Probably, every cat owner has a question sooner or later, how their offspring will bring offspring. A cat that walks by itself, this problem is not so acute: it is likely to cope with childbirth and without the help of a person. The situation is different with the birth of a cat who lives in your home on the couch.
If your cat is preparing to become a mommy, you need to know how the process of childbirth takes place in a cat and how you can help her at this time. And many inexperienced owners are interested in how many kittens give birth to a British or, for example, a Siamese cat for the first time.
About the onset of labor can signal a decrease in body temperature of the cat, which begins about a day before the event. The normal temperature in a cat is 38.5 ° C, and before the onset of labor it drops to 37 or even 36.6 ° C.
The birth of the cat takes place in three stages. At the beginning, the uterus begins to contract and her neck opens. The second stage is the actual birth of the kitten. The muscles of the abdominal cavity of the cat contract and push the kitten out of the womb of the mother.
Most often it is born in the amniotic fluid that the cat takes off and then lick the baby. In the third period comes the placenta, and the cat, as soon as the kitten began to breathe on its own, bites the umbilical cord and eats the placenta. Mom pushes the kitten to the nipple, and she can rest. This period lasts from 30 minutes to 4 hours, after which the cat resumes labor and the same is born of other kittens. However, often this period of rest may not be, and kittens can give birth immediately one after another.
It is important to ensure that the number of placentas released strictly corresponds to the number of born kittens, since the remaining placenta in the uterus will cause a serious cat disease.
Often a cat can have so-called interrupted deliveries, when a considerable time can pass between the appearance of two kittens.
How do I know how many kittens a cat gives birth?
To know how many kittens can give birth to a cat, experts recommend that a week before birth give an ultrasound examination of a cat. Then you probably will know the expected number of offspring, and be able to orient in the calculation if the cat has a break in childbirth.
At first giving birth to a cat one kitten may be born, and maybe 2-3. It depends on the breed of the cat, on the state of health, as well as on the characteristics of its body.