Mary Allen
A nursing cat needs a special diet – after all, her body is under extreme stress during this time, as it has to produce enough milk for its hungry kittens.
If you want to support your lactating cat during this special phase of life, you must provide the mother cat with the right nutrition. Cats that provide their young with milk naturally have a particularly high energy requirement during this time. Depending on the size of the litter, this can increase by a factor of three or four in the first few weeks of the suckling period – of course, you should adapt to these changing needs when feeding your velvet paw.
Energy for the Nursing Cat
During the strenuous suckling period, the cat should always have enough food available that it can fetch as needed. However, if the cat does not eat everything, you must regularly remove the remains from the bowl so that nothing spoils there. Since the need for liquid also increases – after all, the nursing cat has to keep producing new milk – fresh drinking water must be always available.
To give the cat a lot of energy, you should choose food that is low in carbohydrates but high in protein. A high energy density – recognizable by the number of calories – ensures that your cat does not fall off the meat during the suckling period.
Change Your Cat Diet Slowly
If the kittens begin to eat food other than mother’s milk, you can slowly change the diet again and reduce the amount of food the mother cat eats. However, you should keep an eye on the weight of the nursing cat. If she has lost a lot of weight during the suckling period, she can feast on rich feed until she has reached her normal weight again.