Hello all. A few weeks ago, while walking outside my apartment, I came across
a stray cat sleeping on the stairs. I was still a little bummed about my
prior cat, which had gotten out one morning, and was hit by a car, and I
still had some of the cat's food, so I decided it wouldn't hurt to feed this
stray.

Of course, as has ben the case with most strays I've come across, after that
she wouldn't leave my apartment, and for a week I told myself as always, I
couldn't take in another stray, and of course by the end of the week she was
sleeping on my couch.

A short time later I realized she was pregnant. To confirm it I did a little
bit of research online. I decided there was no way I'd be able to take care
of a full litter of cats, so I called a local shelter. I was informed they
would immidiately put any pregnant cat they got to sleep, and I just couldn't
handle being a part of that, so I instead decided I'd let her have the
kittens here, and then put an ad in the paper after eight or nine weeks.

My theory is, that someone must have abandoned her when they found out she
was pregnant, because she's an extremely mellow, good-natured cat. She's yet
to show any sign of agression at all, absolutely loves being pet, and doesn't
fear me harming her kittens at all. When she gave birth, she tried to have
them on my bed. I took her to have them on an area I'd set aside at the
bottom of the pantry with pillows, a sheet, and a towel, btu she rejected
that, and opted to have them on a suit case I had under a table in the
kitchen. She stayed there with them for three days, and then one by one, she
moved them all (four kittens) to my drawer, in my bedroom.

She's behaved extremely well, both to me and people who have come to the
house, and her kittens. I feared she might reject them, but she's been the
perfect mother cat.

However, since the pregnancy, her apetite has all but dissappeared. I had
been feeding her a combination of dry food, and wet food. Whiskas food
pouches (Mixed Grill is her favorite flavor.) usually one pouch in the
morning, and one at night, with a bowl of dry food in between, unless she
rejected it, or was hungry again, in which case on some days I would give her
more.

Now though, I'm lucky if I can get her to eat one pouch a day. I tried giving
her different flavors, giving her the dry food, decreasing the portion, I
even put the dry food in a blender with some water. If I'm lucky, she'll take
a few small bites, and then stop eating. Sometimes it's the flavor. I can get
her to eat a fish flavor, but not a beef flavor. Or vice versa with any of
the other flavored pouches. Sometimes she'll only eat the dry food, and I'm
becoming worried. A little earlier she started meowing very loudly like she
was in pain. She made more or less the same sound she made while she was
giving birth to the first two of the four kittens (they came out at the same
time.)

I tried feeding her, and she meowed and showed interest in it, but when I put
the food down, she would sniff it, but not eat it. She took maybe two bites
of the dry food, and went back to the kittens, and I'm also worried because
she looks extremely skinny now.

What am I doing wrong? Could it be a parasite?