Facts: Supplements - General

Supplementing a pregnant queens diet is something that should be done with care. Although in the past it might have been advisable to supplement with various vitamins and calcium, among other nutrients, these days the premium commercial cat foods contain a perfect balance of nutrients for your cat. A balance that can easily be upset, no matter how well-meaning you are in your supplementing. Take very good care not to do more harm than good!

Calcium in particular - which seems to be a popular supplement, can easily upset the very delicate phosphorus/calcium balance in your queen. Having supplemented with calcium you could easily end up being the cause of the very eclampsia you tried to prevent.

As long as the queen is gaining weight and looking healthy, and is eating a PREMIUM brand food, no nutritional supplements are necessary - in fact they can be harmful. If you feel strongly that you wish to make a change to your queens diet, if nothing else to feel that you are doing something to help her, the one thing that I can recommend is to switch her over to either a kitten food (still talking premium brands) or to a dedicated Queen - food. To my knowledge only Royal Canin produces a food specifically aimed at the pregnant and lactating queen to date.

So, no supplementing at all? Well yes, there are a few things you can give your queen that will have a very positive effect on such important areas as tonus of the womb (helps the birth process), milk production, general well being and immune system. I'll talk about these supplements in upcoming articles - keep checking back under the label "Supplements".