Need help ASAP! Mom killed her runt.

OMG Kailie. I saw your post on Facebook but obviously didn't know the details until now. How awful 

 

Hopefully someone here can help you, or what about sending a pm to Hissy?

Here's a link after l did a search in here

 

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/51806/mother-killing-kittens

Oh, horror!

 

There are several situations when moms killing her kittens is not unheard of. An unexperienced mom perhaps biting off the cord wrongly...  A highly stressed mom in extremis...  A sick kitten...

But none of these things seems to be the case here...

 

Moreover, as I understand it, mostly they just eat the kitten, nice and tidy, often hardly any traces left...  Horrendous scenes where experienced people with cojones and stomach hardly wants to tell in clear what it was...

Nay, new for me.

 

I would sooner suspect someone outsider.  But this is hardly possible here?

 

If I was a private person I would hope this was a once thing, the mom saw, understood or though there was some wrong on the runt and...   (some try to give the sick one extra attention, but many do end it yes.).

But as Im not supposed to guess -   I dont know.   I cant give any advice.

You must let your instincts tell.

 

But as they are 31/2 weeks, there is not so very much longer you must giving them flask - if such is your decision.

You may perhaps even manage without the flask, going just for baby food.   I saw even Hissy giving such advice once for 3 weeks kitten. Not because it was the optimal, but because the desperation and circumstances was dire...

 

 

Whatever your decision and result of your search

 

Good luck!   *vibes*

What an awful thing to happen. I feel for you over the shock and grief. My instinct would be to think it was a one-off - that there was something wrong and hte momcat knew what she had to do. But I am sure Hissy will have good advice.

Okay, be calm here. I have been in the same situation.

 

Cats are generally EXCELLENT and very nurturing moms to their litters. One of the best in the animal world.

 

Gabby destroyed this kitten for a reason, her instinct was to be rid of her weak link to save the rest. It's quite common in the feral colonies, and does occur occasionally with indoor moms as well, just not as often.

 

My first thought is, is there some reason why she feels a threat to her litter, perhaps a dog, or another male cat who may be aggressive/dominant, unneutered?

For some reason she stressed about the safety of her litter.

 

You also are concerned about the others...this can go both ways. Chances are they are safe with mom, but the only way to tell is by closely watching her treatment of them in the next several days. Is she rough with them? Does she keep grabbing them roughly in her mouth, moving their positioning around her? Is she restless in feeding them, standing up and turning around often, or moving away from them so they cannot feed?

 

If any of these questions are a YES, then it would be in their interest to pull them. They can be put on KMR, monitoring the amt that each one eats, some will get plenty, but others need to be syringed additional KMR until they get the hang of drinking from a dish.

 

Second Stage is KMR that is for their age, it's thicker formula is easy for them to lap up from a dish.

 

PLEASE get Gabby fixed, she shouldn't have anymore litters. The next one may be even worse.

Not to mention that for every kitten born, there is another being euthanized, I see it everyday.

I know you're very upset, I would be too, but I have another thought you may want to consider - is it possible the runt died of it's own accord and them the mom tried to eat it?  I know this sounds disgusting, but strays or feral cats have been known to do this, evidently it is both a way of reabsorbing protein for a nursing mother and a way of disposing of a dead kitten so the smell won't attract a predator.

Yes, this could explain much.  It doesnt really explain that untidy mess. As they usually do eat them nice and practically no clues left.

But it explains excellently the question why a good mother, not stressed, suddenly kills and devours a kitten who although runt but seemingly in good health.  If she didnt threw him out before, she shouldnt do it now, when he is safe and sound.

So either he died by himself, or got visibly worse.  That  is the most probable.

OR something happened from outside.

 

Oh, dear. I'm sorry, I have no advice, but I want to offer you and - what an awful thing to go through. Keep us posted, and sending all sorts of kind thoughts to you.

I am sure you are upset and afraid for the remaining kittens.  But, this is just nature, often mom can sense one isn't going to make it and rather than sacrifice time and energy that could be spent on the healthy kittens, she will "dispose" of the sickly one.  Most of the time, they push them away to let them die of cold or starvation.  Sometimes, they are a little kinder, if you choose to view it that way, and just do it quickly themselves.   It's disturbing, I know, but it is survival of the fittest to them. 

 

It is true she may have sensed something you didn't.  He may have had some sort of disease or defect that would've killed him anyway.  So really, she was saving him the suffering. 

 

My King Arthur was the runt of his litter.  His mom didn't reject him, that is how I knew he was OK just small.  His siblings often wouldn't let him nurse but I would bottlefeed him and his mother Genevieve would clean and care for him, too.  So I knew he had a fighting chance.  He is now the most beautiful and one of the biggest cats I have ever had!!! 

 

Don't worry for the others.  The mother was just doing what she felt was neccessary.  The others should be fine. 

Is there a window in the room?  She is about at the time where she could get pg again so an outside male may be coming around and she may have seen him outside. It could have stressed her and caused her to kill George. If there is a window, I'd make sure it was covered completely. 

 

Im so sorry for George. and your DH, that must have been awful for him. How did she react while he cleaned everything up?

Very heartbreaking. :(  It's odd that she waited so long before "doing away" with the runt. You would think his would happen in first

few days. Hopefully, it was just a primal instinct on her part and things will go smoothly from here on.

I have fostered quite a few moms and have yet to come across this. Well, I did have on mother who aborted her kittens and there was

once when I checked on her (which was frequently) and there was signs of amniotic fluid and slight blood but no fetus. That was the

saddest...and the look on her face..like she knew what was happening. :(

 

It does occur to me that noble though it is, fostering entire males and females with kittens at the same time might be better avoided.  The sound and smell of the males can upset nursing mothers.

How is she today Kailie?

Having raised quite a few litter of orphans, I have had kittens die around that age, suddenly, for no apparent reason. I suspect that's the age that genetic diseases such as heart defects, liver shunts, etc. manifest themselves (although I've never had a necropsy done so I'm just guessing). So it is possible that he died of something like that (or even an accident) and the carnage came afterward. Upsetting no matter what. I wouldn't worry too much about keeping the other kittens with her, unless I saw she was being too rough with them.

Yea, good remarks.   And especielly mini-kittens are pround for such suddenly collapses - and this 3-4 weeks seems to be the  big dangerous passage. There are others, but this is the big.

I suppose the same danger is also for other kittens, normal sized, althoug it doesnt happen as often as for the minis.

 

Being runt, he was also more prone to have accidents happen to him, as everybody else was bigger and crawling around and on him.

 

So what happened we cant know  100% surely, but this here is the very most probable scenario.  Like we speculated already earlier.

 

I'm so glad they're doing well!

Just saw the PM and sadly, this event is just the way that sometimes nature culls the litter. The little one was more than likely ill and when they are carrying a disease or are genetically defective, they don't present the right "scent" to mom. She knows the kitten is dying, she doesn't want to waste her milk and if she were outside, she would have just carried the kitten somewhere- top of a barn roof, out in the middle of a field where predators would find the little one and dispose of it. That option closed to her she did what she instinctively is honed to do- she probably sat on the baby and killed it and then had to eat it not to horrify you, but to keep the nest safe and clean up all the evidence that would bring predators to her other babies.  I have seen it happen a few times and it isn't easy to deal with, but it is part of how cat's know to react.  I also agree that she needs to be spayed- but you already know that. If she hasn't done harm to the other kittens, they are safe.

 

It is highly possible that had you removed the kitten from the litter before this happened and tried to raise it on your own, it would have died in your care. There are just some things that we can't fix no matter how much we want to.  I am sorry for everyone who witnessed this but I will say having seen this type of culling it is quick and over in a second.

SEPERATE THEM!!!!!!!!!

this happened to my cat, and everyone said it was just cuz it was the runt,

two-days later, all the kittens were dead except one,

SEPERATE THEM B4 IT IS TOO LATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a few weeks old.  But, (nothing against you, I want to make that very clear...) DO NOT separate a mother from her babies unless it's a last resort, even then, try something else first.  Mothers milk is best.  Formulas should only be used as an alternative or if they are orphans and no other mother is accessible.  If she hasn't harmed any of the others, it is probably due to it being a sickly runt. 

 

CatLover4Ever, more than likely the kittens had some sort of defect or illness you were not aware of.  Cats can sense this.  I had a cat kill her litter once and a dog that did the same, as well.  Both times, I had autopsies performed and indeed there was a genetic disease/defect I was not aware of... They would've died anyway.