Some cats kill their kittens for a variety of reasons, including when they are threatened, handled by another cat, or the scent of their mother is obscured. Other kitten deaths occur due to a number of other circumstances, such as being neglected, handled by a stranger, or if their mother is missing. These reasons may also apply to cats in abusive situations. However, the most common cause is stress. Here are some possible reasons why your cat might kill a kitten.
Male cats kill kittens for territorial reasons
Some male cats will kill their own kittens if they do not feel they can father the offspring. This is an old-school tactic male cats use to keep their genes advanced and reduce the chances of their rival kittens dominating their own kind. Fortunately, not all male cats attack their own kittens, and some are entirely harmless around newborns. If you think your male cat is killing your kitten, here are some possible reasons why:
Some male cats kill their own kittens, primarily to establish their own territory. They do this for various reasons, including reproduction and survival. In addition, some males kill kittens to establish dominance over a female cat’s offspring. This behavior is related to other social animals, such as lions, tigers, and foxes. If you have a male cat that is killing your kitten, chances are you’ve been the victim of kitten-killing.
Feral males often kill their kittens because they feel they are not ready to parent them. This behavior may be an expression of territorial instinct, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that your kittens are in danger of being killed. Besides territorial reasons, male cats can also be violent to their own kittens, especially if they feel threatened by other cats. Regardless of the reason, kitten deaths are never the result of good parenting.
There are many possible causes of this behavior. While most males kill their own kittens for territorial reasons, some cats engage in aggressive behavior because they are not neutered. These cats will engage in territorial battles with one another to establish territory and mate. Some of these battles can escalate to physical fights, where the rival cat kills its own offspring. Some males have even been known to attack their own kittens.
A common cause of kitten deaths is territorial instinct. Male cats want to be the sole source of gene supply for an area, so they kill the offspring of a rival. This prevents them from passing their genes to the other cat’s offspring, which advances the killer cat’s genetic agenda. While this behavior may seem cruel, it is actually a very natural, instinctual behavior that is not uncommon among cats.
Male cats kill kittens that they did not have a father with
Male cats kill kittens that they did not know their father with instinct to control their bloodline and keep the litter pure. It is also thought that killing rival kittens reduces their chance of dominating their own kind. But not all male cats kill their offspring. Some are perfectly obedient around newborn cats. So why do they kill their own offspring? To understand why they do so, let’s look at the history of this common cat behavior.
Although the male cat is not known for being a great parent, he is still capable of killing a kitten without even knowing it. It is a natural instinct for a male cat to kill its own offspring, but he doesn’t usually do this. He also has no maternal instinct and will not reject her kittens unless they are touching them or if they are alone.
In the wild, male cats do not raise their own offspring. While a mother cat can mate with a kitten, it increases the risk of birth defects and other problems, as her offspring have a mother. However, if the kittens do survive, they may be affected by this mating because their mother will pass on her bad genes to their offspring. Female cats respond more quickly to kitten calls because they are more in need.
Some cats may kill their offspring as a way to bring their mother cat back to breeding condition sooner. Mother cats will usually dig a grave for the dead kitten, cover it in mud, and rest on it for hours. But if the kitten dies due to neglect or some other reason, a mother cat may remove the dead kitten and re-establish a family.
Some female tomcats are unable to switch off their hunting behavior when they are around kittens, so they will treat orphaned kittens as prey. These females may also have poor maternal instincts or hormonal imbalance, which means the kittens may inherit this trait from their mother. Breeding such females with kittens will prevent this problem from spreading and ensure the survival of any kittens born to these females.