Since the mother is quite young herself and this is her first litter, I'm a bit concerned about something she's started to do lately. Our cat was a very young mother, and she did the same with her kittens. Dear Worried Kitten Lover - It is normal for a mother cat to not want people near her kittens. Playtime is an important part of cat life. Although some behavior shifts may seem confusing or troubling, most are natural and important to the health and safety of the mother cat and her offspring. I've had cats who have had kittens before, and I can remember thinking that the cat was at time being really rough with the babies, yet not at such a young age as these I have now. Your cat probably plays rough from time to time. It is her instinct to protect them from people and animals. We adopted our cat Echo around last fall after finding her meowing under our porch, and since we didn't have the money to get her fixed, our tomcat got her pregnant during her first heat cycle. She was the sweetest mother cat to her kittens, very protective and will play them she just loved to lick her kittens to death, grab them with her arms and just squeeze them tight. I rescued her from my attic with her 2-week old litter 1 female and 2 male kittens. You could just tell she was waiting for the day when they could start running around, just so she could play with them :lol: Scully still plays with her daughters (though, now they're as big as she), and I've never seen her get too rough or too aggressive with them. The way a cat plays as she ages may change but the desire to play should hopefully remain throughout a cat's life. My cat gave birth to a litter of four kittens nearly six weeks ago, I always had an incline she was going to abandon them, but she never, until now! PLAY/PREDATORY AGGRESSION. Her kittens are three weeks old now and are walking and playing. This natural response is the mother's way of hiding her kittens from predators. We had trouble last week when the mum cat wasn't feeding them much and called Cats Protection League out who provided us with bottles and formula to hand rear them. If you live with more than one cat, hopefully, they have a good relationship and spend time playing together. Animal behaviorists tout play aggression as one of the most common cat behavior issues. Play/Predatory aggression in cats involves their normal hunting and killing behaviors. The kittens were 2 weeks old yesterday. In many cats, their play becomes too aggressive because their human companions encouraged that behavior when they were kittens. Rough-housing with bare hands is almost irresistible when kittens are small. Some mother cats will move their kittens every day and others will move them only if they get frightened. The mother cat is being very aggressive to her kittens. Unless she is actually harming them, drawing blood, leaving puncture, or picking on one in particular, there is nothing to worry about. I don't think she was biting them hard enough to hurt them as the kittens were not crying out as they do when they play too rough with eachother, but this was behaviour I have not seen Tilly do before. A mother cat, or queen, may display a range of behavioral changes throughout the stages of pregnancy and while giving birth and rearing her kittens. It's something that benefits cats, starting in kittenhood and extending all the way through the geriatric years. The mother cat will also begin mewing to her kittens so they learn the sound of her voice and to come back to her. That's natural, particularly for kittens and territorial males. You can set roughhousing limits during human playtime, but may have a hard time curbing it with other cats. Now and are walking and playing so they learn the sound of her voice and come! And killing behaviors you can set roughhousing limits during human playtime, but may have a good and. 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