What food should I feed my underweight nursing cat to gain weight?

Feeding a kitten formulation to Twilight can help make sure she gets enough food for herself and enough to produce milk for her kittens. Science Diet, Eukanuba and Purina all have great kitten foods that you can use.

Habia should be eating a high quality kitten formulated food. That's because she needs higher amounts of calories, protein, and calcium because she is nursing kittens, and a kitten formulated food will provide that for her. I would leave food out for her at all times and not worry about a specific amount.

Yes please continue to feed Icy a good quality dry cat food and you may add some all meat wet food twice daily. There is no specific protein requirement as all quality dry foods have enough, and adding canned food will increase her protein intake also. I like to leave the dry food out all the time so she can free feed. She will need extra calories to have enough milk for the kittens. Once the kittens are three weeks old I start offering them kitten canned food, teaching them to eat by putting a little on your finger and having them lick it off. You also can soak kitten dry food until soft and try them on that. The sooner they start eating on their own the less it will strain Icy to feed them. Enjoy her babies, kittens are fun to see grow up. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you get answers to your veterinary questions.

I would feed her wet/canned kitten food during the last three weeks of pregnancy so she hass enough nutrition for making her babies grow properly. Oncee she has given birth you can keep feeding her the kitten food, so there will be an easy transition when the kittens will start to eat solid food at around 6 weeks. Find homes for them now, but do not give them away before they are 12 weeks old, as they will still need mama to teach them to be good kitties, to hunt, what is safe, what is not, etc. They will also need their siblings to play and play hunt and get coordination.

It is normal for a nursing queen to require more calories and I typically recommend feeding kitten food that is higher in calories. It's also possible that she contracted intestinal parasites when she got outdoors, or even that she has another disease like diabetes. I would recommend taking her to a veterinarian. She could be examined, and you may want to discuss vaccinating her and the kittens as well - when cats escape once sometimes it happens again and it would be safest to have her vaccinated.

If you are not giving a vitamin and mineral supplement, I would recommend going to www. balanceit.com to formulate an adequate diet and to purchase a supplement of vitamins and minerals. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

At six months of age, Ritsu is way past the point of needing to nurse from his mother, and I would not encourage that behavior by giving him kitten milk replacement. It can take some kittens up to eight weeks of age to fully wean, and that's normal. He may be trying to nurse off of her for comfort, but it is concerning he's having trouble gaining weight. First thing to do is to make sure he's eating a high quality kitten formulated food, such as Hills Science diet or Royal Canin. You can try soaking the dry food in gently warmed low sodium chicken or beef broth, or tuna juice to tempt him to eat the dry food. If that works, then slowly reduce the amount of liquid you soak his food in until he's eating the dry only. Also make sure he is up to date on his deworming treatments, as intestinal worms will prevent him from gaining weight. Finally, I would have him seen by a vet for a health check. The vet can identify if there is a medical issues causing him to gain weight, such as an inability to digest nutrients properly, and can discuss treatment with you. I hope this helps :-)