By coldstar - 18/07/2013 09:06 - United Kingdom - London
coldstar tells us more.
Just to clarify a few things: my two adult cats (the mother and the baby-eater) are sisters. I had planned to have them both spayed a few months ago but the baby-eater was very unwell at the time, so I decided to postpone the spaying for both of them so that I could eventually get them both done at the same time. By the time the unwell cat had recovered the other had already snuck out of the house and fallen pregnant, so I resigned myself to letting her have the kittens and then taking them both to be fixed. That's how this situation happened. To those questioning whether I was aware of the potential danger, yes I was, but the mother cat is usually dominant to her sister and intimidates her a lot, so I assumed she'd chase her away if she tried to go near the newborns. Instead she seemed indifferent to the situation and simply stood by while her sister killed the litter. As for why I did not intervene, I was not in the room at the time. I entered the room and saw the cat had given birth, then exited the room to go and fetch her some extra food and water. When I returned I found the sister in the room with blood around her mouth, half a leg on the floor, and the mother sitting off to one side washing herself. As I stared at the scene in a mixture of surprise and revulsion, the killer began coughing violently then vomited. So that's how you came to read about this event. As for those suggesting I should punish the killer in some way, I am not going to. She was just acting on instinct, like all non-human animals do. And I think that's all I have to say for now. Sorry for the long comment.
Top comments
Comments
That's animals for you! The new cat probably didn't know what to do or what exactly happened. (Some just have bad instincts and need help) I used to breed dogs and you never let the father or another dog near the puppy's until they can eat solid food and run around themselves.
Ewwwwwww
It was adorable. As if she knew I was reading this, my cat came and cuddled up next to me and just laid here looking at me. She could feel my sadness and came to give me a hug. Cats, wild animals by nature. Lovers by nurture. :)
Keep them in separate rooms or sides of the house so they can't get to each other
That's what you get for having cats. Evil bastards....
I don't see anything instinctual about the sister cat eating the other's litter, nor do I find it normal for the mother to just sit idly by as it happened...that just seems quite wrong...are both of your cats mentally ill? It's possible that if it was her 1st litter that she might just watch (since some 1st time animal mothers will abandon/kill their own babies because they for whatever reason have no maternal instincts with the initial litter/birth)
Infanticide is common among many species, cats being one of them. It's more common in feral/wild cats than in domesticated ones, but it's still far from unheard of among domesticated cats. From my experiences though it isn't that common for dominant female cats to have their kittens killed by subordinate females (unless there are multiple subordinates and the dominant is unable to keep them all away from her litter), which is why I was less careful about guarding them than I would have been had it been the subordinate female that was pregnant. As for the dominant just standing by, I think perhaps she didn't want the kittens. Sometimes if there is something wrong with a kitten the mother will either kill it herself or abandon it, so it's possible the kittens were unhealthy in some way and the mother just let her sister do her dirty work for her by killing them.
That's terrible! Almost made me throw up, ew.
Keywords
If you've never eaten someone you were jealous of, you're not truly living.
You are an idiot.