Why does a mother cat sometimes eat her kittens?

Answer 1

The cat people contribute their ideas:

• Mother cats sometimes eat their kittens if they are unhealthy or have died. This is nature and I would assume the nutrients are needed to feed the other kittens. But sometimes a mother cat will just ignore the ailing or dead kitten.
• The mother cat might eat her kittens if you mess with them too much when they are little. Cats detect a lot by smell, and if the kitten smells wrong (i.e, of you) it might assume it's unhealthy and kill it.
• Some cats are genetically abnormal, and can't produce the hormones which trigger maternal behaviour. That means they might treat their own kittens as prey. If you see a mother cat kill her entire healthy litter, you probably shouldn't breed from her again. Be wary of breeding from her surviving kittens as well - it's a genetic trait, which means the problem might be passed on.

• Kittens born in winter, when they aren't likely to survive, are sometimes killed to save strength for the mother.

• If you put your cat under too much stress, she might decide she can't protect her kittens and give them up as a lost cause. You need to give her a quiet, dark place to make her nest, and leave her alone most of the time. If she moves her nest, stop bothering her.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, cats do sometimes eat their kittens. Typically it is because the mother is starving or ill (either physically or psychologically).

My veterinary clinic recently had two sister kittens who were up for adoption, and one of them was missing most of her right back leg, because her mother had chewed all the flesh off. The veterinarians at the clinic attempted to save the leg, but in the end it had to be amputated. They are unsure whether the mother did it because she was starving, or because she was mentally deranged.

Answer 3

yes they often do , just like other animals. If a kitten is young and has human scent it might eat it. If it is injured it might eat it. If it doest like the kitten it might eat it. If the mother is inexperienced sometimes she will eat her whole entire litter, especially if she is a first mother.

Answer 4

LONG VERSION

look, any organism that eats it's babies immediately after birth has a very small chance to ever create viable offspring. this means that its future members of it's species will not have this trait. mantises and Spiders eat their young after a week or so, so that the ones that wait too long to leave die. any animal that produces few young that then eats them will not survive as a species.

SHORT VERSION

CATS DONT EAT THEIR YOUNG

Answer 5

Yes. Sometimes, if the baby kitten is sick or injured, the mother cat will kill and/or eat the kitten to keep it from feeling pain.

There could also be instances, such as my own cats, where the neighbor cats kill them and could eat them for a territorial purpose.

As well as males kill male youth because of competition and they also kill the young they sense problems with.

Answer 6

No. It is a myth that is cruel. Siamese mothers give as much of love to their kittens as any other kind of cat. If anything, they may be a little aggressive, but that depends on the cat. They would not eat their own kind because most don't even eat their own prey.

Answer 7

A mother cat will only eat her kitten if it dies! She might eat her babies if a predator threatens them. However, in contrast to the mother, any Tom Cat can try to kill a baby. Tom Cats do this so the mother goes back into heat so he can mate with her.

Answer 8

If a kitten is born dead, the mother cat will eat it.

Answer 9

Remove kittens from mother.