Expert: Ali - 5/2/2010

Question
Hi, my cat has had her second litter of kittens 5 weeks ago, she had just 3 again but unlike the first litter she is starting to act rather strange. She is extremely hungry all of the time, wanting more wet cat food immediately after being fed, she also has complete dry food available all the time. I gave her a worning tablet last Tues but hasn't made any difference. Also she can seem to act very agreesively towards the kittens, chasing and pinning them down to initially clean them but will then 'play' fight with them, biting them until they squeel/cry. Any ideas or advice?

Answer
Helen,

It's perfectly reasonable for your queen to be quite hungry while she's nursing because she's taking care of her own body's needs for energy as well as the needs of her rapidly growing family. I generally don't recommend that pet parents feed dry cat food with any regularity because it tends to be more processed than canned foods (both commercially available wet and dry foods are highly processed and kind of low on the nutritional value). It's important to understand that today's domestic cats evolved from cats in Egypt where water is a pretty scarce resource, this means that they have a lower drive to drink water than other mammals such as dogs or people. Feeding a diet made up largely of dry food can actually mean that a kitty is always in some state of dehydration which is unhealthy, especially over the longer term. One website that I'd recommend you check out is www.catinfo.org, this site was created by a veterinarian who is attempting to help pet parents better understand the unique nutritional needs of their feline companions. At this point I tend to prefer providing the most natural care possible for my cats and my recommendation as far as momma cat's cravings for canned food would be to give her what she's craving because it's obvious that she needs it.

As for the mom chasing her kittens and pinning them down this is actually normal behaviour ~ kittens must learn some respect and be able to submit to bigger, stronger cats in any future home. Momma cat is trying to teach her kittens how to defend themselves and provided she's not inflicting any harm I would leave the situation alone and watch from a distance. Mother cats will also discipline their kittens and teach them how to politely interact with other cats. When a queen is weaning her babies she will often push them away, hiss, growl and swat at them ~ based on the information that you've provided I'd say that you're seeing perfectly normal behaviour and mom's not yet weaning her babies.

It's important for the long term wellbeing that the kittens stay with mom until they're at least 12 weeks of age ~ this allows mom to teach the kittens everything they need to know in order to be a happy, healthy, sane feline family member. It's also good if you expose the kittens to a variety of people as this will make them more social when it comes to their interactions with people, just be sure to supervise interactions between kittens and young children or people with developmental disabilities closely as the kittens can still be seriously hurt by improper handling from someone who doesn't know his/her own strength. If you'd like further information about the developmental milestones your kittens will be reaching over the next few weeks please feel free to contact me again and I will send you information based on my own experiences as well as websites that provide good information.

I do think that spaying your queen would be in her best interests in terms of ensuring her long term health and if you'd like to learn more about spay/neuter surgery and the benefits of de-sexing cats I'd be more than happy to send you as much information as you'd like. If you have any further cat related questions or concerns please feel free to contact me again and I will do my absolute best to help you and your kitties out in any way that I can.