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I have a pregnant cat in my house... Anything I should know?

HellFrost666

By HellFrost666
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HellFrost666 Proficient

HellFrost666

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Ohh so sweet. I have a total soft spot for black cats, and the mamma looks very sim. to my cat. Who is fixed. So those kittens give me an idea of how cute hers would be if she could have them.

 

What does Saga think of all the babies? ha.

 

We've been keeping this cat and the kittens separate from our two cats.

 

But yesterday I did show one of the kittens to Saga, just to see how she would react. She sniffed it, then licked the top of it's head, then sniffed it again, and licked it some more and then sat down and just stared at it.

 

I haven't shown any to Snowball yet. I don't trust him.

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BellaDonna Grand Master

BellaDonna

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They are so cute. They look like little grey mice.

 

You seem to be doing everything right and I don't know too much about this topic but I feel like I have to mention this: When I was a child I remember that one of my grandmothers took in a stray pregnant cat and the cat actually ended up killing her kittens. She smothered them. The vet told my grandmother that mother cats sometimes do that when stressed and trying to protect them.

 

We've been keeping this cat and the kittens separate from our two cats.

 

But yesterday I did show one of the kittens to Saga, just to see how she would react. She sniffed it, then licked the top of it's head, then sniffed it again, and licked it some more and then sat down and just stared at it.

 

I haven't shown any to Snowball yet. I don't trust him.

 

I've walked in there a couple times and caught the Mom laying on one of them.

 

 

Just be extra caferul about handling them too much or letting the other cats smell them (risking getting the scent of the other cats on them) because if the mama cat tries to protect them too much in response- she could smother them.

 

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"It is well known that a mother cat may kill kittens if the nest is disturbed, especially if she is confined and cannot move or hide her litter. This is attributed to a frustrated 'protection' instinct. Unable to protect her kittens against a perceived threat, she kills them in a futile attempt at protecting them. Perhaps instinct tells her that it is better to kill offspring herself and make good her own escape than to attempt to defend them against insurmountable (in her view) odds and possibly endanger herself in the process. A few mothers have accidentally killed kittens by trying to push them underneath a doorway in an attempt to move them to a new nest and some over-anxious but non-confined queens have killed kittens as a result of maternal incompetence or perceived threats to the nest. These mothers are generally either desperate or inexperienced or both. A few nervous queens are disturbed enough by the scent of a tomcat nearby that they will resort to the eat-is-protect mechanism.

 

Stressed mothers may simply decide to cut their losses. Perhaps finding that they cannot successfully rear or save their own kittens, it becomes preferable to try again at a later date or in a more favourable/safer location. However, she has invested a lot of effort in pregnancy and suckling those kittens (and in hunting for food for older kittens) so she eats them in order to reabsorb some of that energy investment. By reabsorbing the nutrients they gained from her, she will more quickly return to breeding condition and may successfully raise kittens later in the same breeding season. Some mothers will simply abandon kittens, but in doing so they lose whatever investment they put into partly rearing the offspring and might not breed again until the next season. This may also explain why some females kill some, but not all, kittens - by reducing the number of kittens in their litter, they increase the chances of successfully rearing their surviving kittens.

 

Sometimes she will kill the kittens because they have been handled by another person or animal. Her own scent has been obscured and she either no longer recognises them as her own or she feels threatened and unable to escape. They either become prey - in size, sound, smell and movement - or she attempts to 'protect' them by the last resort method of killing them. A female that has prevously been in an abusive situation may be anxious with kittens and may kill them as a result; stress seems to over-ride normal maternal instincts"

 

If she only seems to be laying on the same kitten then that little one might be better off bottle fed with kittne formula/"kitten glop", if the shelter can help you out with arranging that. It is often used for runts or if the mom seems to be harming/smothering/rejecting one of the babies.

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HellFrost666 Proficient

HellFrost666

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^ The two times I caught her doing that I think were accidental. It wasn't the same kitten, and that was in the first couples days when she did nothing but nurse them most of the day. It looked like maybe she just rolled over the wrong way while she was feeding them.

 

She has been moving them under the bed. The first couple times we put them back in the box. Then we just gave up and let her keep them under the bed.

 

Saga has been allowed near them twice. The other male cat we have hasn't seen them though. We keep that room closed off pretty well.

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HellFrost666 Proficient

HellFrost666

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It's so funny you posted this just now because I was just uploading pics of them.

 

Yesterday we took some pictures because they were two weeks old.

 

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They're doing fine. They're starting to get individual personalities now that they opened their eyes.

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HellFrost666 Proficient

HellFrost666

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AWWWWWW! They are so cute!!!!!!!

 

For some reason the one standing near all of the bags, looks like he? will be the troublemaker of the litter.

 

He was the last one born... but the first one to walk and the first one to open his eyes. He is the most active and makes the most noise.

 

My girlfriend named him Chaos.

 

That pic was actually taken on top of our fridge. He likes to climb on things so she put him up there for like two seconds and took the picture.

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sophie274 Mentor

sophie274

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He was the last one born... but the first one to walk and the first one to open his eyes. He is the most active and makes the most noise.

 

My girlfriend named him Chaos.

 

That pic was actually taken on top of our fridge. He likes to climb on things so she put him up there for like two seconds and took the picture.

 

I want him! He's so adorable with his little stripes. Ship him to me!

They are so so cute. I'm very jealous. I would be snuggling all day if I had kittens in the house.

 

It's great to hear they're all doing well. I get the impression it's pretty common for one or more of the kittens to die in the first few weeks, so you've done well!

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  • 2 weeks later...
HellFrost666 Proficient

HellFrost666

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I've been meaning to post more pics for a few days now. They were a Month old on Sunday and that's when these pictures were taken.

 

I tried to get some better pics of the gray and black ones, since I have so many good ones of the striped one.

 

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I thought it was cool that the two are laying in a yin yang shape in the last one.

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