# Mom hissing/pawing at 1 month old kittens for no reason!?



## mailyn (Sep 23, 2010)

We took in a feral mom and her two 4 month old kittens a few months ago. Even then mom was being awesome and she would always be close to her kittens. Then she had 5 more kittens like after 2 weeks that they were here. She was being a great mom feeding, washing and just all around taking care of the newborns. Up to last night. Since the older kittens are now 6 months old we took them today to get neutered/spayed. When we got home and we finally let them out of their cage mom started hissing and pawing at them if they came too close to her. We figured it's because she could smell something different so no problem there.

Then she went near the newborns, who are exactly 1 month old today, and if they tried to get anywhere near her she would hiss and practically smack them. I don't know if the kittens are trying to feed today and she's not letting them so if she keeps this up I'm thinking of locking her in a crate and then buying some cat milk because I need to make sure they are eating.

Anyone know why this would happen? I would understand if she was a bad mom, so to speak, but everything was great! 

Help


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## teasha (Aug 15, 2010)

I think mom should be seperate with her one month old babies. I wouldn't seperate them unless she looks like she would really harm them. It comes to a point where it is natural for mom to do some of what she is, to get the kittens more independant. They seem a bit young, so keep an eye out to be safe. It is possible too the stress of the others coming back smelling different as well. Do you have hard kibble kitten food down for them? The should start nibbling from between now and next week. Hope I helped.


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## mailyn (Sep 23, 2010)

Thanks so much! We ended up having to separate mom from everyone. She attacked one of her baby kittens and we had to scare her away. Then we had to lock the two older ones that had surgery because she was going crazy over them too. Does this goe away? Or do I separate the 1 month old completely? I don't know if or how to feed them. It's the first time we have a mom and kittens. I don't know much about cats and I only have one that's 9 years old.


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

You need to Google and read-up on "Misdirected/Redirected Aggression" because that is what it sounds like is going on w/ your mom-cat. Her first kitts returned from the vet and smelled *different* and she didn't understand why they looked familiar but didn't smell the same, so she is unsettled and while she couldn't really do anything about her older kitts, her instincts were telling her to do *something!* .... so she "redirected" those unsettling feelings and took it out on her younger kitts.

This shouldn't last long IF you separate Mom-cat from all other cats. You may want to put a dab of vanilla on Mom-cat and each kitten to overpower any other scents and help her to 'recognize' her babies again. Of just leave the scent-thing alone ... since odd-smells are what started this in the first place. Keep everyone apart, love on the Mom-cat if you can and when she relaxes, see about introducing her kittens to her again ... but MAKE CERTAIN her kittens do not smell like the vet-office kittens!

4wks old is about the time to begin introducing canned food to kittens to prepare for weaning from a diet of completely mother's milk. By wk 5 all kittens should be eating canned food well and by wk6 if there are any late-bloomers. IMO, kitts need to stay w/ the mom for at least 8wks, though I feel 10-12wks is even better.


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## glassbird (Jun 19, 2009)

And in case no one else has mentioned this, Mom Cat can get pregnant again anytime now. Once the kittens are weaned, get her to the vet herself!


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## paperbacknovel (Jun 9, 2010)

I agree with other posters. Also, keep the two 6-month-old kittens COMPLETELY SEPARATE from mom cat and her babies.


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## mailyn (Sep 23, 2010)

omg thanks so much guys! you have no idea how worried we were. 

we did separate the 1 mo old kittens because we tried to get the 6 mo old or the mom last night and that was a disaster. right now I can only have the 1 mo old separated because we only have 2 rooms and 1 bathroom we all share. so we're going to start feeding the kittens ourselves since mom is still aggressive this morning and we really have nowhere to put the 6 mo old for more than a couple of hours. 

do you guys think mom will at least eventually recognize her mo old? I say this because we had already planned to keep mom and those two before she gave birth because no place down here will take them since they are feral and mom especially is rather aggresive with people.

we're going to buy canned food today but should we also buy kitten milk? or is canned food better? also what kind of canned food? The one we were feeding mom while she was pregnant was "Whiskas tender bites". are those good?

Thanks so much for all your help guys. this is the first time we've had such young kittens since the strays we usually find are at least 2 mo old.

:luv::kittyturn


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## Jeanie (Jun 18, 2003)

I would buy kitten milk or make a formula. Start them on pureed cat food by putting a bit on your finger. Then move your finger down to the dish of cat food. They'll catch on quickly!


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## mailyn (Sep 23, 2010)

Thanks guys! We're going to try and put the older kittens in a crate and move them to the bathroom a couple of hours and try to introduce the babies slowly. They started crying and I think they are hungry since it's been since like 4pm yesterday that this whole thing started and they must be really hungry by now. 

I'll keep you guys posted.


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## mailyn (Sep 23, 2010)

Well, we had separated the 6 mo old, which are inconciebably trying to mate now that they've been neutered/spayed, so we have the male in a crate in the same room as the female(not the mom cat) because we don't have any other rooms. the mom is again scratching/hissing/pawing the kittens and we can't keep trying to re-introduce them since now we have all these situations and no more rooms. we are going to put the kittens in a bigger crate and move them to the room where the other 6 mo old are. we'll just keep them in a crate and just bring them out for food, etc like we are doing with the male since we can't just let him out to roam the room with the 6 mo old female there too (we ran out of crates) so...new questions:

1.how many times a day do we feed the kittens? 

2.and how many times a day should we feed the male? 

I feel bad that he has to spend most of the day in a crate but at least he doesn't seem to mind it since he slept like 4-5 hours this morning.

this is driving us insane since we only have one bathroom and we need to use them and there's no were else to distribute all the crates since now my dogs and cat are practically living iin the living room/kitchen areas!


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## catloverami (Jul 5, 2010)

Sorry about your dilemma, but what you have is a mom that is just fed up with having kittens and is too stressed and overwhelmed....it happens. It would be best to get her spayed as soon as possible. Her aggression was likely triggered by the 6 mo. coming into maturity and his hormones still haven't settled down even tho he's neutered. Things should be better in a few weeks. You're doing the right thing by keeping the male separated in the crate for now. Yes, keep the kittens all together in one room and separate from the feral mom as she just can't tolerate them any more. You'll have to give food to the kittens at least 3-4x/day. It's ideal to have kitties with their mom, but in your case the 6 mo. older kitties will have to substitute for momcat to teach them to control their bite when they're play wrestling. All should work out OK, don't worry. All the best, good luck!


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## mailyn (Sep 23, 2010)

Thank you so much. You have no idea how stresses out we were. Imagine the cats (8 of them counting my own) and my dogs joining in the crying! Needless to say we haven't slept at all lol.

How many times should I feed the 6 mo old? Since I have to get him out of the crate to feed him I don't want to feed him too little and have him be hungry. 

And thanks again guys for all your help! We've rescued a lot of stray cats over the years but the youngest kittens we've found were around 2-3 mo old so we started to panic when the mom gave birth to kittens! lol


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## catloverami (Jul 5, 2010)

If you're at home all day 3x/day for your 6 mo. old would be OK, but if you're out working leave enough for him to nibble on through the day. Being crated he won't burn up as many calories as he would if he were out of it all day.


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## mailyn (Sep 23, 2010)

okies thanks! I'm going to do that now. I'm also going to mash the wet food and start the kitties on it.


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## mailyn (Sep 23, 2010)

small steps! w00t! 

my aunt and her boyfriend moved out today which means my mom can go back to her room so we put the male 6mo old in her room and the female is in mine and the good thing is that the rooms are each on one end of the house so they can't hear each other!

And another MAJOR yay, mom was looking for the kittens and crying and we gave them back to her and she was all happy cleaning them, etc!

Let's hope it stays that way cuz having to remove the kittens every day is crazy lol


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## catloverami (Jul 5, 2010)

That's good news, glad to hear she wants the kitties back. Maybe she just needed a break from them. It seems tho, that it was the male that was upsetting her.


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## mailyn (Sep 23, 2010)

Thanks! It's been a couple of days and all is well with mom and the kittens. It really did help to have the male at the other end of the house! 

Question: how do we go about separating mom from the kittens? I know we have to wait a few more weeks but I was wondering if we need to start doing something by now. 

We will keep the two 6mo old kittens and the mom because we know that any place we take them too, especially the mom, will find them non-adoptable and kill them. However we can't keep the younger kittens and in order to take them to the Humane society they must be friendly so they'll have a bigger chance to get adopted.


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