Two female cats, caring over ONE litter?!

I have 2 female cats, and one just recently had kittens. Sje cares for them well, and has had no problems. However, just today, my other female cat has started to shiw great interset in them; she has started to follow you around if you are holding a kitten, and she has started to climb into the box with the mother & kittens, and trying to cuddle up with them. We think she may be pregnant herself...is she just feeling maternal or does she actually think the kittnes are hers?

Cats will often care for each other's kittens. My male cat, Fred, was the best kittensitter in our old neighborhood. One mama cat would bring her kittens to a box on our porch for him to watch while she went to eat. He could not feed them, of course, but he would clean and cuddle them.

Both my male and my other female helped mama cat raise her kittens. A few hours after Sarah finished giving birth my male was licking the kittens and protecting them. If the mom would leave the box he would jump right in and stay with them until she returned. It took a few days for my other female to warm up to the kittens, but now she would protect them to an intruder.

FOrgive me for asking but if you think your other cat may be pregnant shouldn't you take her to the vet to find out, and consider spaying her? And please get hte new mom spayed as soon as possible, or she will become pregnant again very quickly, even while she is nursing the kittens.

Originally Posted by Jacque_C

I have 2 female cats, and one just recently had kittens. Sje cares for them well, and has had no problems. However, just today, my other female cat has started to shiw great interset in them; she has started to follow you around if you are holding a kitten, and she has started to climb into the box with the mother & kittens, and trying to cuddle up with them. We think she may be pregnant herself...is she just feeling maternal or does she actually think the kittnes are hers?

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Jacque...if the other female is intact, I would highly recommend you get her fixed now. You should also be setting up an appt. soon for the mom cat.

Here is a list of low cost clinics in North Carolina:

NORTH CAROLINA
Rockingham Humane Society
PO Box 52
Wentworth, NC 27375
336-349-4379
Low cost spay/neuter for pets of low income people.
Triad Spay/Neuter Clinic
Greensboro NC
336-375-3222
Low cost spay/neuter clinic for pets and ferals.
www.triadspca.org Web site

Support our work maintaining this spay-neuter list by telling your friends about our cool cat beds.


Save the Animals
Winston-Salem NC
336-765-6572

Humane Society of Charlotte
2646 Toomey Avenue
Charlotte, NC
704-333-4130
Low cost spay/neuter clinic.

Friends of Feral Felines
PO Box 473385
Charlotte NC 28247
704-348-1578
www.friendsofferalfelines.org
FFF coordinates low cost s-n events for feral cats and also can tell you about local veterinarians who offer low cost s-n for feral cats at other times. Call for information about low cost s-n in your area, feral cat caretaking, or if you need to borrow carriers or humane traps, or if you are a land owner or farmer willing to host displaced feral cats, or if you'd like to volunteer to help.

Humane Alliance Spay/Neuter Clinic
Asheville, NC
828-252-2079
Low cost spay/neuter. Serves 12 counties.

Haywood Animal Welfare Association
PO Box 992
Waynesville NC 28786
828-452-1329 or 452-3751
Takes phone calls Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 am to 4:30 pm. Call for information or to make a reservation for the next clinic. Holds clinics twice a month.

Friends of Felines
PO Box 475
Castle Hayne, NC 28429
910-452-6721
Email [email protected]
For feral cats, spay/neuter clinics are held on Sundays. Call for details and appointments. Friends of Felines is run entirely by volunteers.

Coastal Cat Clinic
Jacksonville, NC
910-938-4515


Second Chance Pet Adoptions
Cary, NC
919-460-0610
Operation Catnip provides free spay/neuter and vaccinations for feral and stray cats.

Spay Neuter on Wheels
central NC
919-481-6655
Mobile van offers affordable s-n for pets and feral cats.

Operation Catnip
Raleigh NC

My male (who was not the father of the kittens and neutered) helped babysit the kittens for my mystique. he abolutely loved them, licking them and playing with them. (just have to watch males sometimes, as it is their instinct to kill kittens.) you would have thought he was the momma of the babies, it was hilarious.

I have had two females care for 1 litter. It's actually amazing to watch a colony (ferals) work together to protect their young.

One of the females actually nursed -- started to lactate for the other female's babies. I posted on this forum when it happened because I wasn't sure if that was possible. To my surprise and amazement, a female cat can lactate to nurse a litter even if it isn't her litter and she isn't & wasn't pregnant. Amazing little animals!!

When we were growing up, we actually gave one of our cats to a shelter so that she could be a surrogate mom for their kittens. She even nursed a puppy. (We had to give her up, and my mother actually worked at the shelter) But she did it until she died about two years ago.

How Right You Are!!! About 25 Years Ago I Had 8 Siamese Cats Of Various Older Ages. One Got Away, Got Pregnant And Had 4 Kits.
She Was Not Into Kittening So We Had To Bottle Feed We Thought Since She Abandoned The 4. Next Thing You Know This Other Siamese That We Had For About 11 Years And Bought From A Cattery--katie, She Was A Long Retired Brood Cat And She Took Over. We Knew She Could Not Have Milk So We All Went To The Vet And He Informed Us She Did Have And Simply Went Into A Pseudo Pregnancy He Called It So She Could Nurse Them. We Kept One Of The 4 And Went Nuts For 2 Years Trying To Break Her Of Nursing It But Every Chance She Got She Still Would Despite Adult Teeth In The 2 Year Old And All! Aren't Animals Just Amazing!!!