Newly adopted cat - potentially pregnant

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jwathas
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Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2021 2:54 am
No. of cats in household: 4
Location: Maine

Newly adopted cat - potentially pregnant

Post by jwathas »

Hi everyone,

I just found this forum in hopes of getting answers to some questions we have regarding our new Maine Coon girl that we just acquired this past weekend who we were told is pregnant. She is a gorgeous Maine Coon. We really don't know much of her back story. We were told that she is 14 months old and her previous owner could not keep her for unknown reasons. They said that a change in life circumstances required them to rehome her. So, here we are with this cat who we were told became pregnant either during the last week of February or first week of March. If that's the case, that would put her at right around 4-5 weeks along. Yes, we do have a vet appointment scheduled for her, but our vet can't get her in for another week; however, we are starting to question if she truly is pregnant. Neither my husband or I have any experience with pregnant cats whatsoever. We actually breed and show Golden Retrievers, but have never had a pregnant cat. Our other cats are all males and this is actually only the third female cat I've ever had in my life. I know that the cat's nipples should become a darker color a few weeks into the pregnancy; however, I just checked and hers are not dark at all. They are more of a normal, pale pink color and they do not seem to be enlarged at all. Is it too early for them to darken and enlarge? She is showing some other signs, though, that she may be pregnant. She repeatedly is licking her genital area and she is also EXTREMELY affectionate. From the minute we brought her home on Saturday, she has been loving on us almost nonstop. She also kneads on our hardwood and tile floors (never seen a cat knead a hard surface before). She is not eating very much at all, but that, of course, could be due to the fact that she is adjusting to a brand new environment. She will eat canned wet food and we are free feeding her dry kitten food since she is potentially pregnant, but she has barely touched the dry food at all. We can't really tell if she is "showing" because, being a Maine Coon, she is naturally a very large cat and she has a ton of fur, so it's hard to tell. Are there any other signs we can look for to confirm her pregnancy? We had really hoped to get her in with our vet this week, but they don't have any openings until next week, so for now we are stuck wondering if she really is pregnant.

Any advice/tips would be greatly appreciated!
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fjm
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Re: Newly adopted cat - potentially pregnant

Post by fjm »

By 5 weeks pregnancy was pretty obvious on my siamese, but she was a small, slim, short coated siamese - a Maine Coon is very different. I think you may need to wait for the vet to do a scan to be sure one way or the other, but as you obviously know, erring on the side of caution and treating her as if she is in kitten for the next week won't harm; on the other hand if she is not she may well be back in heat by now! Is she vocal as well as very affectionate? Writhing and rolling on the floor as well as kneading? I would keep an open mind, keep her well away from any entire males just in case, and decide whether to spay ASAP if she proves not to be pregnant this time around. Keeping an entire female cat from getting pregnant is not easy - with dogs you just need to be watchful twice a year, but cats call (often very loudly) every five weeks or so, and if they don't mate calling often gets more and more frequent till they do...
jwathas
New Cat Chatter
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2021 2:54 am
No. of cats in household: 4
Location: Maine

Re: Newly adopted cat - potentially pregnant

Post by jwathas »

She's not really vocal at all, but she is definitely rolling around on the floor and kneading and purring a lot. She is also very playful and mischievous. Our 3 males are all neutered and she doesn't go outside, so no worries there. She does feel heavy when we pick her up, but then again she's a large Maine Coon, so that may just be her normal size. It's so hard to tell if her stomach is bulging because of her extremely thick, long coat. She's not eating very much, hasn't even touched any of her dry food since we brought her home, but she does eat some wet food. We hope she is pregnant because we are really looking forward to kittens, as are a couple of our friends who want kittens. I was just a bit discouraged when I saw that her nipples didn't look dark or swollen. We can definitely feel and see her nipples (once we dig through her fur), though, so maybe she is. Hopefully she does have some babies on board!
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