You adopted an adorable kitten from a shelter a few weeks ago.
She’s adorable — playful and cuddly — and she spends a lot of her time curled up in your arms.
You thought you were getting an adorable little play pal when you adopted her, but you soon find out that she is in fact a mom who plans on making three future kittens with you as her surrogate mommy!
You can’t help but be a little heartbroken about this, but how can you make it work? Will she actually teach you how to raise her babies or will she be just an impossible cat to care for? Will this be the end of your happy little cat family?
Take a read through this kitten care guide to find out!
Contents
Why Does Your Cat Keep Bringing You Her Kittens?
The primary and most frequent reason cats bring their kittens to you is because she wants to socialize them, and you can be social with them too.
So that her kitten can get to bond with you she might even bring her kitten to you multiple times.
She Needs Help Caring for Them
Kittens are extremely susceptible to predators in the wild.
They are unable to open their eyes, and their mother’s only option is to cover them. Cats may also move their kittens to a safer cave, a better hunting place, or just because mother needs some kitten help!
Your cat wants to let you know about her kittens. Your cat understands that she and her kittens will be living with you, so she wants them to get used to people.
To Make You Feel Like a Part of Her Family
Mother of kittens will follow you around the apartment at all times to let you know she’s hot on your tail.
She meows for you to come close, and once you grab her, she meows because she wants you to feed the baby cats! If only she could bring her kittens over to your place!
She’ll purr and try to follow you to your place, but she knows that you have work to do. She continues to play with her babies and feed them while you do it.
She wants you to feel close to her and is always watching you to make sure you’re taking care of her little ones! She might even bring you a kitten to groom and feed!
Mother cat knows that you are her only hope so she insists on keeping you around as much as possible, which means you can probably expect some physical contact (like lick-kisses) from her.
She may even bring you her kittens to groom and feed.
Your cat also wants to train you so that she doesn’t have to do it herself! Your cat knows that she and her kittens will be living with you, so she wants them to get used to people.
Kittens cannot be left alone; they need their mother’s attention and protection.
Mother cats, however, cannot leave their litter behind for long periods of time because they also need to eat and sleep! This being the case, she may have no choice but to ask for your help—and no, she won’t turn her back on you and leave them alone!
While she is away, she expects you to feed them and clean up after them. She’ll even bring her babies over to you while you’re working.
Mother needs to nurse kitten to grow into a healthy cat.
Mother cat knows more about kitten care than most of her human owners. She needs to eat and nurse the kitten so that she can grow to be a healthy cat.
Mom cat needs her sleep, too! Mother cat has to sleep for about 20 hours a day for herself and her many babies.
Mother cat needs her sleep, too! Unlike human mothers, cats do not have the luxury of going away for a few hours to have a rest.
Mother needs to keep her kittens safe until she can teach kitten how to venture off and explore the world safely – but not too soon!
To keep Her Kittens Safe
You can keep cats indoors particularly if they live on a farm or in the country where animals, including hawks and coyotes, may attack unprotected kittens or their mothers.
There are shelters that accept cats as pets and mother cats can stay there until they are spayed or spayed and then adopted out to new loving homes!
Meanwhile, a mother cat with kittens should be fed daily, preferably in the early evening and at night when the kittens are sleeping.
Kittens can suckle their mother for up to four months, but so they usually stop nursing when they reach three to four months of age.
This is usually around the time when the mother cat starts to wean the kittens by providing them with solid food. Mother cats need to be fed special kitten food that has high protein levels, along with the formula milk that her kittens drink.
Kittens need milk for more than just hydration; it provides them with nutrients that build their strong bones and immune systems. So , it’s usually best to free the mom of that responsibility after weaning her young.
Kittens need their mother to teach them how to interact with other cats, dogs, and humans. They also need to be fed regularly and protected from diseases that their mothers and other cats are carrying.
What Does It Mean When a Stray Cat Brings You Her Kittens?
Mother cat knows this is a safe place for her kittens and feels that it is best for them to live with you.
The transition to living with you is always going to be a challenge for kittens and cats in general because they are naturally very independent creatures and have a different interaction with humans compared to dogs. This is because they are more instinctive than dogs.
Dogs rely on humans for their food and other needs, but cats depend on their own hunting abilities for their food.
The smell and sight of other cats and kittens is another feature that cats have and dogs do not share with them.
Cats already know that humans are seen as predators by the other cats in their streets so they naturally move their kittens to a safer place and a mother cat will always move to a safer place with her young kittens.
She probably knows that you are one of the friendliest humans around and that you are not going to hurt her or her kittens.
This being the case, she expects you to help out by bringing her kittens over to your place so that they can be with your human family.
She assumes that you and your human family will take good care of her kittens until they learn how to take care of themselves!
Why Does My Cat Bring Me Her Kittens and Meow?
She wants her kittens to get used to you and familiarize themselves with people’s code of behavior, so they will grow up to be good cats!
Kittens are very susceptible to predators in the wild which is why their mothers cover them and move them to better places to hunt.
She wants you to take care of them and love them.
Cats naturally teach their kittens to eat properly and groom themselves properly.
Your cat will continue to bring her kittens to you in order to teach them things that they have to learn like eating and grooming food regularly because in a wild environment cats would not get food regularly.
Therefore, your cat’s instinct wants her kittens to get a proper diet.
Her instinct also teaches her kittens how to groom themselves properly so that they can get rid of fleas and other dirt on them which can potentially harm them.
How to stop cat from moving kittens
Aside from providing for your cat’s needs after she has her kittens, be sure to keep her indoors to prevent exposure to diseases, fights with other animals and injuries caused by cars or predators.
However, if you believe your cat abandoned the kitten and she’s still in the area, put her in a carrier and bring her to the veterinarian.
Following are the steps: Mindfully take notice where your cat takes off after you feed her.
Take a blanket and place it under the kitten after the mother cat has left the area to keep it warm.
A fresh nest means a predator threat and wintry weather is another reason she may abandon her litter.
As soon as you know she isn’t coming back, take the kitten to a trusted veterinarian for a check-up and shots.
Also Read: How to Care For Kittens Found Outside
Conclusion
Mother cat is very good at taking care of her young which is why she can live alone and look after her brood all at once, which is why a kitten gets attached to her and doesn’t want to leave her when she gets older.
There is a bond between a kitten and their mother cat that can never be broken by humans; only death can break it.
There have been cases where people have tried to separate mother cat from her kittens by relocating them to a new shelter, but mother cat will always return to pick up the scent of her babies and will try to find them wherever they are hiding.
So, the best thing to do is to leave the mother and her babies alone and let her be together with her offspring.
There are a variety of reasons why your mother cat may be abandoning her kittens, and that is why you should keep a careful watch on her if you notice any changes in her behavior patterns.
Of course, she may want assistance or she may feel guilty for abandoning her offspring.
