Mother Cat Acting Strange

We have a two and a half year old tabby whose name is Brownie-Kins. She just had a kitten. Yeah, ONE kitten. This is her fourth and last pregnancy because we are getting her spayed when she is no longer nursing the kitten.

Anyway, the kitten is about two weeks old and lately we've been noticing some strange behavior from Brownie. The most disturbing to me is she will sometimes bite her kitten....and she looks quite aggressive when she does so. When we notice her doing this we quickly intervene. But we would like to know why she is doing this.

I had done some research online and something my wife and I have may have done wrong was "Disturb Her Nest" which is a box right behind our bed. It is the box that she had the kitten in. We had disturbed the nest by trying to exchange the towel in the box for a clean one as I thought that would be the right thing to do. We had to put the old towel back because Brownie seemed less than pleased about our actions. Also, my wife and oldest son got a chance to pet the kitty with their fingers and I read that this may have disrupted the scent on the kitty and confuses the mother.

Anyway, we would like to get to the bottom of her behavior. She even seems to be acting slightly "distant" towards me and my wife. Is there anyway we can reverse whatever damage we may have caused and repair the trust issue with her? What's going on? Please help me.

Also, she had two previous owners and her previous litters were taken away from her by them, so we know she has trust issues.

I'm sorry your experiencing this. I'm going to request a Moderator to move this to Pregnant cats and kitten care where you may get a faster response. Sending you all works out

I can agree she has thrust isssues if her kittens were taken away from her by earlier owners (drowned?).

But changing the bed clothes now and then, and handling the kittens some, is the usual, everybody does so. Both breeders, rescuers with semi-ferale moms, and common she cat owners.

So this cant be it, even if you werent 100%  diplomatic.

Moms doing what looks as biting the kittens isnt that unusual, but it happens a little later, when they began to move out of the nest, and mom gets nervous.

Having just one kitten is in itself a little unnerving...

For this moment, I would suggest you work with her anxiousness.

No stressing moments, save the usual necessary handling of her baby and her (I will write more about it later)

You can have on relaxing music.  Classical Harp music is best.

A  Feliway diffuser...

Should do the trick.

Good luck!

Thank You StefanZ,

I'll give the relaxing music a try. Last night Brownie-Kins and I were able to get 20 minutes worth of playtime in and we played a couple of her favorite games. I hope this helps. We've only had her for five months so maybe that's not enough time to make her forget what her life has been like for the past two years prior to us welcoming her in our family. I know 5 months doesn't seem like a long time but we all love her to bits and pieces.

StefanZ said:

the usual necessary handling of her baby and her (I will write more about it later)

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 Ah yes, The handling of the baby. The trick is simple.  Do it respectfully where she sees you.

Say you want to weigh her kitten and make a quick look see.

You come to, talking sweetly. You take the kitten in your hand, rather slowly, so she sees you.

You do your look see and weighing near the nest, so she sees you and can hear if the kitten is protesting.  Make it rather quick.

After you are done, you leave the kitten back to mom, safe and sound.

Of course, if the kitten protests and mom looks anxious, you leave it back even sooner.

You can train on it some, so she learns you are careful and never harming her kitten.

Moms at farms knows to avoid the farmer, they dont show the kittens before they are at least 6 weeks.  So yes, cats know whom they can trust, whom they cant trust, and whom they can perhaps trust.

I've seen my Marley up and wack her kittens with her paw. Kitten was playing with her tail. She also growls at them. She is a strict mom. I've also seen her bite the neck of her kitten in order to pick him up. She struggles though and it looks like she is hurting it Maybe she is readying to see how fast she can get the neck in her mouth to take off and hide.

Oh Boy!!

Just when we thought things were starting to calm down it happened again. My wife just woke me up 7:30 on a Saturday morning frantic and visibly upset. I did not see it but my wife said Brownie was licking the kitten and then out of nowhere she pinned the kitten down and then clamped on her neck to where the kitten actually cried out in either pain or some form of discomfort.

We are looking into alternative means of feeding the kitten. Perhaps Brownie just has too much baggage from previous owners that are not easily surmountable. Maybe she is just too damaged mentally.

When we got her, we were told that she had two litters of kittens that she never got to raise. One litter was discarded by the neighbor of the lady (Miss Dorothy) that we got Brownie from. But when WE got her it was a few days after she had her latest litter of kittens taken away from her when they were only a week old. And there's no telling what other episodes she may have had that we do not know about.

It's heart breaking to even think of getting rid of Brownie and the thought of her possibly being put down if she cannot find another loving home.

Seriously, this whole thing is really taking a toll on me already.

I have a foster mama cat with two surviving kittens from a litter of six. When she's stressed on vet trips she will bite the kittens and get rough with them. My experience is it's a stress reaction from lack of instinct or when their instincts fail them. The mama I have was too young and undernourished, picked up as a stray and just clueless. I'm glad you are getting Brownie spayed after this little one. Is her behavior good otherwise? Just because she isn't a good mama doesn't necessarily mean she won't be a good cat in the long run. Parenting is hard! Have you talked to your vet for advice and had the kitten checked out to make sure it's OK? Could also be it's just normal mama cat behavior that looks rougher than it really is.

The suggestions above are good ones - anything to keep her calm and relaxed will help both her and the kitten. At two weeks bottle feeding KMR or another supplement is still a commitment but not as difficult as with a newborn - but it will still be much, much better for the kitten if it can stay with mama for another month to six weeks at least. Goo luck!
 

Mr Wendall said:

It's heart breaking to even think of getting rid of Brownie and the thought of her possibly being put down if she cannot find another loving home.

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I agree wholeheartly with  Tracys analysis.  The fact you are contemplating to raise the kitten yourself (which may be the safest bet here yes)  doesnt  not in any variation means you shall get rid of Brownie.

Why should you? You have already decided you wont use her as your breeding queen or anything such, so her situation shouldnt be changed in any way here.

You did adopted her, she is nice as your adopted home cat, no?  so whatsa matter??

Good luck!

Hi Tracy826,

Who am I kidding? There is NO WAY in the world I'm getting rid of my Brownie-Kins. To answer your question, aside from our initial concerns of her parenting, she is an absolute sweetheart. She's a very pretty cat with a sweet disposition to match. I really love how much of a sweetheart she can really be in spite of her past and whatever baggage she may have due to it. As far as it looking rougher than it really is, I think you're right. Three days ago my wife told me that she STOPPED interfering when Brownie seemed to get a little rough. She wanted to observe the situation to get a better understanding and she said what she noticed is that Brownie was doing this whenever she was either licking Aja-kins (the kitten's name whom we are ALSO spaying and keeping) to stimulate her to go to the bathroom OR when she wanted to bathe her. She said what she noticed was in both instances is that Aja-kins would get "feisty" and fight mommy because she didn't want to be bothered. She said Brownie was "pinning her down" (still a little too aggressive for my taste). So that may be the explanation. We've been observing them both very carefully for the past week and things seemed to have calmed down and gotten much, much better. She's still quite protective of Aja-kins.

StefanZ,

Everything you said is correct. I was just talking out of frustration. I am not getting rid of my Brownie-Kins for nothing.

There is something my wife and I have observed today. Brownie would jump in the box, lightly tap or tag Aja and then jump out of the box. She did this repeatedly for about two minutes. Aja was wide awake when this was going on. I'm wondering what that's about. Perhaps Brownie was playing with Aja? I sure hope this is the case.
 

Perhaps she was trying to encourage the kitten to follow her out of the box?

4theloveofkitty said:

Perhaps she was trying to encourage the kitten to follow her out of the box?

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Hhhmmmmmm...............

I hadn't thought about that. Aja will be three weeks old tomorrow. Is that the normal age a mother cat would encourage her kitten(s) to leave the nest?

I had a bought a large laundry basket strictly for Brownie. I'd bought it while she was still pregnant and I thought because it is so roomy she would be all too happy to have her baby in there. But she opted to have her in a box which I had set up right next to the basket. The box is smaller than the laundry basket and it has an opening through which Aja can get through, which may not be exactly a good thing if no one is there to watch her make her great escape.

Well, my wife and I moved Brownie and Aja into that basket; we took the shirts and towels out of the box and placed them in the basket so the scent will stay the same. We cannot tell if Brownie is happy with this or not. She was doing a lot of chirping and meowing and running back and forth to the box which made us think that maybe she was ready for more space. Well, we gave her more space and she's still meowing and chirping and running back and forth to the basket now.

I really wish I could speak Cat. Any ideas guys?

Boy , it is hard to tell  what is going on in Brownie's little head.     I don't really have answers on that.  but  will just give some rambling thoughts.  

The thing about holding the kittens down to bathe them or stimulate them to eliminate,  and the kitten struggling and squealing and the mom sometimes having to be a bit forceful -- that is totally normal and  I have seen that in queens who are very caring, attentive moms.    The kittens are acting like a little kid whining about not wanting to take a bath.  and the moms are just being businesslike.  

The jumping in and out of the box and tapping the kitten is a bit odd.    that really is earlier than most queens would try to encourage the kitten to leave the nest by their own power. ( as opposed to just picking the kitten up and moving it  --  and I would think if she felt the need to move to a new nest she would just try to move the kitten herself. 

It would be totally understandable that she is worried  because in the past her kittens have never been allowed to stay with her.   I suppose  that could either make her terrified of losing the kitten  or could make it hard to bond with the kitten 

  This is probably totlally anthropomorphizing , but  I wondered if she could be thinking the kitten needs to grow up quickly and learn how to escape because someone is likely to soon come and try to take her. 

OK, that may have been overly imaginative,  but  one thing that I had thought about in reading this is sort of the opposite reaction ...  sometimes it is a bit hard for the mom when the kittens first become mobile enough to get out of the nest and run around. .  She  is used to being able to protect them and have better control of where they are,  and can get stressed when they first are able to go farther on their own.  and wants to catch them and make  them go back.    With a queen whose kittens have been taken at a young age repeatedly,  it is possible that transition could be more stressful than usual.   so that is just something I would keep in mind.    She has only the one kitten to focus on  which could be good or bad!      a large litter can be overwhelming  but also they do figure out pretty quickly they can't completely control the kittens any more.  (  Of course you the owner  need to keep them in a safe place so they don't get into too much trouble )   

I have 3 babies who are now 5 weeks old. They now have free reign of the house since their mom insists that they not be in the bedroom. One of the kittens is far more mature then the other 2. He has been eating food for two weeks and is pretty much weaned I hardly see him nurse anymore. Mom now just plops down where ever to feed. She goes outside longer, and lets them be independent. She talks to them a lot they cry back. One kitten is insecure and shakes in fear at being held. Maybe the kitten she gave birth to has developed quicker cause he is the only focus. The three I have are c-section kittens. They seem normal, but not super active as they nearly didnt make it. Miracle kittens!! I am sure it is fine with your little family. Every mom is different, and has their own ideas on how to raise her babies... Even if we thinks their ways are odd most of what you say seems like a really good mama cat. Discipline and teaching them how to be good cats. I noticed there are toys in the nest I am assuming this is the hunting lessons so that could come too. She even brought them my hair scrunchy and she never does that... Crazy Mommy cats I think!

Does she carry the kitten around at all? Maybe she was confused about how to move her to a new nest...

Hi 4theloveofkitty,

No, Brownie has never carried the kitten around anywhere. Maybe she's confused like you said or maybe she never had the chance or a reason to carry any kittens from her previous litters.

But everything seems to be A-Okay. We moved them out of the box into a laundry hamper that is bigger and roomier. That was the original reason I had bought it while Brownie was still pregnant. Anyway, Brownie and Aja seem to be perfectly happy with their new and improved space. We put the towels and shirts from the box into the new nest for scent purposes.

I have even better new for you guys. Yesterday and today my wife and I had taken Aja out of the nest and let her roam free for a while in our bedroom. Each time Brownie seemed very, very happy and pleased with us. Each time (yesterday and today) we had a nice time playing with both of them. Brownie had switched back and forth between playing with me and "pouncing" on Aja and tagging her. She slapped her around playfully as well. My wife made a good point in that Aja doesn't have any siblings to play fight with, so it's up to Brownie to "toughen her up" and get her used to using her abilities that come with being a feline. Yesterday we had her out of the nest for 30 minutes and today it was 40 minutes. Tomorrow we will either shoot for between 40-50 minutes OR shoot for 40 minutes again but this time bring her out into the dining room which has more space than my bedroom. Our MAIN PURPOSE for taking Aja out of the nest for a while is so she can walk around and strengthen her legs. She doesn't get much opportunity to do that while she is in the nest.

By the way, I feel I should say this; After we stopped intervening with Brownie's parenting and just sat back and observed her, I've come to realize that Brownie is a WONDERFUL mom!!

Good that they like their new quarters.    

Your wife had a good point,   and it IS normal for moms to engage their kittens in play,  it's part of teaching them.    They even will deliberately swish their tails for the little kitten to pounce on.      So it sounds like the 'tagging' you saw earlier  was just the beginning of the play that you are seeing now.   I think that sounds quite positive.  

Thank You maewkaew,

You guys were soooooo helpful to me in my mini crisis. Although I absolutely LOVE cats, fact is I don't know as much about them as a cat lover should. You guys were instrumental in preventing a misunderstanding becoming bigger than what it really was. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!