Sisters after new arrivals

[hantaah]

I have two cats that are sisters. Normally they seem to get along well but the dominant one has recently given birth to 3 kittens. The other cat is avoiding the one that has given birth but when they come in contact she is aggressively hissing at the one that has given birth.

I would have thought it would be the other way around. The pregnant dominant one defending her litter and frightening the other one off but it seems to be the other way around. The pregnant, more dominant one is trying to be friendly but the other one is frightening her off.

Does anybody know what all this means as I'd like to understand it better?

 

[Columbine]

All I can think is that the momma cat's smell will have changed (hormones etc), and her sister is objecting to her new scent. Reintroductions might fix the problem, but are very difficult to do whilst the kittens are so young. A compromise would be to keep them separate and carry out scent swapping with the sister, and pair the presentation of Momma's scent with something yummy. Once the sister is fully accepting of Momma's scent, you can try supervised contact between the pair of them. Hopefully, this will be enough to get them back on good terms again.

 

[hantaah]

Ahh yes that makes sense. Thanks. I will keep it all in mind.