So before anyone moans my cat is an indoor cat she doesn't go out but my disabled child decided to let her outside when she was in heat thinking she was upset because she wanted outside so that is how she ended up pregnant. the problem I've got is my kittens are fully weaned by themselves eating solid food drinking and using the litter tray the problem I had to start with was mum wasn't letting them go anywhere so they wernt learning anything and were weeing everywhere she put them and I took the advice to take them away from her for an hour or two each day so they could learn to use the litter box play etc as she wasn't allowing anything I think it's because when I first got her 6 years ago she was pregnant by her dad and lost all of her kittens within a month so I think she's worried that is going to happen again the problem I've got is the kittens aren't interested in nursing at all now but that's all that Mum wants to do is nurse them and keep them with her I've cut her food intake down but she's still producing a lot of milk is there anything I can do to help cut this milk production down because the vet won't spay her until her milk supply is dried up
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Kittens No Longer Nurse
- Thread starter Tanna
- Start Date
How old are her kittens? It’s best to allow them to nurse for 12-16 weeks or until mom pushes them away. It sounds like she’s not ready to stop nursing yet.
Her milk will naturally dry up as the kittens stop nursing, but it can take a couple of weeks.
I would not cut down on mom’s food at all though. She still needs good nutrition.
There are vets who will spay while mom is still nursing. My vet spayed my cat when her kittens were 8 weeks old. She continued to nurse them for quite awhile afterwards. You may want to call around and find a vet who will spay her while she still has milk.
T Tanna
Her milk will naturally dry up as the kittens stop nursing, but it can take a couple of weeks.
I would not cut down on mom’s food at all though. She still needs good nutrition.
There are vets who will spay while mom is still nursing. My vet spayed my cat when her kittens were 8 weeks old. She continued to nurse them for quite awhile afterwards. You may want to call around and find a vet who will spay her while she still has milk.
T Tanna
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- #3
The thing is I'm not stopping the kittens from nursing they just don't want to she tries to force them and they run away from her now as they are just not interested and they are 5 weeks old
How unusual. Most kittens at 5 weeks old are still nursing and very dependent on their mothers, even if they are beginning to eat solids.
I think you should wait and let mom cat dry up over time and not force anything. The kittens may be nursing at times still.
I think you should wait and let mom cat dry up over time and not force anything. The kittens may be nursing at times still.
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- #5
I found it extremely hard especially considering with her first litter before they died due to birth defects they were fully dependent on her with everything yet these for get extremely agitated and yelp and cry when she finally manages to pin1 down to clean and to suckle their bottom then she tries to force and to feed and soon as she lived so poor up they run off obviously I don't know what goes on when I'm asleep but this is what I've seen throughout the day and I've kept an eye for the past 4 days and it's the same thing day in day out they don't want to know and they want freedom from her but she's not accepting it
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- #6
Sorry about the spelling mistakes silly autocorrect changed it slightly
I think what you are seeing could be perfectly normal. At five weeks the kittens are going to be very interested in playing and will complain when momma tries to groom them. But they really need this grooming at that age. It's not just keeping them clean but also teaching them cat manners. The odd thing is that they don't want to nurse- at 5 weeks I'd expect them to be eating a little cat food but still nursing some of the time. The last litter I had continued to nurse for months to the point where momma cat had to put her foot down and say no more. At that point the kittens were fully weaned but still wanted to nurse for comfort.
Momma cat might go into heat again soon. She can get pregnant while still nursing so you might have to explain to your daughter in any terms she will understand that she should not be let out. I totally understand why she felt the cat was in distress though, a female in heat does act in distress and I believe that it is distressing. I think your daughter has a good heart- she just didn't understand what it all meant in terms of consequences.
Cats are very resilient. Generally there is no problem with breeding between parents and offspring or siblings. In the world of cats this is common and it wouldn't cause any health problems until inbreeding after multiple generations and being mated to a relative does not affect the cat emotionally. They are also more accepting of losing babies because in the wild new mommas loose litters frequently.
I do think all this will turn around and be fine. Go with the vet's recommendation on when to spay the momma. Don't let her out until after she is fully recovered and don't worry too much about the kittens having accidents. They will probably keep having accidents here or there for another week or two but that's to be expected. It should get better as time goes by as long as they get cleaned up after.
Momma cat might go into heat again soon. She can get pregnant while still nursing so you might have to explain to your daughter in any terms she will understand that she should not be let out. I totally understand why she felt the cat was in distress though, a female in heat does act in distress and I believe that it is distressing. I think your daughter has a good heart- she just didn't understand what it all meant in terms of consequences.
Cats are very resilient. Generally there is no problem with breeding between parents and offspring or siblings. In the world of cats this is common and it wouldn't cause any health problems until inbreeding after multiple generations and being mated to a relative does not affect the cat emotionally. They are also more accepting of losing babies because in the wild new mommas loose litters frequently.
I do think all this will turn around and be fine. Go with the vet's recommendation on when to spay the momma. Don't let her out until after she is fully recovered and don't worry too much about the kittens having accidents. They will probably keep having accidents here or there for another week or two but that's to be expected. It should get better as time goes by as long as they get cleaned up after.
