Recent Questions Tagged Nursing-Mother-Cats

As strange as it may seem to some people, cats are not born knowing how to hunt. It is a skill they learn from watching their mothers. If the mother cat is a good hunter, then her kittens will learn to be good hunters....

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At about five or six weeks of age, a mother cat will begin teaching her kittens how to hunt. At first she brings dead mice to the kittens. She will eat some of the mice in front of the kittens.......

Around the final two weeks of pregnancy, a mother cat might show nesting behavior. Before queening, or giving birth, she will seek out an isolated, quiet and dark place to have her kittens. You may want to provide a large box with dry paper, towels or blankets in the location she seems to prefer....

Mother cats are a endearing, enchanting and confusing. One moment they move the kittens other times they seem to ignore them. Sometimes they even reject them. Read below to understand and manage their very normal behavior and prepare the kittens for their eventual weaning....

The main reason a mother cat moves her kittens from their den is because they fear for either their safety or comfort. Even if a threat is imperceptible to us, the mother cat thinks her kittens may be...

Very interesting. I ask the community for a detailed answer.......

Many of us were taught that “scruffing” a cat—or grabbing the animal by the loose skin at the back of the neck—is not only an effective mode of restraint, but also causes cats to relax. The thought behind this is that kittens relax when their mom carries them by the scruff....

While mom may move her babies because the spot you picked was too noisy, it's probably just because the babies are getting bigger. Most mother cats will move their babies around 3 or 4 weeks old. This could be because they've gotten too big for the basket you supplied her to give birth in....

She gently mouths the loose skin behind the ears in the neck area and can carry each kitten individually. Scruffing naturally makes the kitten go limp so that the mother can carry the kitten with ease....

Scruffing is a natural behavior that occurs in cats but under specific conditions such as: Mother cats scruff the kittens that are just born. They do so to carry the baby rather than teach them discipline....

This is why today, the accepted age for kittens to leave their mother is around twelve weeks old, and generally, registered pedigree breeders will not allow their kittens to go on to their new homes before this time....

It is a skill they learn from watching their mothers. If the mother cat is a good hunter, then her kittens will learn to be good hunters. Interestingly, kittens seem to learn the best from their mothers....

Hunting is an instinctual behavior in all cat species, whether wild or domestic. For this reason, mother cats teach their kittens to kill. They begin this process by familiarizing the kittens with prey animals....

Interestingly, kittens seem to learn the best from their mothers. They do not seem to learn as well or as quickly from watching other adult cats. At about five or six weeks of age, a mother cat will begin teaching her kittens how to hunt....