mother before they're born, but if not, screw her kitty custody, don't let her make them wild.
