Upset mother cat.

thegrayson

Does it take a mother cat long to recover after her kittens have been taken away? Yesterday I took away the last three kittens from a litter of five born in my back yard. She didn't seem bothered when we found a home for the first one about a month ago or when another died two weeks ago. But last night and today she calling for the kittens constantly and has no interest in the food I put out, normally she is ravenous. I know I'm probably worrying too much and that she will get over it but it is upsetting seeing her so distressed.

My name is URL

Cats are very instinctive, they will be upset when their kittens are taklen. She'll get over it soon enough though

Try and divert her when she begins crying and just give her lots of attention

You really should have her spayed to avoid this sort of thing

PinkTulips

i doubt she's overly upset about the kittens (ime they don't really care) but most likely her teats are filling with milk and she's uncomfortable and is looking for a kitten to feed.

that should ease fairly quickly but as it was 3 kittens all at once there is a chance she could end up with mastitis so keep an eye on her.... if her teats get red and hot and she seems paticularily distressed or ill you may need to bring her to the vet for some antibiotics.

hth

thegrayson

You really should have her spayed to avoid this sort of thing

She was spayed two weeks ago, she is a wandering stray and not really ours, I didn't mind the one from the last litter but dropping these five kittens in my back garden was a bit much. Still they're all gone now.

that should ease fairly quickly but as it was 3 kittens all at once there is a chance she could end up with mastitis so keep an eye on her.... if her teats get red and hot and she seems paticularily distressed or ill you may need to bring her to the vet for some antibiotics.

Am pretty sure she hasn't been feeding them recently, they have been on solid food since they were five weeks old but I'll keep an eye out none the less.

Thanks.

Chiaki

once kittens are weaned usually she doesnt care what happens, her job is over! Again ide agree with the mastitis but other than that she will be back to her old self soon

useful_contacts

thegrayson wrote: »

Does it take a mother cat long to recover after her kittens have been taken away? Yesterday I took away the last three kittens from a litter of five born in my back yard. She didn't seem bothered when we found a home for the first one about a month ago or when another died two weeks ago. But last night and today she calling for the kittens constantly and has no interest in the food I put out, normally she is ravenous. I know I'm probably worrying too much and that she will get over it but it is upsetting seeing her so distressed.

some cats are odd- my sisters cat had a litter of 6- one died- she rejected 2 others(1 which i adopted and another sis the other one) and when the others were found homes she didnt bat an eyelid.

I saw her once snap at a kitten who went to get milk from her(wasnt one of the 2 she rejected either)

PinkTulips

as with humans, them eating solid food doesn't necessarily mean they weren't nursing too, my female nursed her kittens until 14/15 weeks :eek: and continued to nurse after she was spayed when i was convinced she'd stop.

if she wasn't living in the house with you you just might not have noticed as, like humans, once nursing isn't their only source of nutrition the amount does decrease but if she was feeding even once a day that build up of milk could be causing her a bit of discomfort.

thegrayson

She has calmed right down and has re bonded with our other cat, one from her previous litter, the two are adorable together. The have been missing together a couple of nights and now I'm wondering if somebody else is taking them in. Their appetites seem alright though they are both putting on weight. Maybe time to change their diet as they were both spayed recently.