How long do you think a momma kitty mourns over her kittens dying?

Question

My neighbors who were feeding a ferral cat and her 3 kittens moved and deserted them yesterday. We had a flash flood yesterday and when I woke up and went to feed them 2 of her babies were laying in the yard dead! My husband said that they went into the drainage pipes to stay dry and safe, but the water came thru on both sides of the pipes, quickly filled up and killed the little kitties. :(
The momma kitty just walks around crying for her babies even though she saw that they had died. Is she looking for them anyway? Or is she just in mourning. She wanders off sometimes leaving her only baby alone. How can I help her? It is so sad. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

she is in mourning and in pain, she'll forget the other kittens soon. She is still making enough milk to feed the other kittens that's why she is in so much pain she'll be ok

Answer 2

I don't know if this will answer your question but I'll share what I have experienced:

I have a black cat that had a litter and although most of the instincts were in place on how to handle these new babies, there were many obvious mistakes. We felt it was best to just observe and comfort her when she looked for it, but in the end, all the kittens died. We were so concerned from this that we thought of having her fixed but both agreed that maybe it was just something new and waited for the second litter. With the second litter, all were cared for in a loving motherly fashion and grew up healthy and beautiful, as did the third and fourth. As for the mourning period I think this is just an instinct that has not quite gone correctly with the actual event. Wait for the next litter and see what happens.
There is a good chance that the last baby may die from neglect from the mother, its up to you to decide if you want to intervene or just have nature take its course.