Nutrition for Every Stage

During a cat's life, their nutritional needs vary and every stage requires specific feedings.

The essential stages to verify the nourishment of the cat are:   

• Gestation and lactation
• Growth
• Maintenance in adults
• Geriatric

Gestation and lactation
During the gestation, food consumption of cats start increasing rapidly. Since cats gain weight, their nutritional needs increase to be able to support it. This way, the consumption of food and energy grow during the gestation and the energy consumption is also related to changes in the corporal weight.

It is possible to use a free access method of nourishment. This means the owner will have to give more food than when it wasn't gestating and it will only eat the amount it needs. During this stage, an animal is more vulnerable to any deficiency or excess of nutrients, so the diet must be controlled. For example, be careful with the portion of calcium – phosphorus since the first stage of the osseous development happens in the uterus.  

Once finished the gestation period, the cat will receive between a 25 to 50% of extra food. The increase of weight gain must be checked, so the cat does not become obese. Take advantage of this free access nourishment: it is the best way to provide a suitable nutrition and most cats adapt very well to this.

During the period of lactation we will see the major proof of nutritional adequacy of cats. On one hand, cats must obtain nutrients for her and her baby, and on the other hand, the kittens should get used to breast milk.

The kittens can be born in litters of 8 (and even more)and their weight varies from 85 to 120g. These quantities vary depending on the breed and diet, but apparently not the corporal weight of the cat.

During the first weeks, the kittens grow fast and depend complete on breast milk. Therefore the energetic requirement of the female is bigger in the lactation that in the gestation. The cat supports an elevated requirement of energy until weaning finalizes, even when the kittens start eating solid food at four weeks of age.   

The energetic requirements of the nursing cat depend on the number of kittens that is nursing and their age, since both factors affect the quantity of milk that it needs to produce. When the cat gives birth, it looses around 40% of their corporal weight, mostly with the kittens; and during an average of eight weeks of lactation , reduces weight until it reaches her normal weight again.