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Q.: Our cat has had one kitten today. We are sure there are no more on the way.
It hasn't been gaining wight, and its nipples haven't grown noticeably larger. Almost eight weeks ago we saw it mating, but we didn't reckon it was pregnant.
It is as if its body isn't ready for having given birth. It hasn't lost fur around the nipples, so the kitten has difficulties finding them, so we have been helping it out.
But it's taken up its mother role, for it hasn't left its kitten, and it's about three hours since it was born. It came as a bit of a surprise since we had the impression that a cat was pregnant for nine weeks (and we had no idea it was pregnant!) Should we continue helping it out?
A.: It may well have been nine weeks. A female cat does not limit itself to the one mating that makes her pregnant, but will go on until either its heat comes to an end, or (more often) the male is worn out. This is why it is far from certain that the mating you saw was the first one. And it's probably not the only one either ...
I don't think you need to worry so much about the kitten. Since it can neither see nor hear, it works almost like a heat-seeking missile and usually finds a nipples under even the most difficult circumstances. Furthermore it has no siblings to compete with.
It is usually a good sign that the mother stays a lot with the kitten. If something is wrong with the kitten, the mother usually knows and refuses to take care of it.
You can follow the kitten and its condition by weighing it every day. A rule of thumb says a kitten should gain its weight of birth every week; so if it weighed around 90 grams at birth, for example, it should gain 12-13 gr. a day. It is not sure it gains during the first 24 hours, however, instead it may "eat into" a glycogen depot which it was born with.
You can read more about kittens' first three weeks here.
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