Older kitten stealing mother's new babies

I have a 9 month old female kitten who keeps stealing her mother's new 1 week old kittens.  The older kitten is not spayed yet, and is kind of on the wild side...not cuddly at all. The mother doesn't chase the older kitten away from the babies, but does seem upset. When I've placed the babies back in the box, mom cat washes them like crazy, so I'm pretty sure she wants them.  I've put mom and new kittens in a separate room now. Older kitten is pacing around, whining. Why would this older kitten be doing this? Sibling rivalry?

Welcome!  

It sure sounds like jealousy or something like that.  Not sure if cats even have that emotion or thought process.  Perhaps she just wants kitties of her own?   Maybe spaying would take care of that urge, but not sure.  I have a spayed female that never had kittens and she carries her favorite stuffed toy, the size of a newborn kitten, around all the time.  I keep thinking it's because this is her baby.  

I'm glad you are keeping the older kitten separate from the mama kitty and her babies.  I don't think the older kitten would hurt them, but you can't monitor her all the time so it's better to keep them separate for now until the kittens get older.  

Thank you for your input, Ginny. They are making me crazy today. If I leave the door open for a second, older baby runs in and bee lines it for the box. I caught her taking one out again when that happened. When the door is shut, she whines for her mother, who then leaves the babies because she wants to tend to the older one. It's so hot in that room right now that I want to keep the door open so some of the a/c from the livingroom gets in there. I have older kitten shut in my bedroom with a/c in there. Food, water and litter boxes are in each room.

I guess then you'll have to leave the door open because a hot room is not good for the kittens.  They need each other to maintain their body heat at this age (up till 3 or 4 weeks I believe) but they don't need to be hot.   Do you have a baby gate that the mama kitty can climb but the older kitten cannot?  That'd be ideal if you have such a thing.  

I remember waking up in the middle of the night to a mewing of a new born kitten that had been carried up from the basement by his 3 month old half brother, I panicked  but the kitten was not harmed  at all. Mama was not concerned at all either, and nursed them all!  I worried he thought it was prey, but he seemed very careful, but I made sure he was not allowed to make a habit of it. They grew up fine, and he had a lot of playmates!

It sounds more like her mothering instincts kicking in than sibling rivalry. It's not unusual for related females to share "kitten duty", especially if they're not spayed, though even spayed females will do it. Neutered males may also "baby sit".

It did cross my mind that maybe the older one thought she had some new playmates, but not that it was mothering instincts.  I guess in the wild cats could get pregnant at that young age so they might have mothering instincts already. Baby gates mean nothing to my cats. I tried putting one up with a window screen on top of it. Mama just knocked the screen down to get to the older one.  I think I'll sit in the room with the 4 of them today and observe what happens for a while. Thank you Di and Ginny. My husband used to say you have to be smarter than the cats. So far they're up a whole lot of points.

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I had a bright idea today. I gave my older kitten a stuffed kitten of her very own that is black and white like the kitten she keeps stealing. I changed my avatar to a picture of her sleeping by her kitty. So far so good.

karenmc said:

I had a bright idea today. I gave my older kitten a stuffed kitten of her very own that is black and white like the kitten she keeps stealing. I changed my avatar to a picture of her sleeping by her kitty. So far so good.

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Great idea! :cross: that she remains satisfied with her "baby".