bathing the mother cat

Question
Dear Tabbi,  this is my cats 2nd bunch she is a resue cat. When I got her the first time she was pregnant had them June,2008. She ran out at the end of Dec.08 now having them last night 3/08. The mother is very dirty on her bottom and has not cleaned herself fully is there anything i can do? And am i allowed to move the kittens around to change the cover they were on? I am very new to this even though i have been through this i dont like being responsible for the lives of ones sooo little. I keep petting the mother cat as you suggested and showing her lots of attention. But she sems like she is sad for some reason. Is there anything else I can do to make her at ease? please help ~TUNISHA~

Answer
Tunisha,

I would NOT bathe the mother. She will clean up but she is probably tired from having the babies right now. You can change the bedding,  but do it quickly or the mother will get nervous.

You don't really have to do anything. Make sure she is in a large enough box or where ever she is so she doesn't lay on a kitten. Don't be concerned if she moves them. The mothers usually move them at least once. Basically leave her alone to bond with the kittens for the first week.

Also feed her 3 times as much as she normally will eat because it takes alot out of her having the kittens and she needs a LOT of food to produce the quality and quantity of milk needed for the babies.

She can come back into heat from 2-14 days after having kittens! So don't let her out. And please get her spayed as soon as the babies are weaned (8 weeks).

Tabbi