What to Do When Kittens Are Born

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Dr. Marcia Martin and we're here at Safe Harbor Animal Rescue in Jupiter, Florida and today we're going to talk a little bit about what to do when kittens are born. If you're lucky, you won't have to do anything because cats are pretty self-sufficient when it comes to delivering kittens. They can have lefts, less problems with delivery than dogs do, so hopefully you'll just get to sit by and watch, but there's one things you do want to do is make sure that you have a nice nesting box set up so so the mom has a comfortable place to deliver the kittens. Now, even the best of intentions with a nesting box, she'll probably find the middle of your bed and have the kitten there anyways. But it's still good to have a nesting box set out hoping that mom will choose to have the kittens in the next, nesting box. But at about sixty-two days of gestation is when they go into labor. You may notice mom being a little fidgety, nervous, pacing, not wanting to eat, those are all kind of the pre-labor signs that mom's getting ready to have these kittens. So once she actually lays down and starts pushing, the kittens should move along pretty quickly. Once a kitten is born, you need to be sure that mom is cleaning off the, the, the membranes, cleans the membranes off of the face and that the kitten is breathing. You also need to be sure that a placenta is passed with each kitten because if mom keeps a placenta in the uterus, that can lead to septicemia and severe complications for mom and emergency surgery and hospitalization will be necessary, so you need to count those placentas if you're there watching mom. Make sure that she's, that the kittens are thriving. Once they come out and once they're clean, they should start moving around, maybe even mewling just a bit and actively seeking out a nipple to attach to so that they can eat. The mom should be helping them with this. She should be nudging them in the right direction and she should be actively cleaning. If if mom goes more than an hour between kittens, you probably need to go ahead and call your vet and see if they want you to come in for an exam because longer than that is abnormal and one of the kittens may be stuck or need help coming out. A mom may just get tired after a while, that happens too. So you need to definitely check with your vet and good prenatal care is hugely important. Check with your vet before the kittens get there to make sure the mom's getting adequate nutrition, that you're pretty sure what you're going to do when these babies get there. You may even want to do an x-ray before to be sure, to to get some idea of how many kitten's mom's going to have so that you know if they're all out and when it's time to relax and just let it be, so that's a little bit about what to do when kittens are born, but definitely check with your vet if your cat's pregnant and do your research because you need to be ready when this happens."