Why did my cat kill her kitten

m1sty_m4id3n

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My cat (first time mum) had four kittens four days ago. All has been going well until last night when she started acting strange... She was restless and in and out of the box where the kittens were, mewing and squeaking at the kittens (never heard this before) I left her to it after a quick check. This morning I woke up to an empty kitten box..... panic!
Ran downstairs and mum and the kittens were on the rug, kittens scattered at random, not all curled up as usual, three of them were fine, but the biggest kitten was dead, he looked as if his tail and bum had been chewed! I moved the dead kitten, and left the others alone whilst i dealt with the dead kitten ( i have a 4 year old daughter, not a nice sight for her obviously) came back and mum had relocated the surviving kittens to under the table. She's still seems fine and happy, I'm just confused to what could have made her do this, is seems so strange, and as I said, this one was the biggest of the litter and seemed fine. Anyone got any ideas??
 

jen

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First time moms or one's that are too young to have a litter sometimes accidently chew into the cat when trying to chew the umbilical cord. Or the kitten could have been sick and so that is why she killed it. How old is she? Was this an accidental pregnancy? With untested, mixed breed cats, you can never be sure what sort of diseases or problems they are carrying. It would be in her best interest to spay her when this litter is weaned so she cann't reproduce anymore. It is unnecessary and could be unhealthy, not to mention the fact that the longer a cat goes without being spayed, the greater the risk of Pyometra and cancers. So keep her indoors and away from intact toms until she can be spayed, the kittens too.
 
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m1sty_m4id3n

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She's just over a year old, the pregnancy wasn't planned, she sneaked out. I do plan on having her spayed asap. The umbilical cord was healing nicely, she did a good job with that and it was four days ago when she chewed the cords. Could she still get tails and cords mixed up? Just seems such a strange way to do it.
 

kai bengals

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First time momma cats can be a little skittish about their babies. She may have felt there was a threat to her kittens with her first location. So she moved them.
First time moms can also be confused about the proper way to carry a kitten and transport it. They'll bite down too hard and accidently kill the kitten.

It's a catch 22 situation. The momma cat bites down incorrectly and in the wrong area, which causes the kitten to squeal, which agitates the mom even further, causing her to panic and bite even more. Evidenced by the mauling you saw on the kitten that died.
 
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m1sty_m4id3n

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Ok thankyou, that would make sense.
 
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