Last Updated: 12 months ago
Will your cat raise kittens that aren’t her own? It depends on your cat’s personality and mood!
Find out more and learn what to do if your cat says “no way!” and rejects the kittens! When kittens are born, their mother cleans them off and begins caring for them immediately.
Her milk carries antibodies and nutrients that protect them for the first weeks of their lives, and the bond they share is a strong one.
She will learn the sound of their tiny cries as well as their scents, and they will learn hers. If they wander from the nesting area, she will retrieve them and gently pull them back in.
If their hiding place becomes unsafe, she will carry them painstakingly to a new location. She knows how many there are and what they are doing, and she will protect them with her life if necessary.
But sometimes something goes wrong. Some mother cats (also called queens) aren’t cut out for parenting; it isn’t really a decision they make consciously, after all.
A mother might reject her kittens for one reason or another, or one without strong protective instincts might flee the nest at the first sign of a predator and not return.
Worse yet, something could happen to the mother, and she might not be able to return to her brood.
Can Your Cat Raise Kittens That Aren’t Her Own?
So what happens to the babies, then? Unfortunately, sometimes they don’t fare well.
But if you are able to rescue them, there are things you can do to help them and give them the best chance you can.
Bottle feeding with a specially designed milk replacement for kittens,
Baby cat food (this is one stage younger than kitten food), using heating pads, blankets, etc.
If there are other cats around, though, you might have another option.
Cats may seem somewhat aloof, but they have incredibly strong maternal instincts. While the animal most likely to take in orphaned kittens is a queen with a litter of her own, that certainly isn’t the only possible combination.
First of all, cats have been known to take in orphans of all kinds of species, from other cats’ kittens to puppies, bunnies, mice, squirrels, birds (including ducklings), and even hedgehogs.
Even if they cannot nurse the babies—and they most likely will if they can—cats will often care for them and even raise them alongside their own family.
The fact that cats will nurse and raise an animal that would normally be prey reinforces how amazing we all know these creatures really are.
In many cases, cats who get along will share parenting tasks for kittens, even nursing each other’s babies if they’re able.
I know of two female indoor/outdoor farm cats who used to do just that.
Being not quite barn cats and not quite house cats, these two had many litters over the years. One of them was a wonderful mother, and the other was not so much.
The more maternal of the two would retrieve the other’s kittens (she never put up any fights about it), nurse them, and raise them as her own. The kittens did just fine—far better than they likely would have if they had been left with their own mother, who had an attention span comparable to that of a goldfish.
Obviously, however, most people don’t just happen to have a nursing mother cat in their back pocket for such a situation, but you may be surprised at how nurturing non-nursing cats can be.
Cats who do not have, or have never had, a litter of their own can make wonderful adoptive parents.
My parents had a cat that they adopted at eight weeks old. She adjusted quickly to the household but mostly ignored their other cats.
Then they adopted another kitten. In this case, the new kitten was old enough to be without a mother, but Lily, the original, wouldn’t hear of it. She decided then and there that this new kitten was her baby, plain and simple.
From the first day, Lily would follow “her” baby around, curling up with her to sleep, bathing her, and even supervising her litterbox habits.
Years later, Lily still believes Salem to be her baby, and we really can’t sort out how since we know for a fact that she’s never had kittens.
Even more surprising is that parenting skills are not just limited to female cats.
While in feral colonies male cats can be a terrible threat to kittens—even their own—domestic male cats may have a different reaction to young.
I have an elderly male cat who is always extremely cranky when we first bring a new cat into the household, but he’s the first to come around every time.
We have two now-grown cats that we have never been able to convince him were not his babies; the good thing is that they don’t seem to know he isn’t either, so it works out just fine.
The helplessness of an infant is something that few creatures can resist; many animals will care for the young of others, whether of their own species or otherwise. It’s nature’s method of ensuring survival, but it’s also very, very sweet.
Have you ever had a cat raise kittens that weren’t her own? Share your experiences below!
I haven’t had a chance to have kittens or Cats. However, my neighbor said she has witnesses before and was truly adorable and amazing at the same time.
aw poor little kittens all deserve a loving mother!
What a lovely post. Your writing point of view is so good. Keep it up and thanks for sharing. Love to read the blog.
Such an awesome post. Very different, but super cool & informative. I just got a little puppy, so I am all over anything furbaby related right now!
What a super unique and awesome post! I never thought about if cats could raise other babies so this is super interesting!
Such a wonderful read!!! I never thought about this before but found this really interesting!
This was really interesting! I never really thought about this topic much but somehow naturally assumed all animals had that maternal instinct. I wonder if some suffer from, not to be funny, but post partum depression and we’re just not aware of it.
this is really cute, I love to look at those cutey cats, great post!
I’m allergic so I didn’t know this. I do think it’s really sweet when you seen animals take care of other babies that aren’t their own.
Really sweet to see babies taken care of
I love hearing about a surrogate mother taking in another cats kittens for whatever reason. Kudos to the mama cats who step up to the plate when needed. I have seen this happen in shelters when mom died or had health issues but the kittens needed a mommy.
Definitely YES!! They can raise and taken care for kittens that weren’t their own.
Cats are really caring even if they do not have children. Cats are very caring and sweet.
I’m about it receive a kitten in minutes and try my cat to nurse it, I hope it works!
I’m going through this right now. My female Cat of 9 yrs is taking care of and has become a mother to my new kitten. It’s the cutest thing and she won’t let the little one out of her site. She’s never had a litter if her own and the kitten is trying to nurse off of her. The kitten is about 5 months old.
Hi! I actually have an intact female that goes as far as letting our new kitten (completely unrelated and the females never had a litter) and she took on this maternal role. It doesn’t bother me, apart from the fact that he still suckles on her! It’s gotten so bad that he exclusively tries to nurse on the same teet and has basically sucked the poor things nipple off. I’ve been looking for ways to help her as I can imagine that would be rather painful for her.
Two of my indoor/outdoor cats had both recently gave birth to their own litters (about a week apart). Unfortunately though, about two weeks later, we let one of the momma’s out for a bathroom break, and she disappeared. No idea what happened to her, she always used to return an hour later and nothing like this had ever happened before. Luckily though, the other momma quickly took to the abandoned kittens, just like they are her own. Probably one of the sweetest things I’ve ever witnessed. It’s been a struggle, though, as she can’t nurse all 7 kittens at once, and the older kittens will push the younger ones away so that they can nurse. I’ve tried bottle feeding the younger ones, but they won’t have anything to do with it. I’m doing all I can, but I just hope it’s enough.
I adopted two cats both pregnant and the first queen had her litter of 3 and the second queen had her litter but unfortunately none survived. She was despondent but did not approach the other cat’s kittens until they were four months old, weaned and mom was done and happy to go back to being spoiled. The adoptive queen although she had stopped lactating would “nurse” these three kittens, almost as big as she was, calling them, following them around the house, washing their faces, disciplining them, and keeping tabs on their whereabouts. It is now month six and they are still “nursing” although there is no milk, and I supposed they have bonded over some physiological need that they fulfill for each other. It is the most bizarre yet touching behavior I have witnessed by two unrelated female cats and offspring.
I have a 1.5 year old male cat who has basically taken on father duties to our new kitten. The kitten was three months when we got her, so in no need of nursing, but he still grooms her, snuggles her and is teaching her the ropes of being a cat. It’s so bizarre and cute given he is barely an adult himself.
We rescued a kitten in summer 2020, in April 2021 she had kittens. No one would take the litter b/c everyone was full so we kept them. One of her “babies” just gave birth a year later (and Mama kitty just had another litter too) Mama kitty or Grandma kitty as we call her now is nursing her first baby’s kittens and taking care of them. It’s pretty crazy to see but oh so cute.
My first time mama cat just adopted a stray kitten about 10 weeks old. He own kittens are about 16 weeks old. They all act like a normal family. I was worried about that poor kitten all alone, but not any more. The mama is feral, but I have been working with the kittens so they come to me for treats. That way I can keep an eye one them, and I also trapped them all to be spayed/neutered. No more kittens!
I have an oddball like your parents’ cat. Koshka is a rescue russian blue female who happens to be around 3 years old. She has never farrowed a litter but is not fixed. We have a lot of strays that run around that get fed like they are our own. One is a mother who, every time she has a litter, brings her kittens when they are 6 weeks old to start eating solid food. after a few weeks of this, she turns aggressive towards them and pushes them away. The last litter had one survivor. His name is Xerxes and is my best friend now, even though I had to betray him with his neutering as he is inside now with Koshka and S.A. (stink ass). Recently, Napoleona has abondoned her litter again. Well, me, being the way I am, saw that temps were going to get into sub-zero temps, and could not bare to see 10-week old kittens try to make it through the temps, let alone snow and wind. They are all four inside for the time being as well until I have them fixed and the weather warms up to temps that they can survive. Koshka has taken them as her own. Today, I decided to let them have some outside time which they did not want after just a few minutes even though it is much warmer than a few days ago. As soon as they were out, Koshka becan crying out to them and they immediately all came right to the door per her apparent instruction. She can’t nurse them but she does clean them. She makes sure that she can see them at all times, and goes out of her way to try to call them to bed at night. I had never seen a cat that had never been a mother before behave like this, nor have I seen kittens who, at the drop of a hat, decided that another cat was their mother instead of their real mother. I find that to be quite amazing really and it makes me really proud of Koshka even if her and I aren’t on speaking terms most days. She only likes me when I am butchering meat, cooking, or getting food. Other than that, she ignores me. The kittens have been inside for about 4 days nows as the temps are still below freezing and the household is getting along wonderfully. I’ll be sad the day they need to be back outside, but until then they are warm and safe and have an excellent pseudomother to look after them. I think this spring that I am going to build the outside cats their own shed where they can come and go as they please with areas specifically where a mother can have her little ones safe and predators can not get it.