American Curl Cat

　　Pregnant mother cats need a large amount of food to provide for the growth and development of the fetuses inside their abdomen.

　　Unlike other pregnant animals, mother cats significantly increase their food intake and gain weight within one week after successful mating. Other animals mainly gain weight during the last quarter of pregnancy. Mother cats do this because they need to store energy within their bodies to support pregnancy and lactation. Eating during pregnancy and lactation alone cannot meet this demand. In the last two weeks of the nine-week pregnancy, they will eat about twice their normal amount of food. Their food should be palatable so that they eat enough to meet their needs.

　　By the fifth or sixth week of lactation, mother cats require three times the food amount they needed before mating. This level of food supply should be maintained until the kittens are weaned. Then the feeding amount should be gradually reduced back to normal. Feeding can be adjusted by observing the mother cat's weight changes.

　　Usually, kittens can start being fed milk substitutes at 4 weeks old (although they are fully weaned at 8 weeks). At this time, the nutrition they receive from their mother's milk decreases. Therefore, special kitten-specific food should be provided during this period, and such food should be soft, moist, and easy to digest. (Source：PetsZone)