How do I stop the mother cat from eating all the kitten food?

Question

I recently rescued a pregnant cat from an unsafe home, and she safely and successfully delivered 5 beautiful kittens. I'm sure that they are ready to be weaned now, since I've done tons of research and apparently they should be around 6+ weeks to start on solids. For about a week now, I've been leaving moist kitten food beside their box, for the mother and kittens to eat. The whole problem is, the mother keeps eating all of the food at once, and its becoming very expensive to keep a constant flow of food in case the kittens want to try it out. Please post if you are experienced with kittens, I would love the help.

P.S. Please no sarcastic replies, or posts telling me how I am a bad pet owner because my cat isn't spayed and I allowed it to get pregnant. She is spayed now and up to date on shots. The kittens are de-wormed and will have their shots ASAP. Thank you.

Answer 1

To be honest... i'd let her eat the kitten food right now... since the kittens are still fairly young... she could use the extra nutrients.

But like above.... maybe put the food down and take mommy for some one on one time... for about 20 or so minutes and then put her back in there... i'd get the dry kitten food.... it will strengthen their teeth.

Answer 2

There is nothing wrong with an adult eating kitten food if that is what you are feeding.

it would be better for the cats and especially the kittens if you would start feeding species appropriate food for all of them





Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health

Contrary to what you may have heard; dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.

Please read the label on what you are feeding? What are the ingredients? Do you know what they mean? Is the first ingrdiant a muscle meat like chicken or meal or other things?

http://www.catinfo.org/#Learn_How_To_Rea...

http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04...

Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i’s and a host of other problems. Food allergies are very common when feeding dry foods. Rashes, scabs behind the tail and on the chin are all symptoms

The problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with grains and carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process.  Also, Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food but in

Dry, 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and don't use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.

http://www.catinfo.org/#My_Cat_is_Doing_...

You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn't have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all.    The best food for cats does not contain any grains at all.

Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies  whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods. I would rather feed a middle grade canned food then the top of the line dry food.

Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Does a hard pretzel clean your teeth or do pieces of it get stuck? http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bp...

Please read about cat nutrition.

                               http://www.newdestiny.us/nutritionbasics...

                               http://www.catinfo.org/feline_obesity.ht...

      http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.ht...

Vetinarian diets  The reason your vet thinks so highly of the pet food they sell probably has more to do with money than nutrition. In vet school, the only classes offered on nutrition usually last a few weeks, and are taught by representatives from the pet food companies. Vet students may also receive free food for their own dogs and cats at home. They could get an Iams notebook, a Purina purse and some free pizza.  http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04...

Answer 3

It's ideal for her to be eating kitten food since she's still nursing but I agree that separating them is probably the best idea until they can figure out eating.

Maybe pull her away entirely then work with the kittens to get them going. You can put a little food on your finger and offer it that way or put a little near their mouths and when they l**k it off they should start to understand that it's tasty.  Then once they get going with it they should be able to hold their own with mom.  But it would still be good if she got her own bowl.

We found a stray girl and once her babies worked out wet food they were so motivated that she had trouble sneaking some of theirs for herself. She had her own bowl, but the kittens eventually began to swarm that too.  

Good luck!

Answer 4

Put the kittens in a small room by themselves when you feed them - without mother around.  That should solve the problem :)

Answer 5

Separate the mother from the kittens during feeding time. Do you have a cage you can put the mother in while you feed the kittens or put her in a separate room.

Answer 6

Sepperate them during eating or watch them when it comes to meal time.

Answer 7

Try separating the kittens from the mother for a designated feeding time. Allow them to eat until they all stop, and the return them to mother.