how do mother cats react to their dead babies?

and how about those feral mother cats?

ive heard of some mother cats that will kill a baby if it is too sickly. but ive heard of mother cats that are very protective. not all cats are the same.

Not ferals, but a still born kitten is often just ignored by the mother. Some will treat it as a normal kitten and get upset if it's taken out the nest. 

The feline species in general are some of the best mothers on the planet, I have had momma cats work for hours on a dead kitten (stillborn, granted the number of cats I;ve had who have had stillborns has been very small) licking and cleaning it, long after she certainly realized it was dead, she would still lick and clean it.

even more so if the kitten dies, cats certainly do mourn (people say animals can't mourn, BS, they just do it in more subtle ways) I have also have a cat who's kittens were killed by some predator (most likely a raccoon) the mother cat would go back to the spot where she had the kittens, for over a month she went back there, calling for her babies (who at the time of being killed were about 4 weeks) until finally after about a month, she gave up.

feral or domestic, makes no difference
 

gibbly said:

The feline species in general are some of the best mothers on the planet, I have had momma cats work for hours on a dead kitten (stillborn, granted the number of cats I;ve had who have had stillborns has been very small) licking and cleaning it, long after she certainly realized it was dead, she would still lick and clean it.

even more so if the kitten dies, cats certainly do mourn (people say animals can't mourn, BS, they just do it in more subtle ways) I have also have a cat who's kittens were killed by some predator (most likely a raccoon) the mother cat would go back to the spot where she had the kittens, for over a month she went back there, calling for her babies (who at the time of being killed were about 4 weeks) until finally after about a month, she gave up.

feral or domestic, makes no difference

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Hello,

I realize that this post is 5 years old, but what I am facing is an exactly same situation. I have had a feral cat living in my backyard for most of the past one year. Her age would be some 14 odd months. She comes asking for her meals at my doorstep and I feed her twice or sometimes, thrice a day. She game birth to a litter of kittens about a month back at a location unknown to me. But she brought a couple of them along with her last week. I was delighted and played around a little with them. Next day I found a torn apart body of one of those kittens next to my house while walking. The litter was about 4 to 5 weeks old. In all probability, one of the stray Tom cats has killed the kitten. (I hate tom cats for all I see them do is harass and scare the females in my locality all the time, needless to mention that I am sure there's a lot of sexual abuse of the females by them too) Now, I am very worried about the Cat. Does she know that her 4 week old baby has been killed? If yes, Would she be depressed? how sad must she be feeling right now? Most importantly, What can I do to lessen her pain?

This is my first experience looking after an animal, so kindly advise.

If a intruding tom kills the babies, he usually does it by shaking it to death. So its most probable somebody else killed the kitten... A stray dog, perhaps.
And yes, here the momma will surely mourn the kitten. How to comfort? If she comes to you, you can talk sweetly etc. Animals understands such. And not impossible, she will attach to you even more afterwards.
Animals often do when shown compassion.

Be prepared she will even be willing to be fostered and socialized by you. Are you willing and ready?

Ps. I wrote intruding tom. Because its intruding toms whom are a practical danger for the kittens, its alike with lejons.
Toms whom are friends with momma, or even ex-mates, are seldom or never a real danger for the kittens.

The best thing you can do is to move mom and babies inside your home where you can keep them safe.

It would also be wonderful if you could look into TNR in your area.