Would she have eaten them?

Question

I have a female cat who had 3 kittens. One died two days after birth but the other two were healthy kittens. She eats healthy on a regular basis and has no cause for hunger, but now the kittens are missing and there is no possible way for them to have ran away and no way that anyone would steal them. Is it possible that she ate them and if so wouldn't there be a huge mess?

I would like to thank everyone for their answers...I have found my kittens. They were moved by the mother i think due to the company i had last night. They are both safe and uneaten!!!!

Answer 1

I have never heard of a cat eating her young.
They do move them to safe hiding places.
That is what I would look for.

Answer 2

I'm glad you found your kittens. But yes, although it's never happened to me, I've heard of mothers eating their young, though I'm not sure why. There was an excellent program on PBS about cats. A study was done in Britain where there was a large number of feral barn cats (I think around 50). Male cats would consistently find litters of kittens and kill all of them, similar to what lions do. The theory is that this would help spread the male's genes and also make the female ready for breeding sooner. This happens a lot in the animal world.

Answer 3

Mother kittens will usually move their kittens several times before the kittens reach a mature age. Mostly for safety reasons. Give it a week or so and you will hear them whining for their mother or just watch the mother on a regular basis and she will lead you to them.

Answer 4

Cats will often move their kittens to what they think is a safer spot every few days- keep a close eye on where your cat goes and listen for little kittens.

Answer 5

I've never heard of a domesticated cat ever eating their young. You may want to check to see if the mother cat has possibly hidden them somewhere such as the back of closet.

Mother cats will instinctively move their young to a (what the cat believes) is a safer place after labor.

Answer 6

well the cat would never eat her kittens and yes it would make a huge mess start looking now trust me and look for sounds of little kittens they could have gone through the walls my cat did that

Answer 7

Hi,

I´m glad you found your kittens and they are fine.

Cats are very special mothers. They will move their kittens around due to instinct, in the wild they need to keep them safe from preditors, that´s why they might eat a stillbirth, this is to keep insects and other animals away from her nursery.

Sometimes they will also push sick newborns away and refuse to feed or tend to them, they let them die, rarely do they kill them but they will on ocasion eat them, if you don´t remove the corpses.

Sometimes I will tend to stray queens, I put a litterbox, food and water in a large training cage, this way she feels safe, and I can handle her better, I´ve been able to spay a great number of cats in my neighborhood this way, I also vaccinate and deworm them before they get to go back to the wild, they do a great job keeping the rodent population down, so my neighbors and myself find them useful, and reward them by feeding them and keeping water bowls on our porches for them. Of corse we also have to deal with the flower pot that becomes a kitty bed or bathroom. But we don´t mind.

You may want to get your queen the covered kitty box, put he kittens in there and see how she does, the stray queen usually come back to sleep in the cage if I leave the door open and the kittens always come by and rub against my legas and talk to me, usually they want food, but let me dream, it´s almost like they say Thanks. I allow it because, once they come of age, snip-snip, oh what a wonderful spay/neuter you make.

Answer 8

no! the mama cat never eats her kittens and trust me, little ones can slowly crawl away. another cat in the house or the male cat could have ate them but the mama would not!

Answer 9

she could have eaten them. i've had experence with cats having kittens. ask your vet to be sure if she ate them. i'm not sure if cats eat there babies but i know for a fact that hamsters will. if hamsters mothers think her babies r in danger she will eat them.
I'm not so sure about cats though, but i think they might.
search the whole house is all i can say cuz i'm not sure

Answer 10

if a cat will eat its kittens it happens right after birth, she most likely has hidden them, she may feel like they r being watched too much, cats will do that often especially if they have alot of ppl watching them and touching them.