Crazy mother cat - I feel awful?

Question

For a little over a week I was looking after a tiny orange kitten that was the only survivor of a 5-kit litter. The mother is semi-wild as most cats in India are - she lives in a wooded area but is used to human habitation, is fed on human scraps, comes indoors and sometimes interacts with human beings. She had given birth to them out in the cold, 2 died of the cold, she went off with two, and left the last one in the dustbin. She didn't come back for the last baby. On day 4 of hearing him squeal I finally took him in and he was all bones. I started hand raising him. He was my baby, I grew attached. I was reading orphaned kitten sites and tried my best to give him the best warmth, care, affection and love I could. The vet said he was prematurely born and that's why his growth was slow, but he had begun putting on weight, getting some baby fur, his eyes had opened... He was beautiful and he would snuggle up to me and purr to all high heaven. 

Today morning the mother came meowing outside my door. She was giving the maternal call "mau mau" and it started growing higher and more frantic. She even pushed herself against the locked door twice. I really thought she would take him back to nurse him. She certainly wanted him back. He started crying for her too, and I decided to introduce them. I opened the door with him in my hand, he wriggled out of it, and she lunged at him and held him tightly by the neck. I wasn't sure if she was going to take him away or not. But then he went limp, and she lay him down and tore open his body and ATE HIM!!! I was shocked and started crying 
and even though this happened this morning, more than 12 hours ago, I am unable to get over the fact that the baby whom I had named and loved and brought up could die in such a gruesome manner in front of my eyes and I could do nothing to stop it. I am very sad, my room still smells of his baby smell, my clothes smell of him, his baby paw prints are on my wall, and I miss him. I know he wasn't mine but I miss him and I wish he were still snuggled up with me. 

I asked the vet whether it had anything to do with the human scent but he thinks it is unlikely, since she hangs around indoors and is fed by humans and gives birth in places where she knows humans live. Cats and dogs are the two animals to whom human scent don't matter, he says. I am unable to comprehend what happened with the kitten, why she wanted him back just to finish it off. She is in heat again even though she just gave birth 12 days ago, because she was responding to a male cat's mating calls, so the vet thinks her milk dried up and she is ready to mate again. Any other theories? Please don't give mean responses like "you should have expected this" because I didn't. I knew he was frail and small and he would take a lot of work, it was a round the clock job, but I loved every minute of it and I miss him more than anything right now. :'(

frischy · Accepted Answer

Oh goodness! This shocked me as well. I do not see how you could have expected that the mother cat would kill the kitten this way. 

I think you are a kind soul to take care of this poor kitten the way you did. You absolutely did a good thing, and your intentions of allowing the mother cat to take over were completely admirable. You were willing to let go of something that you loved for what seemed to be a better alternative for him. How could you have predicted the mother cat's behavior?

I am so sorry for the loss of your baby. Of course you are going to grieve this little creature as if it had been a human being. Be kind to yourself, and perhaps consider helping another kitten, since it is obvious that you are very good at this kind of care and have a big heart.

? · Answer

Ok you might not like this answer and i apologies if you don't. You were a wonderful person for taking him in when no one else would. Really, that was great of you. THe reason the mother tore him up and ate him because she believed that he was to fragile to live. Imagine this... because she didn't know you were fattening him up and making him stronger, all she saw was a helpless little animal that if he had to live like she was, and she believed he would, would just suffer and die. I know it sounds cruel right now but she truly believed that she was doing the right thing. If you are really sad maybe you could adopt another kitten. i know this may not sound like the right remedy and the new kitten will NEVER replace the other one. But it will help, and maybe you can make up for the death of, you never mentioned the name, the kitten. Also you will be saving another life. I really hope I helped. I am truly sorry but dont blame the mother cat.
-Kat

Aww thanks for adding that in chuffys an adorable name, but maybe  you should go and look for any other abandoned* litter nests. Maybe you can raise another kitten and save its life.

*please make sure it is abandoned watch it for a day or two (unless the kittens look near death) before u take any thx!

Elaine M · Answer

Some new mother cats do this.  A mother cat who smells a birth defect in the kittens will do this too. It's NATURE - they birthed kittens, the dead ones attract predators to the others in the litter. A mother cat eats the ones that won't survive to help replenish food in HER without needing to hunt. The kittens bodies pulled nutrition from her system weakening her as well.  There's a reason in nature for this and her behavior is normal.

Did you give the mother access to dry food and a water bowl? Wa she starving?  

Your smell on him was not a trigger.  I'm sorry this happened, but there was a reason behind it, your scent wasn't it.

? · Answer

I'm so sorry for your loss! As someone who has hand raised kittens before, I know how attached you can get to them. Don't blame yourself for what happened. You did what you did out of love for your kitten. You wanted him to be with his mother, like he wanted. There is no way you could have anticipated what happened. As to why it happened, it's difficult to say. It could be that the kitten no longer had the mother's scent on him, so she didn't recognize him. Or he may have had some sort of defect or illness that had gone undetected by you. Mother cats will kill kittens they deem to be "defective". It's hard to say what was going through her mind. My advice to you is to allow yourself time to grieve for your precious kitten and then, perhaps, adopt a new one. Good luck!

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Crazy mother cat - I feel awful?

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