r/cats • u/OverthinkerMoonchild • 8d ago

Advice MY CAT JUST GAVE BIRTH & SHE'S GROWLING AT THE NEWBORN KITTY WHAT DO I DO?!

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Context: I've 3 cats, 5yo, 1.5yo, 5 months, all female. 1.5yo just gave birth an hour ago and then left the kid under the inverter box with the umbilical cord connected. And went ahead to beat my other 2 kids like dirt. Now my other babies are safe in the other room and this girl is growling at her own kid instead of nursing him. I somehow managed to clean the kid & cut the umbilical cord safely. Now what do I do?! Please someone help me out šŸ˜­

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u/YellowBunnywithTwist 8d ago

Young cats/ first time cats sometimes do eat their newborns. I know cause I saw it happened. She was 8 months rescued and was at foster house. She was very good mom for couple of days nursing them cleaning them and everything and then one night she ate two of her babies who were about a week old at that point. We separated the others. But it was brutal. I saw keep an eye out and separate the other babies as soon as she give birth to them. And yes take her to the vet as soon as you can

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u/MRSRN65 8d ago

We had a 3-legged cat, Peg, who's mother tried to eat her; hence why one leg was missing. She was the runt, but grew up to be very fiery.

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u/TheHonk85 8d ago

Heck yeah Peg! Got that fire in her against all odds!

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u/musca_domestica666 8d ago

Geez, talk about family trauma. šŸ˜³ But awesome that she's one fiery pirate with an origin story not every kitty has. šŸ’š

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u/Big_Pound1262 7d ago

Right like some Greek tragedy. Could have named them Hephaestus haha

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u/MineNowBotBoy 7d ago

ā€œBad Saturn! You put Jupiter down right this second!ā€

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u/zgubid4n 7d ago

That's roman tho

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u/Francesca_Fiore 8d ago

Yikes. My mom just gave me an early curfew.

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u/Susue333 8d ago

I love that name. Peg leg.

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u/patchlocke 8d ago edited 8d ago

Parents also have a 3 legged cat from the mom trying to eat him. It was just the foot but they ended up amputating the leg because the stub was getting infected from him running on the nub with his other legs. Orange tabby my little sister named Tigger because he hops with his back foot when he runs. He keeps up with the other cats my parents have perfectly fine at least

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u/Embarrassed_Whole585 8d ago

I had a hamster with a little nub for one of her legs because her mama tried to eat her. Nature is crazy.

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u/Extrovert_89 8d ago

My brother's hamster chewed it's own leg off and was therefore called Chewy til he died...

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u/koosamonkey 8d ago

My brother's guinea pig did this as well?!?! What in the actual FUCK?!?

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u/Frequent-Vehicle4734 6d ago

Animals, especially mammals, eating their own legs is often a sign of extreme distress and depression caused by low level mental and physical stimulation from being in an enclosed environment. Genuinely hate when people get pets and then do just the bare minimum to keep them alive. That's a sentient being with feelings and social needs, not a potted plant!!

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u/oreopotatoe 8d ago

Hell there are some days I feel like eating my child and heā€™s seven.

I mean at this point Iā€™ve asked every higher power and deity I can think of if the terrible twos will ever go away!

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u/No_Necessary9538 7d ago

Thank you for the chuckle! I felt that in my soul, and my kid is 30. šŸ˜‚

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u/StraightYellow2414 7d ago

Totally here for this very real parenting comment

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u/SirLanceHardwood 7d ago

we are with you lindsay clancy..

/s

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u/CycleAccomplished824 7d ago

What they say about humansā€¦. If our kids werenā€™t so darn cute weā€™d eat them tooā€¦ lol not serious

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u/HomeboyCraig 8d ago

I would be too if my mom tried to eat me

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u/SkRThatOneDude 8d ago

If I ever adopt a 3 legged cat, I'm gonna call them yardstick. Because they have 3 feet.

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u/TheVadonkey 8d ago

lol I have a cat with an extra two toes/digits on the interior side of each paw. His name is Toebias.

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u/vegetaman 8d ago

Awww.

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u/717mouse 8d ago

PEG hahahahahaha

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u/Dangerous_Serve_4454 8d ago

Isn't nature so beautiful...

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u/johnpaulgeorgeringoo 8d ago

Naming her peg is so funny

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u/MRSRN65 8d ago

"Lucky" just didn't feel right.

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u/LittleMissLoveDuck 7d ago

Yep. That would make me first as hell. You go Peg! šŸ”„

My husband's family had puppies one time and their dog kept wanting to go outside after. They let her out thinking she was done having babies. Nope. There was a puppy coming out and they rushed out to catch the little guy. The puppy was born with its inards on the outside. Their dog kept pushing him out of the litter. Unfortunately the pup did not survive, but it is like she KNEW something was off.

She was very sad for a while and so they gave her a purple dragon toy. She would care for it like a puppy, so my mother inlaw called it the purple puppy. She didnt do that to any other dog toy.

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u/Opening_Garbage2697 7d ago

OMG I HAVE A PEGGY 3 LEGGY. She's a bitty brat and likes to start shit and cry wolf when they defend. I love her very much.

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u/EffectivePublic7535 7d ago

I had a cat as a kid that was fully black except for one solid ginger leg. As a kitten we called her Peg Leg, which later evolved into Peggy

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u/catdad0203 7d ago

And when you smile for the camera
I know I'll love you better
Peg!!!

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u/esti-cat45 8d ago

They donā€™t kill them before they start to eat them??

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u/gigimeowmeow 8d ago

Wait wait waaaaait. So I have two brother cats that we think were born missing legs. (One is three legged and the other is 2 legged). Found them as kittens with their stray mom who brought them to our porch. Their nubbins had fur growing over them so we assumed they were born like that rather than from a traumaā€¦. Was your catā€™s nubbin obvious that it had been eaten off?

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u/MRSRN65 8d ago

It was obvious. She was trying to walk on her exposed bone. They had to surgically amputate the rest of her leg to prevent infection and create a pocket of skin/fur.
I'm guessing your kittens were born that way.

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u/gigimeowmeow 8d ago

We also had to eventually amputate one leg each on both of them because the bone was poking throughā€¦ā€¦ so I donā€™t know!

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u/Crucifuxion 7d ago

Awwwww! Sweet little baby.

I had a cat that ate some of her kittens and she was so insane I couldnā€™t keep her. Iā€™ve never had to do that and Iā€™ve had cats all my life, it absolutely broke my heart and I still cry when I think about it.

Now I only date guy cats.

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u/malatmals 6d ago

Wait so instead of Peg and Cat it would be Peg and Peg?

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u/xxcuttingboardxx 8d ago

I didn't know that cats might eat their babies as well. I had my dwarf hamster do that, she gave birth to three babies, but when I came back home later that day there were only two left. I knew that hamsters could do that, if they were too stressed, if you didn't leave them be or if you had touched the babies with your bare hands, which I knew not to do. It was shocking and sad, but I was still happy that two of them got to live. It's horrific how animals might eat their own kids like that.

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u/rglurker 8d ago

I learned that at the ripe age of 10 when I stopped hearing noises and open up the hamster nest to find 4 headless babies.

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u/PrincessConsuela46 6d ago

This was my experience when I was 5 šŸ˜­

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u/rglurker 6d ago

I'm sorry you had to go their that too hugs

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u/annalitchka 8d ago

i'm so sorry that happened to you! What a traumatic experience!

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u/rglurker 8d ago

It was traumatic. Stuck with me my whole life. Then I had a baby with no support and for a few moments felt what that hamster probably felt. Unbearable stress. I hated that hamster for what it did. But in that moment felt remorse for being incapable of providing for it to the point it felt it had to do that. The lesson i took away at this point is that being a parent is hard. The hamster chose it's ability to survive and try again. Over everyone dying. It's just reinforced my view we shouldn't be doing life alone

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u/Ctenophorever 7d ago

Iā€™m glad you said this, because this was the first thought that popped into my head. I remember the first night with my kid and it would just not shut up. Already sleep deprived for two days, and starting on a third.

Thank god I was still in the hospital. Not like they actually had a nursery to take it to or anything. But they brought in a swing and the baby settled down. And my thought was, ā€œyouā€™re not supposed to put babies to sleep in those things.ā€ Followed quickly by, ā€œif I can get some sleep I donā€™t care.ā€

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u/Unlikely_Ear605 7d ago

This is a great story. The traumatic event, your own trauma, your ability to connect to the two and relate to another living being. Itā€™s all very human.Ā 

Thanks for sharing.

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u/rglurker 7d ago

I do my best to be a human but sometimes I forget and then have to look around to see what everyone else is doing so I can be more human like. Unfortunately I've realized we all kinda suck at being human :(

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u/Otherwise_Air_6381 8d ago

We got a boy hamster for a Christmas present. My parents were sold a boy. Little me had previously learned that hamsters eat their babies heads off. Donā€™t ask how or who told me such a fact. My parents still tell the story of how I ran into their room early one morning screaming at the top of my lungs in a panic, ā€œZibbidie had babies, and sheā€™s gonna eat their heads off!!!!ā€ Two lived. Iā€™m not sure if she ate any, probably due to trauma. But then Mr. Zibbidy (zippity doo da) had become Miss. Zibbidy and Casper and Free Willy.
Only other memory of them was when Casper was ā€œdeadā€ for two weeks but showed up in the drain of the sink alive but brown instead of his normal bright white. He earned his name

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u/TomaszA3 8d ago

Why does that read as an average hamster story at this point? This shouldn't be an average, but it somehow is.

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u/gray-ops 8d ago

Believe it or not, the two hamsters Iā€™ve had in my lifetime lived long lives and died naturally on their cages after 2-3 years.

They did, however, have many adventures of escape in their years

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u/Rikkitikkitabby 8d ago

We found my cousin's hamster trying to escape, but he couldn't move very fast, because he found a bag of dog kibble and stuffed his checks so full it was slowing him down.

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u/Little_Froggy 8d ago

Growing up I had a hamster go missing for over a month!

We ended up catching them eating kibble from the cat food bowl.

Even further later on we replaced the oven and discovered a hole in the wall behind it where they had dug out a burrow

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u/Otherwise_Air_6381 7d ago

I wonder if thatā€™s how mine survived for so long without being eaten. Our cats were originally strays that adopted us for food and cuddles balancing their outdoor lives. We have been blessed with many gifts (now I know itā€™s because they thought we were incapable of doing the hunting ourselves.) but just the simple fact that Casper out smarted two very experienced predators blows my mind. Even domestically raised hamsters have street smarts I guess.

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u/RevoDeee 8d ago

Hamcestors

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u/BeeHive83 8d ago

I had one escape, chew a hole in my closet. I found it near the basement stairs in a garbage can. Mustā€™ve been a hell of a travel.

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u/Project-SBC 8d ago

I didnā€™t realize being a hamster owner had so much shenanigans to it. Had a robo hamster awhile ago.

One morning I woke up around 4:30 and went downstairs. I turned the kitchen light on and was half awake walking through the kitchen when I saw an animal scurrying along the cabinet boards. I was a bit in shock, thought it was a mouse, but also thought it was going awfully slow for a mouse who should know a human is near them. Turns out it was the robo. I managed to catch it quickly before it got somewhere I couldnā€™t catch it.

I had cleaned one of the external tubes in its enclosure the previous day and I didnā€™t put it back well. It managed to get out that gap.

I thought I was awfully lucky to find it like that because Iā€™ve heard the horror stories of hamsters getting out, getting lost, and when you smell it you know you were too late.

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u/Consistent-Data-3377 7d ago

I was not aware that a robo hamster was short for a type of hamster and was terribly confused as to why you'd have to keep your robot hamster in a cage

I'm glad you found your little buddy though šŸ˜

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u/TabithaMouse 7d ago

When I was a kid I was moving my robo from her cage to a temp container to clean the cage.

She jumped out of my hands, ran across the house, followed by my dad's cat (who was a 15 lb avid mouser (we got "presents" from him a lot)), followed by me.

Robo turned the corner and ran up the stairs, followed by the cat, slowly followed by me because I had issues climbing stairs due to my legs. I'm prepping myself to find some gore.

First thing I see is blood on the cat's face, but he's still completely focused to something under my dresser. Look - little robo was there, sitting on her hind legs and making angry noises.

Catch her, check, no injuries, not even a spot of wet fur. Check the cat - he had scratches over his nose.

This was a week after we had to separate her from a littermate because she ripped her sibling's nose off.

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u/PromotionExpensive15 8d ago

My one and only time owning hamsters was when I was maybe 7 and I got 2 males for my birthday. Needless to say i came back from the store with my parents one day to one and a half hamsters. I've been a dog person ever since

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u/GulliblePut1018 8d ago

Me & my sisterā€™s hamsters when we were kids got loose and we found them under our gas dryer. šŸ˜³ They were a lil crispy with lint burned to their fur, but still alive! They did not live very much longer though. ā˜¹ļø

I even wrote a story about it in like 4th grade. I just found the little picture book I made out of the story in an old tote my mom gave me and at the very end of the book I wrote, ā€œWe buried me and older sisterā€™s hamster under the peach tree. (We threw younger sisterā€™s across the creek.) The endā€ šŸ¤£šŸ¤£

Iā€™m not even in this sub, it was just suggested to me but I had to share my horrifying hamster story too.

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u/Shivvy66 8d ago

This isn't quite relevant to your story, but I love your hamster names! My sister and I only had one set of hamsters. Mine was Hercules. I had just seen the Disney film, I wanted a girl, to name her Megera, but Dad said the girls weren't lively enough. Thus, we got 2 boys. My sister named her's Tomato, because he was red

Nothing quite as exciting, but Tomato did live under the bath for a couple of weeks. Why do they like bathrooms so much?

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u/Otherwise_Air_6381 7d ago

Thatā€™s hilarious. True and true 90s babies šŸ™ŒšŸ½

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u/rglurker 8d ago

I didn't know until I looked at their headless bodies :(

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u/It-Wont-Be-Forever 7d ago

This sounds exactly like my brothers hamsterā€¦

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u/RPG_add1ct 8d ago

Touching them with your bare hands does not cause them to eat them. Thatā€™s one of many old wives tales about many creatures and their newborns.

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u/Pethoarder4life 8d ago

All mammals have long histories of mothers killing their babies before a predator kills them first. It's a natural thing that happens that we super don't understand. I really wish it was studied more because it would help our human mothers who suffer similar issues and rarely get sufficient help.

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u/ZarEGMc 8d ago

Yeah my immediate response after reading it was like "is that like cat PPD"

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u/Pethoarder4life 8d ago

It could be. It would be really nice if we could study it appropriately.

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u/Gloomy-Welcome-6806 8d ago

Cats eat their young if the mother is severely stressed or ill, if the babies are ill or stillborn, needs to regain nutrients, or doesnā€™t recognize that the kitten is theirs (for first time moms)

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u/BudandCoyote 8d ago

Yeah my immediate response after reading it was like "is that like cat PPD"

Pretty much. Cats (and other mammals) tend to eat their young in a couple of specific circumstances - when the baby is ill, instinct can compel them to do so (likely because it prevents anything being passed to the rest of the litter and to not waste nutrients); and when the mum is incredibly stressed, which basically triggers the 'eat them and start again' urge, since stress in the wild means 'there's no food and a predator outside the den who might eat me and the babies, I have to get rid of them and try again when it's safe.'

Human postpartum depression has been linked to mums who feel unsupported and incapable, and is often accompanied by an urge to harm or abandon the baby. It's almost certainly that same leftover instinct of 'I'm never going to be able to raise this one, I have to get rid of them and start again when I feel safe and can take care of a baby'.

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u/Main_Cauliflower5479 8d ago edited 8d ago

The recent news item with the mother killing her children is directly due to post partum depression/psychosis. And the mother feels like she can't admit she has these thoughts and feelings, for obvious reasons. It all goes unchecked. Usually baby daddy isn't supportive enough, or other family members are too overbearing, making the mother's mental health worse and stressing her out even more...

I was responding on a sub where it was clearly all men and they were AAAAALLLLL vilifying the woman. One man who was muslim told me maybe one day I'd find a husband who could straighten my mind out or something like that.

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u/Pethoarder4life 8d ago

I'm sorry you ran into such cruelty. Hormones do insane things.

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u/Main_Cauliflower5479 8d ago

Yes. And one guy responded, too, and said "You're really going to blame hormones for this? Have you heard of testosterone? Do you want me to show you want testosterone causes?" For real.

And what are the statistics on domestic violence where the woman is killed vs where the man is killed? And which parent is responsible for more killings of their own children? The numbers don't lie. But when a woman DOES do it, then it's all over the airwaves and newspapers.

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u/Pethoarder4life 8d ago

For all we know it IS testosterone doing it. No one fucking cares to look. Serial killers, though, they get all kinds of research.

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u/Main_Cauliflower5479 8d ago

Yes. But no one cares to research women's heath issues of any kind, physical or mental.

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u/Specialist_Plum7672 7d ago

Why? Because that would require them to care about women, which they do not.

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u/Pethoarder4life 7d ago

It's almost illegal in the US now, yay!!! šŸ˜’

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u/tydark2 8d ago

ya but when men do it they are thrown in prison and there are no men who are going to defend them on any basis.

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u/Main_Cauliflower5479 8d ago

Well, that's because it's not defensible. Literal postpartum psychosis is very real, and very under diagnosed. THAT is the difference.

AND so many men DO get off and never see a day in prison.

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u/tydark2 8d ago

any man who kills there kids also probably has some severe mental illness or psychosis.

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u/Aeirth_Belmont 8d ago

A few different animals do it. Growing up we had a dog do it. She got pg before we could get her in to fix her. Yeah we came home to a blood bath.

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u/Ok_Pineapple7101 8d ago

Touching them makes more sense difference. Itā€™s an old wifeā€™s tail

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u/Financial_Fly5708 8d ago

Its more just being inexperienced/ stressed/ they dont think its making it.Ā 

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u/Ok-Jackfruit-6873 8d ago

this is what they told us fostering cats. If the mother is too stressed she may kill the kittens, because she doesn't feel she can safely raise them so it's better for her to regain the calories and try again next time

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u/KeyBrilliant3183 8d ago

What on earth? You mean the cat/motheras tail?

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u/Clarkeste 8d ago

r/BoneAppleTea for "old wives' tale"

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u/malary1234 8d ago

My cat had 2 sets of twins (tuxedo and Siamese) and smothered one twins from the Siamese set bc he had a clubbed foot. He was the one I planned on keeping :( I found him before she ate him.

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u/xxcuttingboardxx 8d ago

At least you got to bury him whole :( I kinda wish I would've stayed home the day my hamster gave birth, maybe I could've done something. Or maybe Chia ate that baby because he was born dead, I'll never know. But when she had her second litter I stayed with them and checked on them regularly to make sure they were all moving and that Chia got enough nutrients. All those four babies survived and became wonderful little hampters ā™”

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u/Sharkey__Shark 8d ago

I had a cocker spaniel that ate her newborns, man talk about a shock for a young teen I was.

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u/AyyNonnyMoose 8d ago

It's a sad truth and animal instinct. I believe sometimes it's a matter of health; if the mother believes the baby is too weak/fragile/sick, get rid of it so it's not taking resources from the babies that have a better chance.

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u/maximus459 8d ago

I know they eat the stillborn kittens, and usually there is one in every litre. But I didn't know they actually ate newborn kittens

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u/Important_One_8729 8d ago

I had a dwarf hamster that had babies, but the cat got into the enclosure, are the mother, and we couldn't get food into the babies so they all died too.

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u/binzy90 8d ago

We had a rabbit named Penelope who ate her babies. We called her Munchy after that.

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u/meowymcmeowmeow 8d ago

I work at a shelter, have seen it several times over the past few years. The cats that did it were so sweet otherwise.

The older folks I work with theorize they can sense something wrong with the eaten babies and as in nature, they don't want to waste the "resources" or have the "resources" start to rot and contaminate the healthy babies/ attract predators.

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u/Professor-Bagworm 8d ago

It also can be a personality thing. Some cats just don't have the motherly instinct and don't want to be mothers and react this way to perfectly healthy kittens.Ā 

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u/JackMeoffThisYear 8d ago

Humans even do this. dumpster babies

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u/Miserable-File3390 8d ago

This comment made me think of this family guy episode.

https://giphy.com/gifs/TyxIgZ8EJ86R2

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u/Main_Cauliflower5479 8d ago

In those cases, the mother does not have the skill or resources to care for a baby.

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u/WetLaceScraps 8d ago

I do wonder about this. We found my current kitten(11 months) outside our door soaking wet, freezing and screaming while the mom just sat nearby staring at her(they were feral apartment cats) We took her in and dried and warmed her. Fast forward to around six months of age she starts having terrible symptoms. She was diagnosed with an inoperable tumor in her intestines right at the junction with her stomach. Sheā€™s on steroids and weā€™re just keeping her happy as long as we can. But I often wonder if Mama Bug knew something.

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u/Main_Cauliflower5479 8d ago

They do often know. They can smell it. Look at all the dogs who can diagnose cancer. I had an ovarian tumor, and one of my cats kept jumping on the exact spot on my abdomen.

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u/WetLaceScraps 8d ago

Oh that was sad. Baby Bug tax.

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u/farklespanktastic 8d ago

It's not the exact same thing because the baby was already dead, but I remember watching a documentary about lions where a lioness ate one of her babies after it had died. She seemed to make sure it was dead first, but it was still kind of shocking.

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u/3ateeji 8d ago edited 8d ago

WHAT

Edit: I have seen and considered your replies and would like to clarify my statement -

WHAT

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u/Frost_Goldfish 8d ago edited 8d ago

It happens a lot in the animal kingdom.Ā 

Some risk factors are:

-First time mother

-Stress (mother being hungry, in dirty surroundings, under threat...)

Preventive:

-In some species being around more experienced mothers and watching them interact with their own litter can help the first time mother.

In OP's case the cat is young (1,5) and probably it's a first or second litter so I think that plays a role. And she's clearly stressed.Ā 

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u/KatzOfficial 8d ago

It's not just this, cats also eat kittens they think won't be able to live long - whether that's because of deformity or sickness - if they think it's going to come at a cost to the rest of the litter.

Another particularly brutal one is a cat who is nursing who has no other source of nutrition might turn to eating a kitten. But usually if the kitten lives a few days, they'll raise them whole ime.

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u/deadsoulinside 8d ago

This. When I was growing up my parents were breeding some dogs. We had a first time Pomeranian dog do that to a litter. I remember it as me and my brother were the first ones to discover it... we under 10 years old.

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u/3ateeji 8d ago

Username checks out

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u/yourdailyinsanity 8d ago

they'll also do this to keep predators away. especially if the kitten is sick and likely won't make it, thye'll just eat it.

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u/queerwithbeer 8d ago

(Un)fun fact, herbivores do it as well. I can't say all herbivores do, but I will say most.

I've bred rats, who are technically omnivores, and seen many mothers eat their ftt (failure to thrive) babies and other rats that have passed. It's brutal and horrifying, but nature is unforgiving and their instincts tell them what to do for a reason.

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u/frisbeethecat 8d ago

Rabbits do this, too

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u/Illustrious-Towel-45 8d ago

So do pigs.

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u/Almost_Sentient 8d ago

So do stockbrokers.

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u/barney_chuckle 8d ago

They already mentioned rats

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u/Ok_Key_2396 8d ago

Stockbrokers are technically coprophages though, not omnivores, hence the differentiation

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u/Ok_Computer_8224 8d ago

I don't know how I saw this so quickly but it might've just made my Monday LOL

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u/yourdailyinsanity 8d ago

I completely believe this. Doesn't surprise me at all tbh, haha

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u/Lindy_dy 8d ago

Ā I have read some experiment on it. I think it was mother monkey (who grew up alone) seeing her children for the first time and tried to kill. Eventually, people had to separate them.

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u/theredwoman95 8d ago

Yeah, there's unfortunately a lot of overlap in the risk factors that cause teen mums (ones who almost exclusively had hidden or unknown pregnancies) to commit infanticide after giving birth alone. Mammals just don't respond well to that sort of extreme stress.

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u/Elegant_Somewhere2 8d ago

And tbh human births are a lot more traumatic than most other mammal births - or at least a whole different kind of trauma with the nurses, doctors, drugs, and the fact that our bodies arenā€™t built very well for birthing compared to most other mammals.

* definitely not including hyenas because they have the most traumatic and horrific births Iā€™ve ever heard of.

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u/Lepang8 8d ago

Yeah, literally also among some of us unfortunately. Mothers that can't handle being pregnant and then giving birth, then immediately dump the new born in the bin.

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u/Pethoarder4life 8d ago

ALL mammals do this. It needs to be studied more to help the human mothers who go through similar things. We are still only guessing as to what's going on physically and mentally.

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u/theredwoman95 8d ago

Yeah, I just commented saying that there's a lot of overlap between the conditions that cause cats to eat their newborn offspring and the conditions that cause human mothers to commit infanticide very shortly after birth.

We like to think of ourselves as very rational beings, but this is one of those extremely stressful situations (especially for first time mums, who were often unaware or trying to hide their pregnancies and give birth alone) where reason isn't really on the same planet.

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u/Pethoarder4life 8d ago

We do, don't we? Our disconnection from knowing we are mammals and share so much is really hurting our society right now. Think about what we could learn. There's a bunch of people out there who know it, though, we just keep talking about it.

I don't know why, but I'd love to offer an Internet hug.

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u/Gloomy-Welcome-6806 8d ago

I went to the morality sub (big mistake) and someone asked if using glue traps for mice was moral. 80-90% of commenters said that it was moral because theyā€™re pests. I think itā€™s awful how they think weā€™re above every single animal and that they donā€™t suffer pain or emotions.

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u/Pethoarder4life 8d ago

OMG that's wild

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u/HmmDoesItMakeSense 8d ago

Drives me crazy when people say animals and don't think we are part of that group šŸ™„

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u/Gloomy-Welcome-6806 8d ago

A pregnant cats hormones change like us in pregnancy. I wouldnā€™t be surprised if the neurotransmitters arenā€™t adequate enough or are overwhelming enough to change its behavior. Iā€™m not sure if we can equate the same things with a cat because it doesnā€™t experience every spectrum of emotion like we do. Itā€™s interesting to think about!

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u/theredwoman95 8d ago

Oh yeah, I'm not saying it's a 1:1 comparison but I think the similarities should spark more introspection about our behaviour and how we respond to stressors.

Like your other comment, I think a lot of people think we're above animals and so it's not worth thinking about, but that strikes me a self-fulfilling prophecy (e.g. why compare ourselves to animals? oh, now there's no evidence of how our behaviour might resemble other species!).

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u/Substantial_Bet_6766 8d ago

I am the first child. My mother had me when she was 20. I don't remember anything obviously but I am told my mother tried to kill me ( poured kerosene on me and was gonna light me up lol) and I was rescued in time by the neighbours. She didn't breast feed me for a long time. She was taken to the doctor and put on oral progesterone pills and had a complete change in behaviour and surprisingly she didn't even remember doing anything to me. She was in shock.

Hormones are absolutely crazy and we haven't even scratched the surface of understanding them. I think it's across all species.

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u/Stock-Side-6767 8d ago

Dog too. A dog at my parents ate one of her puppies, but cared well for the others.

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u/drmojo90210 8d ago

Nature is brutal and cats are especially so.

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u/DriveFoST 8d ago

Itā€™s brutal but animals are strictly practical, no feelings involved. If theyā€™re stressed, hungry, scared etc they can potentially consume their young. It returns calories and nutrients to their system lost from raising and delivering the kitten(s) and eliminates the loss of more from feeding / sharing food with their young.

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u/Pethoarder4life 8d ago

It's hard to understand, especially the first time you encounter it. Sadly it becomes very normal when you start to learn about it. There are some scientific assumptions that seem to make sense, but it's really not studied enough. I hope we do more research so we can help the humans that this happens to.

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u/issoequeerabom 8d ago

Noooooooo šŸ˜­ I would be in shock

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u/suenoselectronicos 8d ago

Yes OP please watch those babies! Our cat had kittens and my mom went to check on them after a day or so and only found a bunch of cat heads. The mom had eaten the bodies. My mom was so traumatized.

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u/Faith-filled76 8d ago

That is pretty traumaticā€¦

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u/zammii 8d ago

I heard that some animals also do that if the baby is especially weak or sick, they will kill and sometimes eat the unfit ones for the benefit of the rest of the babies

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u/Koolviiz 8d ago

I heard it sometimes happens if the mother was separated from her own mother too early

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u/ItsNotPatchy 8d ago

Even kitties get PPD. Who knew?

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u/theredwoman95 8d ago

I think we'd consider it closer to postpartum psychosis in humans, but yeah. We're still mammals at the end of the day.

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u/Faith-filled76 8d ago

Yes psychosis would be more appropriate and accurate to describe. Depression is overwhelming sadness Killing and eat your offspring is another level. It is not because they were or are unhealthy either. That is humans trying to cope with the fact that it happens. However, they need to be taught how to be Mommas and should be monitored

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u/SweetHomeNorthKorea 8d ago

That was my first thought šŸ˜¢

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u/BalanceRight7768 8d ago

I had a pretty traumatic kitten getting eaten moment. Momma had a litter and they all seemed healthy and fine, woke up next day to pet the kitten that was seemingly under the blanket but its head, only its head rolled over. It fucked me up bad, I had heard that they do that if the baby probably wonā€™t survive or is in the process of dying but I had never seen it.

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u/Chaosbuggy 8d ago

This is one of the most disturbing things I've ever read. Like straight out of a horror movie. I'm sorry you had to experience that

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u/BalanceRight7768 8d ago

It was really bad, Iā€™m terrible at being around dead animals to the point I canā€™t look at roadkill so my body instantly threw my head back and made me go ask my brother if wtf I thought just happened happened

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u/un_chat_orange 8d ago

Is this what my mom meant when she would say: "I brought you into this world, I can take you out of it." ?Ā  /j

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u/lady_faust European Shorthair 8d ago

We had a cat, Suki, who did the same because of stress.

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u/danbilllemon 8d ago

Thatā€™s awful. I picked up a 10 month old pregnant stray a few years back and she was a terrible mom and would basically only nurse them, but at least she didnā€™t eat them! Luckily kittens had my partner and I and a boy cat that loved them to pieces to pick up her slack. I still have momma and her 2 babies and their stepdad still cleans them and loves on them even though theyā€™re like 5 years old atp.

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u/RipAirBud 8d ago

not the step dad, the dad who stepped up!

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u/vivalaspazz 8d ago

Post partum effects all species I guess

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u/Vampyr-Slayer 8d ago

1 week old!? I knew they ate the babies that were sick or not thriving to protect the other babies. My cat ate parts of her 2 day old kitten who kept crying and couldn't feed (I think). I found the baby dead on the side with an arm missing šŸ¤¢ but 1 week old and then!? God, that's horrifying. Did the others survive? How did you manage to feed them?

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u/No-Craft-7979 8d ago

Typically that is a case where you are malnourishing the mother, so she ate the weakest ones. You do know you need to feed a momma far more than a normal cat, they will still lose weight, but they need 3-4 cans of food minimum. In the wild everytime the kittens sleep the mother goes on a hunt. If you did not properly feed her, you causes the incident.

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u/Tattooed_Everything9 Tortoiseshell 8d ago

Ok thatā€™s harsh.

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u/chaoticsleepynpc 8d ago edited 8d ago

Yeah it's a harsh fact. Even if they they have enough. I always give them more & readily available to free feed.

Even in humans postpartum hits moms hard. When I was a kid my mom was friends with another mom who's body had tried to cannablize an organ and her teeth (she didn't eat well due to nausea) their hair apparently falls out whether the mom ate well or not.

Basically mom's are feeding not just themselves but the babies and that means they themselves if pushed comes to shove will be sacrificed because of how bodies work.

Gives me the creepy crawlies thinking about it. Mom's out there, you're amazing.

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u/DiligentDaughter 8d ago

Info on the hair falling out bit- During pregnancy, mom's estrogen is high, this keeps hair in the growth phase throughout pregnancy. Your literally doesn't fall out during gestation, and it grows faster than when not pregnant- hair often looks dummy thick while knocked up. After giving birth, estrogen drops a shit ton, triggering telogen effluvium, and all that hair that didn't fall out over those 40 weeks falls out all at once, a few months after baby is born, over like 7-8m. It's a fuckin horror show!

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u/eucalyptoid 8d ago

Telogen effluvium!

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u/Userdataunavailable 8d ago

My pregnancy destroyed my teeth and I ended up having to get them all removed.

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u/cynical-mage 8d ago

That happened to my grandmother with my youngest uncle; 30yrs old, and she ended up with full dentures. She never let anyone see her without them in, she was so self conscious about it. She'd have a scarf over her face until she'd put them in. My daughter's teeth have also become very fragile since she had her 2nd, awful.

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u/Userdataunavailable 8d ago

I was in my 20s and I felt so embarrassed at first, I was worried people would think I was a junkie. I'm in my 50s now and all I can think is how much I've saved on dental care.

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u/cynical-mage 8d ago

šŸ«‚ would have been so difficult for you. People absolutely can and do judge šŸ˜”

Evolution did us dirty when it comes to teeth. Lucky sharks.

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u/TechnicalHand5267 8d ago

Oh my gosh, me too. During each pregnancy, my teeth were so brittle and my gums were always in terrible shape. After my third child was born I had to have them all extracted at 29 years old. Itā€™s had a huge impact on my life, Iā€™m 39 now and just getting used to denturesā€¦ theyā€™re so uncomfortable, but the way people treat me is now is worth all the discomfort.

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u/Extension_Repair8501 8d ago

Thank you for my daily dose of birth control

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u/Altruistic_Common_18 8d ago

Not harsh at all. If mama cat wasnā€™t getting enough food and nutrients throughout the pregnancy which is way more than a regular cat would require, it puts extreme stress on their bodies and even moreso when they are giving birth and raising the babies. If sheā€™s not properly taken care of they will have to resort to things like that.

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u/highheelcyanide 8d ago

I took in a pregnant stray that did that. I didnā€™t own cats for several years after that.

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u/SparkleSiren 8d ago

Ugh my childhood cat did this. I was horrified.! My parents tried explaining that the 2 kittens were sick and not healthy which is why she ate them, but at the time it was still upsetting to think my precious baby was capable of such a thing. Her other kittens were perfectly healthy and she was a great mom to them so there's that.

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u/MeeepMorp 8d ago

Christ, I've heard that it can happen but never specifically about someone it happened to. Did you reintroduce them under when they were a bit older?

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u/Jasonmac10 8d ago

Take her to the vet why? You mean the mother cat?

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u/Its1207amcantsleep 8d ago

I love cats, I have had them as pets all my life. I was 8 years when one of our cats gave birth and it was fine for a day then she ate all 4 of her babies heads off. My 8 year old kid screams šŸ˜±

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u/certainlyheisenberg1 8d ago

I had dogs growing up but my mom wouldnā€™t allow cats. Her reason was she grew up on a ranch and watched mother cats eating their babies. I got a feral cat as an adult and didnā€™t get her spayed in time so she had a litter. She was the most protective mom of those kitties you can imagine. I always thought my mom was exaggerating but I guess it happens.

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u/Impossible_Umpire400 8d ago

cats really only eat their newborns when they know they wonā€™t make it, otherwise they just abandon them and prioritize their healthy ones. itā€™s part of their survival instincts.

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u/xray_anonymous 8d ago

Sometimes theyā€™ll try to eat ones that smell ā€œoffā€ health wise, like they can sense thereā€™s an issue or illness that will complicate their survival.

But dang Iā€™ve never heard of them eating them Willy Nilly. Yikes

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u/Sufficient-Body-950 8d ago

Had one do the same but she didnt eat them, it was weird she would get mad when they started crying and had to go nurse them. But she did take care of them.

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u/Angelea23 8d ago

Wait, I thought mother cats only ate their kittens if they had died from complications! They actually eat their babies if they are alive?!

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u/YellowBunnywithTwist 8d ago

Yes. It was awful. šŸ˜­

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u/Wise-General-3838 8d ago edited 8d ago

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u/umastan_1 8d ago

Why do they do this???

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u/foreveralonewithus 7d ago

nature is so cruel sometimes. i guess that why humans are at the top

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u/samanthaFerrell 7d ago

I had a feral cat that gave birth behind my wall. It sound like maybe 4-5 but I heard her crunching on them later that night and she eventually came out with one with a clef lip that looked exactly like her twin except for the half lip thing and she dropped it on my bed like here she is yours now. The kitten could only partially nurse so we had to supplement with formula. I assume the other kittens she ate had something wrong with them.

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u/xatiated 7d ago

"First time cat" is rly funny. Lol is that just a cat on it's first life out of 9?

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u/YellowBunnywithTwist 7d ago

šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚ dead. ā€œFirst time MOMā€.

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u/No_Ragrets76 7d ago

Wtf. That's a new fear you unlocked for me. Omg now I'm scared for the litter my cat is about to have. She's a first time mom (had her since she was a kitten), so now, I'm even more terrified.

I'm going to do research on that and how to prepare for everything.

Glad I saw this post. Thank you for this information šŸ™šŸ½

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u/YellowBunnywithTwist 7d ago

Tbh thereā€™s not much you could do other than providing her comfort, safe stress free space with soft blankets and a lot of food close by. And keep a close eye on the babies. My kitty was only 8 months old, super sweet and a good mom until a week later she went batshit crazy. All we got were two small heads. I lowkey hated her for couple of weeks but the foster had experience with the situation and took care of the other kittens. Sometimes they eat cause they stress d out, sometimes cause they too young and have no motherly instincts, sometimes they can smell something wrong with the babies. She was first time mom with 9 kittens. I think she was very overwhelmed. The kittens she ate were(looked) healthy and strong. Good luck.

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u/CommanderD0ge 7d ago

had a cat before, gave birth - got it a blanket and a box. following day all that's left were cute little paws.

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u/sunsetscorpio 7d ago

Omg, my youngest cat had a litter shortly after we got her (we found her as a stray, and she escaped the apartment a few times before the spay appt) She was super young, under a year and Iā€™m so grateful this didnā€™t happen because I did not know it could and would not have been prepared at all šŸ˜­

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u/BrightSession7934 7d ago

I've seen it happen too also sometimes even after being good mums to a couple of litters they shun a litter for some reason or another I've seen it all with kittys over 40 years of being a cat lover šŸ˜šŸ¤”šŸ‘

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u/Visual_Perception821 7d ago

And people asked me why I fear cats.

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