How To Tell If A Stray Cat Is Pregnant
If you decide to feed a stray cat pay attention to how often she begs for food.
How to tell if a stray cat is pregnant. If she is friendly and you can pet her. You can tell a stray cat is pregnant by recognizing the most obvious physical indicators a swollen belly and darkened nipples. The issue goes deeper than a matter of feeding a homeless cat. Enlargement of the queens nipples is one of the first visible signs of pregnancy.
To tell if a cat is pregnant check her for enlarged nipples. They become visible from under the fur even from a distance when the cat lies on her back. You should be seeing some movement in her belly a few weeks to a month before birth. Cats already sleep excessively compared to other animals but a pregnant cat will sleep even more.
Hand in hand with increased eating is more sleep. There is nothing to worry about if kittens begin appearing 30 to 40 minutes after contractions start. Typically you know when a stray cat is pregnant by her belly getting larger. Because a female cat can become pregnant as young as 16 weeks of age and go on to have two or three litters a year the feral cat population and the problems associated with it grows and perpetuates.
If she begs a lot eats it all and starts putting on weight in the abdomen you may have a pregnancy on your hands. This event starts from around 15 to 18 days of pregnancy. If your cat was recently in heat and had access to an intact unneutered male cat theres a chance that she is pregnant. If mama appears to be in distress for more than 40 minutes without a kitten appearing there may be a problem.
Unfixed animals contribute to overpopulation and feral cats and kittens typically live brief lives of danger and suffering. In seven years a single female cat and her kittens can produce 420000 more cats. This is the time to call the vet and ask for advice. A pregnant queen will display both physical and personality changes that will become more evident around three weeks after breeding.
Starting at about 15 18 days into the pregnancy the cats nipples will become pink or red and enlarged. This is known as pinking up because the nipples takes on a pink colour. A telltale sign in behavior is that pregnant cats start nesting towards the end of their pregnancies in an effort to find a safe quiet place to give birth.