I Screwed Up...cat Rejects Kittens.

Mundanecatlady

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I screwed up. Let's start with that. I decided since it's my day off, I'll give momma a break.

She looked tired, it's her first litter, normally I take the babies downstairs, feed them wet food, give her wet food upstairs and let her chill out by herself once a day.

Well, kittens are 5 weeks old, pooping and eating. A few of them had poop either on their fur, or all over their butt, so I took them all downstairs for a bath. Washed 4 of them completely, 2 only needed their face cleaned.

I dried them, put em in a playpen and decided to go clean my bathroom. Upon coming upstairs I got a "great idea" of putting my male in the room with her in a cage to start getting them back to hanging out. (It's her first litter so I decided to keep him completely separate from her that entire time to let let her focus on her babies)

Well. I took my other cat out of the room, put the kittens back into the room aaaand she is now freaking the ehf out. She's hissing at me, she's attacking her kittens, she's curling up into a ball growling at anyone and everyone, myself included. This is extremely unusual behavior for her, she is normally the biggest love bug, I've never heard her hiss before until today.

I took her downstairs to her favorite bathroom (cool floor and quiet) and she immediately became her lovey self again. I started shaving off two matts that were really close to her teets (normally can do this easily, she knows the drill) but this time she turned feral again. I did it anyways and afterwards she just flopped down exhausted.

I'm about to make her some kmr and egg yolk slop to hopefully get a little energy into her, but does ANYone know how I can fix my screw up?
 

abyeb

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I think she might just need some time to calm down. Feed the kittens with KMR in the meantime, and try reintroducing the kittens to her later.
 

Furballsmom

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Maybe try some low volume classical harp music? It's known to help cats be more calm, it might work here :goodluck:
 
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Mundanecatlady

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No she is not in heat, I know her signs kept her away from him the first couple heats.

They are papered persians, I never had issues with any females rejecting kittens before, but normal litter sizes were usually 4 so I immediately think she might just be overwhelmed and finally off the rocker, me bringing my male in to reintroduce them was obviously a horrible idea in her case I should have known better.

I have her downstairs in her favorite bathroom as a hide away. She's fine, lovey, purrs and pushes into my hand when she's in there, other than that, she wants nothing to do with anyone outside of the bathroom.

Kittens were introduced to wet food/kmr mix kitten slop a week ago when I noticed she's getting thinner than I'm comfortable with so all but one have happy adopted it. They have now moved on to shredded wet food and a few even battle the dry kitten kibble I had put out for mom. I also soak kitten kibble in water and put that out for them as well. The one that refused to eat anything but from mom has started eating shredded. He wasn't around for the kitten slop (refused to eat it) so I'll be buying some pate later and making more slop to help him transition easier.

I have mixed egg yolk and kmr for mom to help get her calorie count up, today im hoping to add finely chopped chicken to the mix.

She seems to be doing better, but when I tried to reintroduce her to the kittens she went full on crazy. Hissing, the scream meows, smacking them away... I'll be taking her to the vet tomorrow along with the kittens for a full check up (in separate carriers obviously!) I'm wondering if maybe she got a bacterial infection/mastitis? I changed away the matts, she was super grateful (1 big one on each side of her belly) so i'm wondering if that had something to do with it?

Mainly I think me washing her scent off of them and on top of that reintroducing my other cat to her at the same time was just stress overload for the poor thing.

Thankfully all kittens are weaned and using the litter box, but man I feel absolutely terrible for her.

Could this be her way of simply telling her kittens 'enough'? I feel it coincides way too perfectly with me washing them and putting the other cat in... they used to be best buddies, I thought she would be happy to see him :( god I feel terrible
 

StefanZ

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It seems she got scared up, or such. This reaction reminds me much of the so called redirected aggressions. Where they get madly angry on someone, but unable to attack the intruder, attack instead anyone else they can lay their claws on. Often her beloved Momma... Its just to let her cool down in her own room.

Dr Bachs Rescue Remedy may help. Similiar Flower essences are also possible to get from other brands too. Jackson Galaxy sells them too.

@
Ill try the harp for sure. Anything at this point!
 

ArchyCat

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Could it be that washing the kittens changed their sent? Cats are more sent oriented than visual for identification from what I've read on TCS. Maybe take a towel and rub mom cat with it, then the kittens to transfer her sent to them?
 

1 bruce 1

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Could it be that washing the kittens changed their sent? Cats are more sent oriented than visual for identification from what I've read on TCS. Maybe take a towel and rub mom cat with it, then the kittens to transfer her sent to them?
I think this is an excellent possibility. Even though they needed a washing, this can change their scent and in a day or two the shampoo smell wears off and she should start recognizing them again. The reaction will probably be similar if and when they go to the vets for anything. If they're 5 weeks and eating, it's not critical they're with her so I wouldn't worry too much. M Mundanecatlady do you have a mentor of sorts for your breeding program?
 

Willowy

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Rub her with a towel, then rub a kitten with the towel, then back to her, then another kitten, then rub her again, etc. until all the kittens are done. Then everybody should smell about the same again.
 

Sarthur2

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I think it was a combination of factors. Poor mom got stressed. Try putting the smallest kitten with her to see if she’ll let it nurse. Put her scent on him first.
 
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Mundanecatlady

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The whole washing the scent away was my first reason as to why I said I screwed up lol then putting the male in with HIS scent on top of that, then leaving the kittens away for an hour or two (that part is normal, I babysit them downstairs so she can have some me time every day) but this was their first bath. I washed 4 out of 6 but they all fell asleep on top of each other for about 30 min.

So here's what I did; I left her in the bathroom alone all day today and was 100% planning on calling the vet first thing on Monday (tomorrow) for a same day visit.

Her belly was getting huge with undrank milk and that was the biggest concern for me.

Then I got a genius idea. I brought down the kitten that was still mainly suckling. I held him up high in the air behind the door so she couldn't see, only hear. Obviously this got him to meow loudly.

I still had her shaved off matts plus some extra fur I shaved off at the base of her tail that was starting to get thick with shedded winter/summer coat. I left it in the sink thinking of a way how I could isee it with the kittens. Well, I brought him in and rubbed him all over with the shaved off fur. Put him down and after an initial warning meow, she paused... sniffed and licked him clean.

I got the rest and did the same thing with all of them. Happy family once again, just a new location! Lol.

PHEW!
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