why in the world is she doing this?!

[molly&sophie]

Okay, so here's the deal:

About three wekks ago, our cat Bella had kittens, three of them.
About a week in, our cat Molly, who si Bella's sister, began to tak interest in them.
At first, we were worried thta she would hurt them, so we kept her out of the room they were in, with the door closed.
She didn't like that, and sat outside the door and HOWLED to be let in. So, we asked hte vet, and he said it would be okay to let her stay in there.
Ever since then, everything has been just fine; Molly and Bella sleep in the same box that the kittens are in (It's a pretty big box), and Molly acts VERY protective of them. Even more so than Bella; honestly, you can't take htose kittens out of that box without her freaking out, and god forbid you take them out of the room; she WILL come and get them and take them back.

Anyway, lately, the kittens have been tyring to get out of of the box, and today, one of them got out.
I was in my room with the door closed, and all of the sudden, I hear this horrible scream and open my door; Mollys got the one that got out by the neck, the poorn thing is crying liek no tomorrow. She ran into my room, and I ran after her, shouting "MOLLY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?!", which alerted my mom to come running in. We manged to get Molly abway from her, and I put her back int eh box,a nd of couse Moilly comes back in and lies down and starts licking it.
So, I left. I came back in a moemnt later to more crying, and there's molly, in the box, like alwasy, wiht her mouth clamped around the side of the little htings neck. Again, I got her off and kicked her out of the room, closing the door so she could get in.

We are VERY worried right now, as we have no clue about whats going on; we always thought that Molly was just being over protective of them (Really, like I said, their real mom doesn't worry as much.), but could it be somehting else? My mom thinks she's threatend by them, but we still don't understand.

Is this normal for some female cats to do? What should we do about it? Will she stop?

 

[pami]

She is disciplining the kittens. The Mom and the Aunt will teach them so many things and one is to stay put until it is safe to wander around.

Keep an eye on her, but realize also that she is just teaching them.

 

[mews2much]

My Brother had that problem with Spaz. She would steal Shadows Kittens and take them in the closet. I didnt see it because I live 2 hours away.

 

[jimmylegs]

Molly's just got an overactive maternal instinct. they grab the kittens by the neck/scruff to carry them around (some are better than others at this). she's trying to protect the kittens from wandering away, but she might also try to move them all to a new location. this is something mom cats do a few times while raising a litter (to throw predators off the 'trail'). Molly may be doing this even though she's not the moms.

keep an eye on her so she doesn't take the kittens too far from Bella. and don't worry, she is like a 2nd mother to those kittens! this will probably make them very social when they get older, even if they have to explain that they had two mommies

 

[deljo]

I had 2 siamese females and my then teen age brats thought it was a good idea to let them mate with my male alley cat. The first one to have a litter ate the babies. They were there and then the next time we looked they were gone. When her sister had her litter, both females took care of them just like what you're experiencing. The moms were just babies themselves. We were able to get the kittens adopted out. By the way, my daughters were grounded for a month.

 

[howtoholdacat]

It is very common for a mother to allow another female, especially a sibling or daughter, to help her raise kittens. Kittens can make horrible screeching noises but it doesn't necessarily mean they are being hurt. Sounds like these kitties have a good aunt who looks out for them.