There's been a definite increase in Indigo's appetite this week. Lots of moaning at me for food, and now I know that she's pregnant, I'm not sure the best way to proceed with the eating plan. Oddly enough, the internet isn't being terribly helpful on the subject of feeding guides for obese pregnant Mama-cats. Feeding set meals, and not too much does seem to suit Indigo better though, given she's only had one episode of sickness, unusual for Indigo who is a bit prone.
In humans, if an obese woman is pregnant, the advice is for her to strive not to put anything on over the course of the pregnancy. If she starts at 100kg, she's apparently supposed to end there too, bump and all. In cats, a pregnancy will typically add 1-1.5kgs to a Mama cat, depending on litter size, which is a far greater proportion of her original weight than in a human. So that advice isn't too helpful in terms of cats but one can adopt the vague principle, I guess, and try and prevent her from gaining too much, so she's drawing slightly on her natural reserves... but without compromising the kittens' growth. At least until a couple of weeks from the end when she can eat as much and as often as she darn well likes as far as I am concerned.
So far, breakfast and dinner have been big meals and lunch has been a smaller one. I've divided breakfast into two smaller meals, moved lunch back a bit to sort of mid afternoon and added a few biscuits at teatime- five meals as opposed to three- and that seems to be satisfying her for the moment, and total weight gain is about 100g at four weeks, which is quite acceptable. Lucy is staying pretty much the same so the 'extra' food isn't affecting her, I can only think that Mama is eating a slightly larger proportion at meal times so it is balancing itself out.
All this canned food has had a somewhat annoying side effect. Theo has refused to eat his own can of highly processed special glop, and really I don't blame him, horrid stuff it is! He has been giving me the sad eyes at every meal time. Oh, the sad eyes... makes me feel so guilty! At his last vet visit I got the go ahead to try him on those dinky little cans of pure fish, fish broth and nothing else, Applaws I think, anyway they are about a pound per tiny tiny tin at the pet shop so I'm going to have to find a cheaper supplier. But he loves them, so is still getting his evening treat.
We are using the fish ones because Theo has had virtually no exposure to fish protein food as Sofia isn't keen, so is less likely to show an allergic response, and also fish is naturally less allergenic for some reason. The idea is to try each one for the best part of a week and if there's been no poorly tummy, that food can be considered pretty safe. So far tuna is fine, and we are currently on sardine and mackerel.
More expense... but one happy boy again, and at least with this one I can buy it from the local pet shop in an emergency, it doesn't have to be specially ordered!
****
Lucy: 3.81g
Indie: 5.08g
We've been using Grau grain free food this week, various flavours, and I have to say, it's not top of the list. It's a really good quality one, looks and smells pretty good and the cats will clear the plate, but it has this horrid habit of spraying you with meat juices when you open the can. Nothing wrong with it, all perfectly fresh, it's the way it is processed. But yeah... it's not all that pleasant if you are like me and invariably forget to hold a paper towel over the can when opening. Urgh!
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