In the normal cat life that we often encounter, mother cats always protect and love their kittens. Cats often breastfeed and put to sleep their kittens who still can’t find their own food.
But behind that normality, have you ever seen a cat eat its own children? Well. The incident is confirmed. But only a handful of rare cases. Because these events can only occur for a few reasons.
Reasons Cats Eat Their Own Children
Here are some reasons that often occur in cats, especially in the phenomenon of cats eating their own children:
1. Mother is Very Hungry
Well, this condition usually occurs in wild cats, not pets. Where when the mother’s condition cannot find food for some time, making her and her children are hungry.
That kind of thing makes her motherly instincts disappear, so with the heart, the cat will eat her own children.
Therefore, we strongly recommend that you keep a cat especially after giving birth, so as not to let the mother starve. Especially during the exhausting process of giving birth.
In addition, it is best to separate the mother cat for a while and after you feel the mother is full and calm after giving birth. Just get close to the child again.
2. Induk Kucing Mengalami Stress
Like humans, it turns out that mother cats can also be stressed after giving birth to kittens. Especially for young mothers who have just given birth for the first time.
Sometimes because her maternal instincts are not yet perfect, plus conditions that do not support this often make the mother stressed and even eats her children.
Therefore, if you have a cat and are pregnant for the first time. Keep the cat away from stress factors and make the mother as comfortable as possible. Especially about the food.
3. A Sickly Kitten
A kitten that is born unhealthy and constantly sickly makes its mother pity it and can’t bear to see it. Sometimes it’s so confusing that the cat who can’t bear his son even kills him and eats him. This is in order to make her child not suffer anymore from her illness.
Well, it is called an animal, where the mind is not like humans. So it makes the wrong decision. So, we as humans should not imitate it because we are not animals.
4. Born Defective Kittens
If the mother cat gives birth to several kittens where one of them is deformed. Sometimes it’s stressful. Especially if the child even suffers and troubles his siblings.
Well due to his lack of sense. The desperate mother cat sometimes even kills and eats her disabled children. This is so that the disabled child does not suffer anymore. In addition, his brothers and sisters can be more secure because they have not been distressed by the disabled kitten.
5. Sick and then dead kittens
When the mother cat has a sickly child and then finally dies. Sometimes there are mothers who prefer to eat their children so that the virus or disease in the diseased child is not transmitted to their siblings.
6. Increasing the Life Chance of the Child
This kind of incident usually occurs in feral cats that have many children or have sick children. The life of a mother cat who lacks food but has many children.
Usually will make the mother select and kill her weak or sick children. So that his brother’s life can be more secure. Because life in the parent environment does not allow him to find a lot of food.
7. Protecting their young from predators
The wild environment is full of predators, sometimes making the mother cat stressed. Especially if there are many predators but finding food is even more difficult.
In this kind of situation, sometimes there will be a mother who even makes the decision to kill her children so as not to become prey to other animals. Even to the point of eating them.
8. Contaminated with Human Odor
As an animal, especially in the wild. So the instinct is very sharp. Especially after giving birth. If the mother leaves her child to find food and finds her child has the smell of human hands. (Formerly held by humans). Then sometimes it does not hesitate to kill it, because the mother becomes unsure that it is her child and instead, assumes the baby is another animal’s child.
So it’s best not to lightly touch an animal’s young, especially if they are in the wild. Unless it belongs to your own pet.
The incident of cats eating their own children is a very rare occurrence. Even in the wild such as forests. Usually, in areas that are very difficult to find food or red zone areas for cats, new cases are found. Or if it’s around us, it’s usually because the mother is stressed.
Stories About Mother Cats Killing Or Eating Their Kittens
Ok straight off here are some experiences of people who had bad luck, because they had a mother cat who killed her children:
Marguerite Church (Quoran English): Marguerite was a teacher who got a mother cat and some kittens from her students. Then at night, she put the mother and kittens in a safe place and did not forget to give nutritious cat food too. But strangely the next day he found the kittens dead and it continued until the next day.
After it happened for the third time, she tried to observe her cat during her day off. Then she realized that the mother was suffering from a neurological disorder and could not control her bite. This was evidenced by the visible wound on the kitten’s neck.
This probably happened when the mother wanted to move the kitten but couldn’t control it, so she bit the kitten’s neck and killed it. After Marguerite Church took the mother cat to the doctor, there was the astonishing fact that the mother was suffering from permanent nerve damage so it was appropriate that she accidentally killed her children when she wanted to move.
Yes, just like humans, if they are stressed, their actions can be dangerous. Or if they have neurological or psychiatric disorders, their behavior will also be dangerous.
Reference: Quora English Forum.
