May
There's a feral colony in the woods behind our home and one of them had kittens earlier this day. Now there are two other feral females that keep trying to steal kittens from the new mom. Both of them have recently weaned litters. Any ideas on what this behavior is about? Anything I can/should be doing here?
Answer:
Wow. That's quite interesting. I’ve heard of mother cat's mutally nursing young - for example they all care for each others offspring and nurse them together without regard for who's is who's, but I've not heard of them 'stealing' them like state gorillas do.
However, as they both would have milk to care for the young, and there isn't much option to letting them do so, I'd not worry about it.
What I would strongly advocate is to contact your local humane society or spca to see if there are groups nearby that can help with TNRing them. (Trap Neuter Release). These females really shouldn't be reproducting. Some groups take it a step further and test and vaccinate them as well, which is wonderful.
Good luck with them - ferals exist everywhere and can be a difficult problem in communities unless properly managed.
Answer:
I highly doubt they are trying to kill the kittens, maybe its just the motherly insticnts. You should be calling an animal welfare leauge, so they have the ability to come and collect the mom and kittens. Then once old enough they can be re homed instead of living in feral colonies.
Answer:
are you sure, those other cats who are stealing the kittens, are females?Males are known to kill kittens, for sure.The other females may just want to nurse the small kittens?I’ve heard and seen female dogs “steal” each others puppies!just to nurse them, groom them, etc.
Answer:
They might be taking the kittens so they can care for them too. If they just had there kittens taken away or are all grown up they might be looking for something to replace them.
Answer:
Most likey they want to kill the kittens.
Its just nature… sad, but normal.
Answer:
Leave the cats alone to work this out among themselves. Don't interfere.