My tiny 'male' cat is about to become a mother

[Themasterandmargaritas]

Not having planned to raise a litter of kittens, what must I do to help her? Where shall I put her? How long will the kittens have to stay with her?

Thanks for all your comments.

Shall I keep you all updated? I could do a kitten birth announcement.

by the way- what have you re-christened her?

And on a serious note peeps - please get cats neutered as soon as they are old enough, not sure what the situation is like in Kenya but in the UK us charities are over run - anyone near Blackpool looking for a kitten or cat????

Oh, please do! There are a few people on Mumsnet with experience too if you have any other questions. I can bore you to death with my other tips (like weighing newborn kittens every day)!

Shelters in London are bursting at the seams too, Bubblerock! I've been volunteering for years now and have never seen them as busy as they are now.

ooh i love kitten births!! my two are both neutered though so sadly i won't be a kitten mummy. i remember seeing my first kitten birth as a child. fascinating!!! in a cardboard box between our sofa and armchair.

It's crazy isn't it? I still need to find a home for one kitten here as their home fell through - probably found one in the paper or online instead :-( He's adorable as well not that I am keeping him!!!! (repeat - I am not keeping him )

I had the same thing with my male cat! If you can see the kittens wriggling inside I'd say she may soon be giving birth. I just put a large cardboard box with newspaper and towel in. She showed no interest in it but did give birth there in the end. I had no idea what to do with her but she just managed on her own, giving birth to 7 with 6 surviving. A few days later she and the kittens disappeared and I found them all in the wardrobe - she'd carried them all there. I think I had to change the newspaper a few times as it got quite messy but otherwise it was just left up to her. When she felt it was time to wean she even went out and stole a steak that was defrosting in my neighbours kitchen!

Vets and cats, what is with them?

My dsis young floozy kitten got up the duff taken by surprise by the neighborhood stallion tomcat (from a slutty contraceptive deficient family as granny is only just 2 all girls knocked up and given birth by 9 months ) and even though dsis was insistent that her floozy little girl was up the duff the vet claimed it wasn't a possibility as she was too young. It was only when kitten had given birth that the vet believed them!

All those years of vet school.

bubblerock you aren't by any chance in nortehrn ireland?

BTW - am most pleased that she did as we now have out little killer boy, who is very definitely a boy! (And off to make sure he can't become a premature father.....)

Nope, Blackpool - think there are cheap flights though! lol

Could put him on a little raft and push him in your direction

ok, I'll wave a torch around so you know where you're aiming for.

I've not read the other posts yet, but Can i please just say,

please please don't feed your cat milk as suggested by another poster.

Cat's are lactose intolerant and it will give her a poorly tummy and possibly the runs, last thing she needs if she's having kittens.

You say you are going away for a week - what plans do you have for your cat whilst you are away?

Dont' worry failsafe, my cat has never had milk, only water.

Yesbut, she will be taken care of royally by our gardener whilst we are away. We are all primed and ready and waiting for her to deliver her babies.

Very that a vet could get a cat's gender wrong. I know guinea pigs are tricky but you only have to look between a cat's legs (easy to do with that tail in the air) to see whether it's male or female! My boy was neutered at 6 months but you can still tell he is (or was) male.

What will you do if she gives birth just before you go away? I wouldn't be able to leave her - after all she's just a kitten herself.

I thought I'd better give you an update.

Unfortunately we have terrible terrible news. Our poor wee kitty got attacked whilst we were away and even though our neighbour took her to the vet straight away, she died of internal bleeding. We think it was a neighbour's dog and she wasn't fast enough on her feet to get away because of her pregnancy.

The dc are very sad, but I'm the one who is really missing her the most.

so so for you. really terrible news. i hope your dcs are ok.

Oh how sad So, so sorry to read that sad ending.

The dc are being typical dc, they are sad for a little while then ask if it's possible to get another one.

I miss her cuddles and she always greeted me first thing in the morning.

I shouldn't have been so flippant about the whole thing. Lesson learned.

Oh there's no lesson to be learned. Your flippancy is in no way related to what's happened. Do you remember when it happened to dejags? Same thing, local dog.

I'm sorry. It's funny the way they wriggle their way into your affections. Clever buggers.

I've only just seen this and just wanted to say how sorry I am to hear about your poor little cat.