Has anyone ever heard of a mother cat eating it's own kittens?

Kitten-killing is more often seen in females, simply because the tom is usually absent from the nest. There are numerous reasons for this behaviour.

As in tomcats, some females cannot switch off hunting behaviour in response to the presence of kittens. Some have poorly developed maternal instincts or they may have a hormonal imbalance so that the maternal behaviour is not triggered by pregnancy and kittening. Because the kittens may inherit this as a genetic trait (hypothetical but very feasible), it is wise not breed from such females again - not just to avoid the tragedy of seeing kittens killed by their mother, but to avoid the problem becoming more widespread. Females which haven't given birth may treat kittens born to other females as prey. Pregnancy and birthing cause hormones which generally trigger maternal instinct. A female without kittens has not gone thorugh this process and the size and sound of the kittens triggers her hunting instincts.

Some kittens are born with abnormalities that humans cannot detect. For this reason they may not thrive, they may even act or smell 'wrong' to the queen. Where one or two kittens are either killed or abandoned, these kittens are often found to be somehow 'faulty'. The mother simply does not want to waste energy on raising kittens that have little chance of survival. In addition, she has expended a lot of energy during pregnancy and she may eat all or part of some of these kittens in an attempt to recoup some of those losses (just as she eats placentas) and to dispose of 'carrion' that could potentially lead predators to her nest. The same goes for kittens which have an illness - she can smell the problem, humans cannot.

Kittens born at a 'bad time of year' e.g. early spring/late fall/winter in the wild state, have a poor chance of survival due to lack of prey. A number of female cats will kill litters born at 'bad times of the year' in order not to use up valuable energy in raising kittens when they themselves have problems in finding adequate food. This has been noted in feral cats.

It is well known that a mother cat may kill kittens if the nest is disturbed, especially if she is confined and cannot move or hide her litter. This is attributed to a frustrated 'protection' instinct. Unable to protect her kittens against a perceived threat, she kills them in a futile attempt at protecting them. Perhaps instinct tells her that it is better to kill offspring herself and make good her own escape than to attempt to defend them against insurmountable (in her view) odds and possibly endanger herself in the process. A few mothers have accidentally killed kittens by trying to push them underneath a doorway in an attempt to move them to a new nest and some over-anxious but non-confined queens have killed kittens as a result of maternal incompetence or perceived threats to the nest. These mothers are generally either desperate or inexperienced or both. A few nervous queens are disturbed enough by the scent of a tomcat nearby that they will resort to the eat-is-protect mechanism.

Stressed mothers may simply decide to cut their losses. Perhaps finding that they cannot successfully rear or save their own kittens, it becomes preferable to try again at a later date or in a more favourable/safer location. However, she has invested a lot of effort in pregnancy and suckling those kittens (and in hunting for food for older kittens) so she eats them in order to reabsorb some of that energy investment. By reabsorbing the nutrients they gained from her, she will more quickly return to breeding condition and may successfully raise kittens later in the same breeding season. Some mothers will simply abandon kittens, but in doing so they lose whatever investment they put into partly rearing the offspring and might not breed again until the next season. This may also explain why some females kill some, but not all, kittens - by reducing the number of kittens in their litter, they increase the chances of successfully rearing their surviving kittens.

Sometimes she will kill the kittens because they have been handled by another person or animal. Her own scent has been obscured and she either no longer recognises them as her own or she feels threatened and unable to escape. They either become prey - in size, sound, smell and movement - or she attempts to 'protect' them by the last resort method of killing them. A female that has prevously been in an abusive situation may be anxious with kittens and may kill them as a result; stress seems to over-ride normal maternal instincts.

Where several litters have been born in one colony it is not unknown for one queen (generally the more dominant one) to either kill her rival's kittens or to 'kidnap' them. This may enhance the survival prospects of her own litter; it may remove the genetic competition from the other queen; it may be that the predatory queen's maternal instincts do not extend as far as recognising the other kittens as something other than prey or alternatively it may be that her attempts to kidnap the kittens and raise them as her own (over-developed maternal instinct?) result in the accidental death of the kittens as one queen tries to kidnap them and the other tries to defend them (even to the point of killing them herself). In a number of such cases the queens may move into a single communal nest and take turns in nursing the kittens, but in other cases some of the kittens (usually the smaller, more fragile, ones or those of the less dominant queen) die. The kidnapping of offspring is better documented in dogs, but has been observed in cats as well.

Another cause of kitten killing is rare, but not impossible. An inexperienced or over-anxious mother may clean her kittens excessively. In some cases a queen has been known to bite off a kitten's paw, tail or ear due to excessive cleaning behaviour when the kitten is small and relatively fragile. In a very small number of cases, her efforts at cleaning (and restraint) are forceful enough to kill a tiny kitten. In an attempt to hygienically dispose of the body she may consume or partially consume it.

Finally, kitten deaths occur naturally and for diverse reasons. Many queens will dispose of the body by removing it from the nest or moving the nest away from it. Another way of disposing of carrion is to eat it. Where the kitten is only partially consumed it may appear that the mother has killed it even if she is simply trying to dispose of a potential predator-magnet.

GOOD LUCK - Hope this helps

Some of nature's ways seem really harsh and are very unpleasant to us.The mother cats will eat their kittens sometimes if they sense that there is something seriously wrong with the kitten (the kitten was probably not going to live). This, in the wild, was a way for the mother cat to restore some of the energy she had lost giving birth, not to waste anymore energy she would need to care for the healthy kittens, and to rid her nest of carrion that would attract predators.

Breeder of Ragdolls

That's sad they keep dying. I had a cat about 10 yeas ago that had about 5 litters of kittens. For her first litter, one kitten was born very tiny and unhealthy. It lived for about 5 minutes, and died. We were going to bury it but we came back into the room and the mother was eating the kitten. I don't know why they eat their dead kittens, but it's a normal thing. I'm really sure the mother isn't killing them. But I'm don't know why they would keep dying, maybe the mother of father has bad genes.

Yea, gross. But yes, many mammals do that if their litter is sick or dead. Poor little kitties. Don't worry, it is natural. They figure that if it is dead, they should eat it to conserve energy. Especially if they are strays, they need all the food they can get. In nature, it could mean the difference between life and death.

Anyways, best with your bum kitties. I love cats. My cat's name is Bob. Good luck!

i remember a few years ago, one of our cats was about to give birth. i wanted to see the kitties, but my mom said we should just leave the new borns alone. she said if the mother cat smells other scents on her kittens, she wouldn't recognize them as her young. she might end up eating the kittens if that happened. she said she will only start to assist our pet cat if she sees a sign that it's ok to approach them. so, yes, it's gross but i guess it's in their nature to do that.

I have usually it is only if she knows there is something wrong with them, or a young mother cat may do it because she is to immature to have kittens. I am not 100% positive on this, but I am 90% positive.

Yes they do, It is just digesting parts of themselves,i had a feral who gave birth to half a cat[bottom half only] I had no probs with ange cleaning up after herself,rather her than the Toms.

If the cat feels the kitten is in danger than yes it just might.

Yes. My cat did this once; she ate a few before we were able to stop her. The ones she didn't eat were born deformed and didn't live long.

animals do that by instinct if something wrong with litter i had cats last year that done the same thing. Sorry

Yes that's nature. if they are sick or deformed etc etc the mother will kill it and or if its dead at birth the mother will eat it.