Expert: Tina - 5/8/2007

Question
hi
I have 4 feral mothers, 1 about 2 years old and her 2  one year old daughters and another 1 year old that have had kittens on my deck since April 11. All 4 mothers had their litters in the same crate I provided. All the mothers are feeding and taking care of the kittens, however it seem the oldest female is in charge, she decides if they get moved and when, and does the moving.She just moved someone's 2 day old kitten in today, I saw her.
  My question is, is this normal for feral females to share responsibilities and to give birth in the same crate with another mother and her liter already there let alone 3 such litters. As of yesterday I have 4 litters one born April 11, one April 14, one on April 25 and one on May 2nd all under my deck in one spot with all the mothers .

Thanks
Cookie Cooper

Answer
HI Cookie,

Yes! I have observed this many times. Often the mother cats, and sometimes even grown offspring of their - including males - will share babysitting too, while the mother is off hunting. I have seen unrelated mother cats literally "pool" their kittens and nurse eachother's babies, and then when the kittens are old enough to start roaming around they have more than 1 mom watching them carefully. The oldest mom sounds like a very good mamma kitty and she's making sure all the babies are properly taken care of :)

It would be nice to videotape them if you have access to a recorder.

As lovely as this family picture is, I hope you have plans to try and trap the feral cats and get them all spayed and neutered, and perhaps find homes for the kittens. At this rate, you'll have way more cats than you can handle and even if you don't mind, I guarantee neighbors will start to mind and want to trap and do worse with the cats. Time to stop this runaway population growth before it gets out of hand!

There are lots of feral cat care groups out there who may be able to assist you, click here to find one in your area:

http://alleycat.org/feral_friends.html

Best wishes to you and all your furry friends!