# Mother cat attacking her male kitten.



## jadedarkrose (Jun 7, 2015)

Hi, 

I started caring for my landlady's kitten after she went through her first heat and I knew she was pregnant. Now the kittens are 6 weeks old and I have a problem. The one kitten that looks different and is absolutely male, she is attacking viciously. I think she's going into heat again as she is super loving towards me and my husband and wants nothing to do with her kittens. I have confined her to one room of the house. I attempted to reintroduce all the kittens to her, but she attacked the black one again. This morning she licked him, but now, an hour later she's hissing and mad at him again. Does anyone at all know why she could be doing this?

Thank you.


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## 10cats2dogs (Jun 16, 2013)

Hi Jadedarkrose,
I wonder if she senses that something is wrong with him, health wise??
It's good that you have mama cat safe, she should be spayed, as soon as possible! 
I hope some of our Rescuers and fosterer's have some ideas for you soon!
Sharon


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## Marcia (Dec 26, 2010)

My feral momma kitty is doing the same thing. She is the momma to several kittens in my foster room but has also taken on all the other babies I have brought home. At times she will snip and growl at them then an hour later several are nursing.


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## Arianwen (Jun 3, 2012)

The nursing mother cat we found years ago became really horrible to all her kittens. As soon as she is able, have her neutered. She may still have problems but she needs it.


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## catloverami (Jul 5, 2010)

As you're experiencing, not all "queens" are good mothers to their kittens. During my breeding years with Manx, I was very lucky to have very devoted queens to their kittens, but I know it used to be a topic of conversation at shows among breeders who would occasionally have one that was a meany to a kitten(s). Don't really know why that is----perhaps poor early socialization skills because she was taken away too early from her momacat and litter mates could be one reason. I do know that a kitten that has something wrong with it, such as _fading kitten syndrome_, the queen will ignore it completely. Nature's way....even the kitten will distance itself from the queen and its litter mates by crawling to the farthest corner of the box, and it will continue to do that even if you put it back with the queen to nurse. I think it's more common with feral queens, particularly if they get pregnant very early after already having a litter.....they're just fed up with having kittens. Try to keep the kittens nursing on her a little longer if you can, but they should be transitioning to canned kitten food now. But if she's being so nasty that she's really hurting the black one, better to separate her from them, and get her spayed.


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