Sorry, shamelessly cross-posted on another forum, as I am unsure what to do and know there are 'cat people' here.

A very small cat has been hanging around mine and my neighbours house/garden a bit for a while. Not always there, but we see her often. Yesterday we were chatting at the front doro and the cat came along again. It had a collar on, which it hadn't previously, with it's name and address. (we live in an army camp, so everyone knows everyone, but neither of us knew who lived at the address).

Anyway, cat has always looked quite thin, and it seemed pretty obvious yesterday that it is pregnant. Well, we're as sure as we can be, neighbour previously worked in RSPCA kennels/cattery so knows a bit about these things, I know nothing about cats at all) but breed dogs. (I know cats are not dogs though!)

This morning cat was here again, and pinched a few dog biscuits I dropped on the floor while I was in the garage. I assume these are not good for her, so gave her half a tin of small tuna, which was all I had to give her and realise that is probably not that good either.

I'm just not sure what the ettiqutte int hese situations is. I know that some cats will go round and eat wherever and whatever they are fed, but this one seems thin to me. She seems too small aswell, so not sure if she is a kitten herself? I am not sure if they even realise she is pregnant. Do cats need certain food while pregant? Is there a risk of things going wrong like with dogs? I have to admit I am considering leaving my garage open a crack and feeding her in there so she has somewhere warm and safe to have her kittens, but she may have this at home and i feel a bit like it would be stealing someone elses cat.

What should I do? Any Advice much appreciated

Can't you just knock on the door jackson and ask the owners about their cat?

Cats are and always will be the biggest scroungers on the planet, they will eat at any home, and even leave a home if they get better food elsewhere. :-D  I would expect if she is on dry food at home, she will always be at your doorstep now as she has had some tuna, which I'm sure she loved.

I would think that your friend who worked with the RSPCA can tell that the cat is pregnant, and also whether young or not, so the owners are irresponsible if she is but a kitten herself, poor thing.

But, I honestly wouldn't be looking into feeding her or caring for her without speaking to the owners first, they may have everything in preparation you don't know and so you may be doing more harm than good.  If you speak to them and realise that the cat is not being cared for properly by all means be a good samaritan the cat needs a friend, but make sure first. :-)

A friend of mine had a tiny Moggy/domestic shorthair, she was about as big as a 6 month kitten, perfectly healthy and lived to 20 years!!!  Some cats are just small ;)

Ditto what's been said about feeding the cat, you could be accused of trying to entice her away from her owners ;) cats will often claim not to have been fed when they're actually getting plenty of food, ours did all the time and played myself and OH against each other - until we twigged!  Daughter has just been thru the same, couldn't understand why her 2 young cats had constant dire rear??  her OH was feeding them 3 x a day and so was she   the cats were acting as if they hadn't been fed at all LOL  Luckily she phoned me before going to the vet - sorted!

> A friend of mine had a tiny Moggy/domestic shorthair, she was about as big as a 6 month kitten, perfectly healthy and lived to 20 years!!!  Some cats are just small

My cat is small, she's 3 years old and people think shes a kitten.
She has always been very skinny, you could feel all her ribs very easily and she had no weight to her atall, untill recently she was spayed and has now started to feel like she gets fed at last!!

I would go and knock on thier door and say that the cat is visiting you and ask them if there is a posiblilty she is pregnant as some people are quite ignorant and cats do hide these things well , because if she is expecting and they dont keep her inside she will have the kittens ouside and they may well became ferral .

I had 5 cats until recently all getting old and sadly having to have them PTS, now we are down to two and a visitor who lived across the road from me but not cared for at all we eventually took him in he does visit his other owner occasionally (so she says) but they dont seem to care about him.
My other cats prefer to stay at home dont wander much except an occasional trip up the garden and back.

they love chicken, fish ,tuna, whiskas, felix and go cat dry you could give a drop of goats milk mixed with water but not too much.

One of my cats is 14yrs and still looks like a kitten!!

Do cats need certain food while pregant? Is there a risk of things going wrong like with dogs?

Yes they need an unlimited supply of kitten or queen food (i.e. high protein), not normal cat food. What happens with most moggies if not fed well enough etc is that most or some of the kittens will die, they will just be born too small and too weak and the mother may not have enough milk -but of course with people letting them out and the queen giving birth in hiding somewhere, the majority of owners will never even know there were more kittens that didn't make it... And then the mother will run out of milk much sooner than would be natural, and people will say "Oh she's stopped feeding the kittens, so they are old enough to cope on their own now" and that's how most moggies tend to end up being sold or given away at already 6 to 8 weeks, when a wellfed mother would continue to feed them for 12 weeks. :(

The actual birth is however less likely to go wrong with a moggy -obviously things CAN go wrong, but it is far less likely than with a dog or a pedigree cat.

Thanks. I have spoken to the owner. I told a white lie and said that I had thought she'd been a stray so had been feeding her but noticed she had a collar on yesterday. I apologised and said I would stop feeding her. They said it was fine to feed her if I wanted to.

I asked if she was spayed, they said no but they had been thinking about getting it done, so I said we had thought she was pregnant. She said they had suspected the same as well. They didn't know that she needed special food, so I said 'my friend' (hard to explain to people about internet forums!!!) breeds cats and had mentioned they need to be on special food, either kitten or queen food, or some of the kittens could be stillborn.

I wasn't planning on continuing to feed the cat, but then neighbour next door to the kitten owner has said that they have pets coming and going there all the time, and used to frequently just let their dogs out of the front door to exercise themselves instead of walking them, until people complained. The lady seemed very nice and friendly, but maybe just isn't that 'clued up', so as she didn't mind me feeding the cat, do you think it would be OK to feed her?

If it's a choice between ignoring a hungry pregnant female cat or feeding it so she remains in fairly good condition and her kittens do too, I would feed her.  In fact, if she has her kittens outside & you can locate them, I'd move them all indoors and remember she can get pregnant again very quickly after giving birth!

>neighbour next door to the kitten owner has said that they have pets coming and going there all the time

Some people like the pups/kittens well enough but as soon as they lose that cuteness they lose interest :(  

If what the neighbour said is true they are probably happy for you to feed her so you'll take her off their hands - again! - wonder how long before they get another pup/kitten? :( :( :(

Poor little thing, seems like she needs a little tender care

Ditto to Christine. :)

Well I will ditto as well to the three above.  With the caveat that you may find yourself the custodian (and dedicated loving owner?) of said small cat.  We had one, minus a portion of her tail, and not pregnant we hope, show up two weeks ago.  Seems the family next door will take her but cannot allow her in their rented house so OH has provided a cosy warm house for her outside and advice on spaying, feeding, fleas, rabies shots etc.  They've tried to find her owners, she is a correct weight, friendly and clean, so not a feral, but no one has claimed her.

Thanks. I have not seen the cat since I spoke to her owners, so maybe the thought of her having her kittens outside has urged them to keep her in. I hope so, and not that she has had them outside somewhere. I am pretty sure I felt movement when we looked at her a couple of days ago. How late on can that be felt?

Also, forgot to say, kitten/cat in question is 10 months old. Not sure how old cats are when they have their first litter normally?

Anytime after around seven months....cats can and do come into season at five months and can get pregnant while feeding the kittens. they carry their kittens for the same time a dog does puppies ie 63 days more or less.

yes, sorry. I meant when would they usually be bred from? eg. dogs have their first season at 6-12 motnhs usually, but my breed shouldn't be bred from until 2-3 years old.

Would people (ethical ones!) deliberateloy breed a litter at 7 months onwards?

I think most litters of kittens are accidental! Their seasons don't work in the same way as dogs', where they'll be out of season for months between. I think I'm right in saying that she'll keep coming into season every two or three weeks until she's mated.

Yes a cat can call very regularly and some of the Oriental breeds may never come off call until they are mated.     Normally they start at around 7 months of age - and before anyone says, mine started at 4 or 5 months...I have added 'normally', there will always be the exceptional to the rule.

Personally I woudn't mate a cate before she's 1 year old and given the chance to grow up herself.

I have slow maturing breeds and although some people mate them a one year, I prefer 18 months to 2 years myself. (But then mine often do not call until a year or older either.) Younger queens can cope, but often do not know what to do and so again some kittens are lost. It is a problem though as queens can come into call very early and if not mated will keep calling until eventually they do not come off call at all, lose condition from the stress and not eating etc. Much easier with bitches that just come into season twice a year, as opposed to queens calling every 3 weeks -if you're lucky. :)

You can normally feel kittens move from about 7 weeks onwards, sometimes not until later, it depends on how many kittens there are. If there are just one or two movements may not be felt until the 9th week.

Most kittens are born after 65 days, up to 70 is common and normal, 63 is the minimum, anything earlier than that is unlikely to live, again unlike bitches where you can have a litter after 57-58 days without any problems at all.

There is no rule as to the minimum age of a queen you can register kittens from nor how frequent litters can be had, number of litters, maximum age etc -but if the GCCF feels a pedigree queen is being bred form too often they will warn the breeder in question.

But of course, for the poor mogs, there are no rules at all.

Marianne,

You know I totally agree with you re: mating age but some SR females have been mated pre-one year old which I find hard to swallow.   Zelli (BSH) is 4 at the end of this month and is still not a mum - that's Jack's fault though, all mouth & no trousers!  ;-)

A queen I bred was mated at 10 months, I wasn't entirely happy about it but she is with an experienced breeder and I didn't feel I could say much about it -it was a done deed by the time I was told anyway. :(

Years ago I had the most beautiful cat. She was on a very strict prescription diet. We were so careful. Then she became so ill. We found out an old lady down the road was feeding her on pilchards and evaporated milk!!Because,she thought the cat was too thin.

I also have to tell you this at it made me giggle.

A few months ago a neighbour of mine came to my door with her kitten who she thought had "broken" its back, yes it was a queen, first season and calling like mad.