On the other hand, obesity has an equally negative effect on pregnancy outcome. As previously mentioned, poor maternal nutrition may impair the kitten's immunocompetence for life. Queens that are underweight at parturition may experience poor lactation performance and inability to maintain body condition. Poor nutrition may lead to failure to conceive, fetal death, fetal malformations and underweight kittens. This pattern is different from that of most other species, which experience small increases in body weight until the last third of gestation when weight gain and energy intake greatly increase. Weight gain increases linearly from conception to parturition in queens. One of the earliest indicators of successful breeding and conception is a steady gain in body weight, assuming the diet or amount of food per day has not changed. Gestation usually lasts 63 to 65 days (range 58-70 days) in queens. Immune function is impaired for life in animals born to nutritionally deficient queens. Providing adequate nutrition throughout reproduction has long-range health implications for the offspring. Key indicators of optimal reproduction are ease of conception, a low rate of fetal and neonatal death, normal parturition, maximum litter size, adequate lactation and an optimal rate of growth of healthy kittens. The objectives of a proper feeding program for reproduction are to optimize the health and body condition of the queen throughout the various reproductive periods, reproductive performance and kitten health and development through the weaning period. She provides all the energy that fuels her kitten's growth, both in the womb and for the first weeks of life, and her diet throughout this time should be the best possible to successfully meet these demands. Pregnancy and motherhood place high demands on a cat.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |