About Mother Cats Eating Their Young

Farequin

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So my landlady's cat just gave birth to a litter of five 2-3 days ago, among them there's 1 who's looking very poor and sick. It's not as active as the other kittens (sometimes I thought it was dead until I observed it for several seconds and see its breathing).

Just few hours ago, I saw that the mother cat use it as a pillow(?) or maybe she's trying to listen to it's heartbeat or something, I dunno, anyway, few hours after that when I tried to check it's condition again, there were suddenly only 4 kittens. I tried to check every nook and cranny of the room (the landlady puts them inside a small room ever since they gave birth) but found nothing. After checking the cardboard box that they used however, I managed to find a small dried blood in there.


This means that the mother cat actually ate it, right? I just find it really shocking, I know that they eat a stillborn but that kitten was still alive at least, did she kill it? And how is she eating it? I just can't imagine her munching on a kitten until there's no remains other than blood.
 

Kieka

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As gross as it may sound to us it isn't unusual and doesn't mean anything about the mother cats temperament or mental state.

It is very simply her protecting the other kittens and getting nutrition. A dead kitten can draw predators to the living kittens or illness if allowed to rot. Burying the kitten or respecting it's body is simply not a cat concept. So the Mom eats it to dispose of it, plus she has to eat and the body is just meat at that point.

Most Mom's will wait for the kitten to die. If the Mom senses the kitten is dying they will often push it to the edge of the nest so it will die quicker. There is no biological sense in her expending energy or attempting to nurse if her instincts are telling her the kitten will die. Humans can sometimes step in and help a struggling kitten that Mom rejects by bottle feeding and caring for it.

But it doesn't always work out, a foster Mom I follow recently had a sick mom cat reject her entire litter. Only three of the five kittens have survived a week with two having something internally wrong that killed them despite vet intervention. The remaining three are still weak. The vet thinks the Mom was sick at the end of the pregnancy and an early labor was triggered as a result. The Mom then rejected her kittens for her own survival because her body simply didn't have resources to care for kittens and get better herself. Survival of the mom ensures she can have more kittens at the cost of the five she just had. Mom is now spayed and on medication, she is feral and will be released to her colony once she is better. The point being, nature is not always kind to kittens and Mom cats will do what they must to protect their living kittens and ensure they can have another litter if they don't think the kittens will make it.
 

Willowy

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Yes, it can happen :(. They do it to keep their nest clean and not attract predators. Newborn kittens aren't any bigger than mice/small rats, so that's well within normal meal size for a grown cat. She did it for the good of her other babies, I hope they grow up big and strong!
 

talkingpeanut

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Is your landlady able to move mom and kittens inside somewhere safe?
 
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Farequin

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As gross as it may sound to us it isn't unusual and doesn't mean anything about the mother cats temperament or mental state.

It is very simply her protecting the other kittens and getting nutrition. A dead kitten can draw predators to the living kittens or illness if allowed to rot. Burying the kitten or respecting it's body is simply not a cat concept. So the Mom eats it to dispose of it, plus she has to eat and the body is just meat at that point.
Yes, it can happen :(. They do it to keep their nest clean and not attract predators. Newborn kittens aren't any bigger than mice/small rats, so that's well within normal meal size for a grown cat. She did it for the good of her other babies, I hope they grow up big and strong!
Oh, ok. I see. I only know that mother cats eat their dead kitten but never know why. Your explanations make sense, especially about getting nutrition part.

Most Mom's will wait for the kitten to die. If the Mom senses the kitten is dying they will often push it to the edge of the nest so it will die quicker. There is no biological sense in her expending energy or attempting to nurse if her instincts are telling her the kitten will die. Humans can sometimes step in and help a struggling kitten that Mom rejects by bottle feeding and caring for it.
Then that time the mother cat was indeed listening to the kitten's heartbeat then I guess. I just found it odd when I saw it and it never crossed my mind that the mother cat was waiting for it to die :(

But it doesn't always work out, a foster Mom I follow recently had a sick mom cat reject her entire litter. Only three of the five kittens have survived a week with two having something internally wrong that killed them despite vet intervention. The remaining three are still weak. The vet thinks the Mom was sick at the end of the pregnancy and an early labor was triggered as a result. The Mom then rejected her kittens for her own survival because her body simply didn't have resources to care for kittens and get better herself. Survival of the mom ensures she can have more kittens at the cost of the five she just had. Mom is now spayed and on medication, she is feral and will be released to her colony once she is better. The point being, nature is not always kind to kittens and Mom cats will do what they must to protect their living kittens and ensure they can have another litter if they don't think the kittens will make it.
Wow, that's really sad. The mother cat choosing her own survival and the survival of the many instead of the few really sounds like "for the greater good" propaganda, kinda depressing really but animals are surprisingly more direct about this kinda thing, but different from us with morals, they use their instinct more it seems.

Is your landlady able to move mom and kittens inside somewhere safe?
Well, how safe do you mean? Usually the mother cat can be seen wandering around the apartment complex but like I said, after she gave birth (inside that cardboard box above I showed where she made her nest) the landlady moved her into a small room, most likely to keep it from getting wet from the rain since the cardboard box was in a terrace with short length roof.
 

talkingpeanut

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I mean inside a home where no other animals can get to them. Would the landlady let you foster these kittens and then get the mom spayed?
 
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