Mothers swapping kittens

I'm just curious about some behavior I've noticed in a group of strays that have been caring for on our property. I've noticed that the adult females will nurse each others' kittens. Like, swapping kittens from mother to mother. I have seen at least one of the adult females who did not have kittens start producing milk and nursing the offspring of other mothers. Is this unusual behavior? I think it's kinda neat .

There was a feral around here several months ago that stole kittens from the cats that live on a neighbor's property. All different sizes too.
Not sure what happened to her or the kittens, same neighbors probably caught the kittens back and took the cat to their daughter's farm.

But in a related group the females act much like a lion pride, so the behavior is not that odd.

I had three momma kitties this year and all of them took care of each others kittens. Two of them insisted on being together so much that we had 9 kittens and 2 mommas in one giant "nest"... they were happy.

I am wondering if maybe this kind of behavior might be more common in outdoor cats than indoor cats, because none of the indoor cats I've ever had (and my mother raised Siamese cats when I was growing up) would consider such a thing. They would get really twitchy if any other cats came near their babies, male or female. There is one adult female outside though ("Gray Mama") who actually chases all other adult cats out of the building when she has kittens.This is a problem right now, as cold weather is closing in, and she still has one kitten out there that we haven't managed to catch yet (he's a wily little guy! I'm trying some of the tips I saw in the feral cats forum tomorrow ); she keeps chasing all the other stray kitties out of the building, and last night in the pouring cold rain . All the other adult females out there are much more casual and relaxed about the other cats, probably because none of the males ever seem interested in messing the with the kittens at all. I dunno, I just thought it was an odd/neat situation with them swapping babies, kind of like a living example of "it takes a village to raise a child."

My indoor persian females do this all the time. I have tried to keep them all seperated, but it made the moms aggiated to its just easier. Usually for the first two to three weeks they keep the babies seperate, but than they swap, or combine.. all of the kittens have been healthy happytand very well socialised.. takes a village

Originally Posted by ScamperFarms

My indoor persian females do this all the time. I have tried to keep them all seperated, but it made the moms aggiated to its just easier. Usually for the first two to three weeks they keep the babies seperate, but than they swap, or combine.. all of the kittens have been healthy happytand very well socialised.. takes a village

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That's so awesome . Cats really are amazing creatures .

We've had indoor/outdoor cats do that, too. They were related and once piled all the kittens in one place and the moms would just lay down and whoever was hungry would nurse.

Bijou's mom is very much that way. When she has kittens, her mother and the kittens' father are very much present. Both the grandmother cat and the father cat will tend to the kittens. Obviously they don't let the kittens suckle but they are very up-close and personal with them.

I've seen this happen with a lot of outdoor cats. It is really neat and I also think they do it to stay in the motherhood frame of mind....that way they don't have to be bred again