Kitten and Mother

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tobjectpascal

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unusal case here, the mother lives at another house and for the last 6 months we've been feeding her 3 months ago she got pregnant, and she gave birth, i tracked her down to the neighbour and i got a kitten from them at 5 weeks old knowing full well the mother comes around every day, and sure enough the mother fed her while on the rounds, the kitten is now perfectly healthy very playful, very tame, all great



my problem is that she's doing a lot of "play" fighting, the kitten jumps the mother, up until the last couple of days the mother just sat staring at her while she pawed her and jumped at her head and bit the mothers ear, she does not do this to anyone else, very friendly to me and my daughter and everyone else, but the mother is finally doing something about it and she chases the 9 week old kitten and pins her, the kitten just fights back and then the mother pins her and kicks her back, not too bad, just recently the mother has been adding more and more strenght and the little kitten still does not give up she jumps the mother and the mother just pins and bites her the kitten has not phear!!! lol!

is this normal? the mother is almost 3x the size of her, the mother has not done any serious harm to her yet, but will she?
 
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Originally Posted by tobjectpascal

unusal case here, the mother lives at another house and for the last 6 months we've been feeding her 3 months ago she got pregnant, and she gave birth, i tracked her down to the neighbour and i got a kitten from them at 5 weeks old knowing full well the mother comes around every day, and sure enough the mother fed her while on the rounds, the kitten is now perfectly healthy very playful, very tame, all great



my problem is that she's doing a lot of "play" fighting, the kitten jumps the mother, up until the last couple of days the mother just sat staring at her while she pawed her and jumped at her head and bit the mothers ear, she does not do this to anyone else, very friendly to me and my daughter and everyone else, but the mother is finally doing something about it and she chases the 9 week old kitten and pins her, the kitten just fights back and then the mother pins her and kicks her back, not too bad, just recently the mother has been adding more and more strenght and the little kitten still does not give up she jumps the mother and the mother just pins and bites her the kitten has not phear!!! lol!

is this normal? the mother is almost 3x the size of her, the mother has not done any serious harm to her yet, but will she?
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Actually my foster kittens did a lot of play fighting/biting with their mom. Their mom tolerated it to a point, but would put the smack down when she was tired of it. I do believe it is normal. I am concerned however about the intact mother still having access outdoors...is there any way that you can convince your neighbor to have her spayed?? If she isn't spayed, she will become pregnant again..and given that she is mating outdoors, there is no way to determine if the males are safe. I would hate for her to contract FIV/FELV or become pregnant again.

Katie
 
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tobjectpascal

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from where i am the neigbour is right around the block, the mother jumps fences which i can't do to get here and it takes her a couple of minutes, takes 7 minutes or so to get to their house... since it is their cat it's not my place to demand, i have mentioned to her that she could get pregnant, and for the father , the father lives literally next door to them and i've seen the father go indoors, he's a fluffy grey cat, cute babies though..

thanks for the info, i'm not so worried about it now, she's a good mother really.
 
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Originally Posted by tobjectpascal

from where i am the neigbour is right around the block, the mother jumps fences which i can't do to get here and it takes her a couple of minutes, takes 7 minutes or so to get to their house... since it is their cat it's not my place to demand, i have mentioned to her that she could get pregnant, and for the father , the father lives literally next door to them and i've seen the father go indoors, he's a fluffy grey cat, cute babies though..

thanks for the info, i'm not so worried about it now, she's a good mother really.
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Understand...however, he may not be the only one she is mating with....cats can mate with multiple males and just because you think this one is the dad of your cat, doesn't mean he's the dad to the entire litter. Problem with assuming everything is ok is it just takes one male that is FIV/FELV positive to infect the female (which could infect the litter). You may want to mention that risk to her owners as well because I'm sure they don't want their cat to end up FIV+ or FELV+. Additionally, the more litters she has..the greater the strain will be on her and the greater the chances that the subsequent litters won't be as healthy. Given that she is a frequent visitor at your home...I think it is in your best interest as well that she be spayed.

Katie
 
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kittymeri

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all kittens play fight.. and its cute!! although i dont think you should have taken the kitten from the litter that early, they need their mothers and litter mates to learn to socalize. but at least its healthy and happy!
 
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Mom is teaching the kitten proper manners and unless they are actually screaming out in pain or fear and drawing blood, let them. It is good for the kitten to learn.

As for the Momma not being spayed ... I have been known to scoop up females who wandered onto my property and take them in to be spayed at my local low-cost spay clinic ... but of course, you must do what you feel is right for you and your circumstances.
 
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tobjectpascal

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I actually took 2 form the litter, and then a week later a 3rd one appeared out of no where, i looked after them until 8 weeks and then made sure both the males went to the same home so they could play with each other leaving the daughter with the mother here, the problem i've got now is the mother seems to not want to leave and ends up eating all the kitten food and yesterday she started using the kitty litter and stunk the whole house out the stuff she must eat to make that smell ewwwww...

i've tried giving the mother expensive cat food for adults, will not take it, even given her really nice meat from the bbq, she seems to only want to eat kitten food (dry stuff)
 
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i've tried giving the mother expensive cat food for adults, will not take it, even given her really nice meat from the bbq, she seems to only want to eat kitten food (dry stuff)
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Has anyone checked to see if she is pregnant again??

Katie
 
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tobjectpascal

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I thought she was but it turns out she was just getting fat with all the food i've been given her, after she went <cough> the toilet, she returned to normal size lol

but, i've felt her and i can't see any signs of her being pregnant just a little fat, i can't get her sprayed the owner would know who did it.
 
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Have you talked to the cat's "owners" and offered to take her to be spayed, at no cost to them? My experience is that few people will turn this down. My trick is not to really ask permission exactly, but to say something more like "This is what I'm going to do, okay?". That way they can say no if they want to but my intentions are very clear. I can't explain it very well but it tends to work almost 100% of the time.
 
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I think you need to focus more in determining what is best for the cat, not the neighbors. If they are letting an intact female out of the house when it is clear she will become pregnant, this is irresponsible care, plain and simple. You, on the other hand, do know what the right thing to do would be - where you are having the problem is determining whether or not you have the "right" to do it.

The answer to that question can be found in digging deep and asking yourself these questions:

1) Do I feed and care for this girl?
2) When she has kittens, do I feed and care for the kittens?

If the answers to these questions are yes, then it is simple. Take her in, get her spayed, keep her at your house for a few days until she heals and go on with life.
 
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