HELP! But please only leave serious knowledgeable responses?

Question

My cat is a first time mom (I found out she was pregnant when I took her in to get spayed, go figure) anywho, she's about 8 months old and has 2 kittens, which are 16 days old.

We have her and the kittens in their own room, because she is rather skittish, and she has a way out of the room and has food and water and litter in there with her.

Well tonight I saw her sniffing around the hallway closet (not uncommon for her). Then about 15 minutes later I hear one of the kittens crying and I found it stuck undersome boxes and coats. I went to find the mother and she was just nursing the other kitten in her room. She accepted the kitten back and started nursing it again. But then tried to attack me, which she has never done EVER.

What do I do? Do you think she will abandon this one again? Should I just leave her kill it? Do cats normally hide their kittens?

I'm so confused.

I can't take it to the vet (don't have the money right now, family emergency came up). And sadly if she does abandon it, I can't feed it every 2-4 hours, cause I have work and soon college classes to worry about.

I want the thank, I forget who, the person who mentioned threatening smell, I forgot that right before I found the kitten and got attacked by dear old mommy, I had been out with my outside dog. So I probably smelled like him.

I've got the kittens and the mother in a cardboard box that she can get out of, but the kittens can't (well not without her moving them)

thanks for the comments and please feel free to leave more advise for me

Answer 1

Cats sometimes move or hide their kittens if they feel they are unsafe. She may have started to move them and forgotten in the middle? - she's young, after all.
Anyway, if she is skittish regularly and is feeling protective, that is probably why she bit you.
Try leaving some more empty boxes jumbled up with bedding in the room with the kittens that she can move them into there. It may make her feel more secure.... and keep an eye out in case she moves them out again.
And good for you for takeing her to be fixed (even if she beat you to the punch)

Answer 2

Mother cats will often move their kittens to what they perceive as a safer place. It's possible that people were handling her and the kittens too much, and she tried to move them somewhere where people would not touch them so much. If I were you, I would confine her to the room so she could not get out again. If you don't, she may try to hide the kittens somewhere where you can't find them or that might be dangerous to them. Mother cats can get quite protective of kittens. Don't take it personally; she will be her old self again once her kittens are grown. If I were you, I would just not disturb her more than absolutely necessary until the kittens get just a bit older, and she's more tolerant of you. Of course, the kittens do need socialization to people, just allow one person in the room to quietly pet the kittens once their eyes have opened. The older the kittens get, the less the mother will care that they are being handled.
Hope this helps!

Answer 3

The kitten might have crawled into the area you found it. Or the mom might have "put" it there. Being 16 days old, everything should be fine.

She might have just attacked you out of panic, imagine "losing" one of your kids.

You might want to have some kitten milk available just in case she decides not to nurse it. Also you may want to have your vet check the kitten out to make sure it is OK. Animals have a way of knowing there is something not right, and will at times abandon them to focus on the healthy ones.

But it is normal for a mom cat to move the kittens around a lot, and you can find them in the oddest of places.

Answer 4

Mama cats can act really weird sometimes. We have had mom cats hide babies all over the place. The strangest was once we couldn't find either mom or kitten, and eventually found them in a purse of mine that was hanging off the back of a chair at the kitchen table. They barely fit in there, and I sure don't know how the mom did it - it was up fairly high! Just keep an eye on them, to make sure the kittens aren't in danger. You are already being careful that she doesn't abandon that one - she will eventually love it.

Answer 5

i have heard of female tigers hiding their cubs and going to extreme lengths to protect and keep secret their newborn young, even from the father of the cubs until they are old enough to protect themselves and be indentified as their own kind (approx 3 mths old)

in nature, sadlythe father sees them as nothing more than food and a pest so its a natural response.

in hiding them in different places she is just increasing their of survival, so they wont be found together and one might survive

i would try to contact the vet if she keeps doing this in case she does sense that one is a 'runt' and less likely to survive, as she will devote more of her time to the healthy one

i would not leave them alone in a room so that u can still keep an eye, until u know that there is no runt in the litter but with a litter that small the runt would have to have something seriously wrong with it for her to leave it

she tried to bite you because she was protecting her young, its a natural instinct and she will be mistrustful of anyone going near them, she may not even know why

if you do pick up and touch one of the kittens again, i would use a glove bcos if it gets your scent on it she may leave or kill it as a threat to the other kitten

if your cat is not 'wild' in anyway then u should be ok with that though, if she does leave one of then you can get a milking bottle and milk supplies from your vet and you will have to feed it yourself

this will be an around the clock job, but it is perfectly possible for a 'runt' to live even after abandoned by its mother in nature so it needs all the help u can give it (just think like a premature baby)

consult your vet for more on this

the only other thing you can do is keep your cat well fed, supply the food for her because she will wander to find more food - she will hide the kittens before she does this, this is her main instinct and goal

if you can stop her from wandering off then she wont hide the kittens in the first place, but you will just have to leave the food in the room bcos like i say she may not trust you - plenty of milk and water, high protein fish n stuff

right, im off to bed hope that helped ;o)

Answer 6

Your mother cat may not have been trying to hide the kitten. She may have been in the process of finding a new place for them and herself, and only moved one kitten.

I had kittens a long time ago (5 kittens in litter) and the mother cat was always moving them around the house - one by one.

Answer 7

cats are weird, I have dealt with many drop off pregnant cats on my farm, they have there babies and then they get spayed. Anyway, it sounds like your cat might have been in the process of moving her kittens and got distracted one way or another. She won't kill her baby. She would have done it 16 days ago. About her trying to attack you, you could have smelled different or made what seemed like as a threatening move. She may feel overwhelmed cause she is young or could be her teats are sore and while they were nursing, it was easier to take her frustration out on you. I would not fret!

Answer 8

If she doesnt want to nurse it or you think she will harm it again you could feed the kitten yourself. The pet store sells kitten forumla and bottles. We found a kitten outside our door that was just born and we fed her formula every 3 to 4 hours and she lived and is now 7 years old. I've only had expierence with one cat who had kittens and she didn't hide them so I'm really not sure if thats normal or not.

Answer 9

yeah i dont know why your cat only hid one kitten and not the other. cats that are first time mothers are dumb. my cat had kittens for the first time and she had 5 of them all over the place in our house and only 1 lived. well yeah only once did my cat try and take her kitten in an akward place. my mom says they always try and do that to put them where they think no one can get to them. maybe she took the first kitten and hid it then went back to her room and forgot about moving the first one. who knows. did your cat try and hurt the one she moved??? because i dont see any reason why it would kill it. oh yeah and about your mom cat tryin to bite you, thats kinda a good thing i guess. shes just being a good mother trying to protect her young. my cat did the same thing to me, when i was tryin to pick up her kitten. if your cat moves the kittens again then just put them back and make the mother cat stay with them. theres not much else to do.

Answer 10

Yes cats do normally hide their kittens. And they are very protective of them...thus the reason she attacked you...It sounds like she is accepting the one that was under the boxes...however I would keep an eye on things because if she doesn't feed it you will have to. If that happens call the vet. they will tell you what to feed it. I don't think a newborn is supposed to have just milk (like we drink).
Good luck.