new kittens and jealous cat!

Hi,

I have 2 cats who are sisters, both 10 months old and have always been together and very close (we've had them since they were 6 weeks)

One of them has just given birth to 5 gorgeous little kittens, all of whom are healthy and so far she is being a brilliant mum! The problem is her sister is very jealous! Not of the kittens, she's just curious by them. But whenever Smokey (the mum) goes near Smudge (the sister), Smudge hisses at her and won't have anything to do with her. She won't even share food from the same bowl anymore. Smokey tries to go up to Smudge and kiss her, but all she gets is a bat on the nose and hissed at!

We're making sure Smudge gets loads of attention so she doesn't feel left out, but not sure what else we can do or if her behaviour will calm down? They've always been really close.

Any suggestions?

With the birth of kittens, nursing, or even going to the vet - smells change. She's treating the other like a stranger now.

I do hope that both will (or are) spayed soon. Are you planning on keeping any of the kittens?

As the kittens get bigger, the other non-mother will settle down - things are just all strange to her right now.

I had a similar situation except the new mom was a stray I had taken in. There were no problems until after she had her kittens. For the first few days Shareena (the one without kittens) was hissing and scratching and biting everybody, including me. She never touched the kittens, though.

Then Goldy, the mom, started hissing back, but only when they were in a different room from the babies. She never objected when Shareena was grooming her babies.

If it got too bad, I would shut Shareena in the bedroom for a while (Goldy and the kittens were in a basket under the piano in the living room). When she came out she was usually calmer. I also gave her a lot of extra attention, but that had to be in a separate room as well.

The kittens are 7.5 weeks old now and I haven't seen any aggressive behavior for the last week or so. That doesn't mean Goldy and Shareena are best friends, but they're back to ignoring each other.

Of course, Shareena has decided the kittens are hers. She grooms and disciplines them and curls up to sleep with them. She also occasionally lets them try to nurse on her since their mom is weaning them. I have a feeling she's going to be more upset than Goldy when the kittens go to their furever homes.

Something you might try that I didn't think of at the time is to make them all smell alike. Take a towel or soft cloth and rub it all over both cats and the kittens. I've also seen on a couple of threads that a drop of vanilla under the chin and at the base of the tail can help.

Given a little time and a lot of love, your girls should get back to being friends.

Thanks for the advice, will definitely try making them smell similar!

Made a little progress today, greed got the better of Smudge and she reluctantly shared treats from a tub with Smokey, with no hissing.

She still won't go near her or eat from the same bowl, but think the treats were just too tempting!

Not sure whether we will be keeping any of the kittens, think the kids would love to, but more cats = more vets bills so we'll see..........