Lily is TOO thorough in her cleaning of the kittens

S

skewch

TCS Member
Thread starter
Super Cat
Joined
Mar 19, 2008
Messages
967
Purraise
2
Location
Saskatchewan, Canada
Lily has been gnawing the kittens faces, like she's trying to clean lumps off their faces....no, they're not lumps tho they're whiskers!!! She has gnawed off most of the whiskers on them....the only other thing I can think of is that they're part Devon Rex and they may have inhereted the gene that makes their whiskers brittle and they break off....but I have witnessed her gnawing the whisker pads. She isn't hurting them either, as they don't cry one bit when she's doing this.

Has anyone ever seen this happen? I know this is a first for me.
 
mrblanche

mrblanche

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jan 28, 2008
Messages
12,578
Purraise
119
Location
Texas
There are old wives' tales of mother cats gnawing off the kitten's whiskers to keep them from wandering away. However, the whole story doesn't make that much sense, so I suspect it's all fiction.
 
abymummy

abymummy

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
May 7, 2006
Messages
4,074
Purraise
11
Location
Malaysia
Originally Posted by skewch

Lily has been gnawing the kittens faces, like she's trying to clean lumps off their faces....no, they're not lumps tho they're whiskers!!! She has gnawed off most of the whiskers on them....the only other thing I can think of is that they're part Devon Rex and they may have inhereted the gene that makes their whiskers brittle and they break off....but I have witnessed her gnawing the whisker pads. She isn't hurting them either, as they don't cry one bit when she's doing this.

Has anyone ever seen this happen? I know this is a first for me.
Click to expand...
Ms. Bu did that to the happy litter or was it Reecie to Suria and Bu? I can't remember but not to worry, the whiskers will grow back sooner rather than later! My Reecie loves to over groom her babies but so far, nothing untoward has happened because of it.
 
abbycats

abbycats

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 12, 2005
Messages
2,544
Purraise
19
Location
Nebraska
My cat Bast came to me as a kitten with her little whiskers gnawed off. Her Mommy cat did this to all her babies.
What was interesting was when Bast was an adult I rescued a little baby kitten and Bast did the same thing to him! Maybe there is something to the old wives tale.
 
P

pee-cleaner

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Jan 6, 2006
Messages
469
Purraise
12
The first cat I adopted 18 years ago was a young kitten with gnawed off whiskers! I always wondered what had happened to them.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #6
S

skewch

TCS Member
Thread starter
Super Cat
Joined
Mar 19, 2008
Messages
967
Purraise
2
Location
Saskatchewan, Canada
I have to wonder if they old wives tale could be true. It does seem odd that a mom would do that unless they were trying to make sure they didn't run off someplace.

Thanks for all of your input....sure helps me to know Lily isn't the only one that is and has done it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top