Mum of 7 week old kittens has gone psycho - is this normal???

[Monty100]

Her 4 kittens are now seven weeks. She's crying constantly for food, any movement she's there. She's raided the fridge three times now, jumps up the minute it's opened and grabs! She does not stop eating. What is going on???

She's had dd's chicken breast from the fridge the other day and snatched some chicken off dd's plate and ds's plate on different occasions
She's had a packet of bacon from the fridge this morning
And now she's ruined our dinner by nicking two peri peri chickens breasts out of the fridge (uncooked) Grrrr!

Is this normal? She's beginning to grate on my nerves. You can go off cats you know. I'll be threatening her with the wheeliebin woman in a minute.

Yes, noticed it with a friend's cat. Sounds like you need to be giving her plenty of good quality protein (not much in the tinned stuff).

I guess we'd be the same if we were breastfeeding 4 babies at the same time.

Wow, I'm impressed at her fridge-raiding skills!

I have an old male cat who's also always hanging around whinging for food - he always has food available but wants tastier stuff. It is very annoying I agree but I think you need to cut your girl cat some slack, she probably needs more food because of feeding the kittens, as devil says.

Thanks for answers :) .

She wolfs down everything we put in front of her. Tin after tin, several a day. Whiskas, felix, she can't seem to get enough food. I empathise with the feeding of the kittens, but the raiding the fridge and dc's dinners ............

I still don't know how she's getting in that fridge.

Nursing cats need free access to food I've heard.

Does she have access to water too? I know cats take most of their water from food and ours rarely want water but sometimes our cats will be going mad, clawing at the fridge, eating toilet roll, biting anything vaguely soft in the hope it's food and actually they're thirsty. Give them water and they drink a gallon and they're happy again.

HB - seems like it!

SOH - I'll try that. I'm introducing them to a formula milk to try and wean the kittens now, will put water down as well.Ty

She will need extra food with kittens, you need to keep a good quality complete dry food out for at all times - such as Science Diet, and make sure she has fresh water all the time. You should have her checked over at the vets too to make sure she is ok. The kittens should be weaned by now too, so make sure you are providing them enough food and that weaning is properly happening, the kittens should be having a powder formula that you can buy from a pet shop or vets, and slightly warm this and encourage mum cat to have some too, to give her a bit if a boost. Try mashing up a bit of tuna in it to keep it exciting, and make sure the kittens are getting solid food too and not going back to mum all the time.

Hi Merlin - yep I'm using formula now and there is food constantly available, wet and dry food. The kittens are still feeding from her a little bit. I've also put water down and she turned her nose up at it but I left it there anyway.

Nice one, try a bit of tuna in spring water for her, and try her with a bit of the formula too, make sure she gets lots of healthy food - vet type food instead of whiskas, and she should hopefully settle down soon, but if she us still like it in a couple of weeks then might be worth getting her a once over as it does take a lot out of them and there could be kidney problems or diabetes or thyroid etc.

Thanks again.

Would I be going over the top if I defrosted a salmon steak for her?

I feel bad, I've been giving her whiskas/felix etc and she does go barmy when she smells chicken.

Anything fresh and healthy would be great for her, roast chicken, prawns, White fish etc are all really good and will keep her strength up.

OK I did her a salmon steak (and there's another three in the fridge for her now). No parsley garnish though .

She was miaowing really loudly and now the kittens are tucking in too.