A question here for the cat lover

[Lethe]

Recently we had a momma cat bring three kittens to our front doorstep and leave them there. Two were borderline dead, one was dead. We nursed the two back to good health with a formula mixture.

My question is....why would a momma cat do this? One explanation I heard was that momma cats will reject their young if a human handles them (someone picked up the kittens before she left them on our doorstep). The only other thing I can think of is that she cannot nurse for some reason. My reasoning is that if she was just a bad momma cat, she would have left them to die instead of taking them to our doorstep?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

1. She did this because she knew you would help them...

If there are "bad" momma cats, I'll bet they are few and far between.

[Flaxbee]

2. could just have been environmental stresses --

she might not have had enough food, enough rest, a safe enough place for them. Who knows? We had a mommacat whom we'd been feeding bring us her three babies (we kept the entire family) but they were all healthy, perhaps in large part b/c we'd been giving her regular meals (could tell she was nursing).

There might have been dogs, or possums or other creatures who harassed her. Maybe she'd chosen a shed or other hidey-hole that was moved, or someone decided to "finally clean out the back shed" or whatever and disturbed her, or mowed the lawn/cut the shrubs too close to the momma's birth/hiding place. Mommacats are often extremely fierce and can run off most predators, but she just could have been exhausted, or humans could have disturbed her and they're damn hard to run off, ya know?

Or, she could have been very young and inexperienced. Is MommaCat still around? Any way you could humanely trap her and get her spayed? Hard to do with ferals, I know, but if possible... also might save you a return visit with more kitties at a later date!

Thanks for taking care of her babies -- everyone needs help sometime, and this mommakitty just needed help.

edited for various punctuation/clarity reason.

[barb162]

3. I agree. She was probably having some major problems

For all we know someone could have tried poisoning or hurting her and the kittens. Kids could have discovered where they were and started throwing things at them. I remember a woman at the vet's office telling me when she found her cat, he was a tiny kitten and 5 guys were throwing broken glass and bottles at it as it was cowering in an alley. He was so messed up andn injured and had lost so much blood from the cuts and all the vet told her to put it down. But she and the vet nursed the kitten back to health and he was 18 years old when I saw him.

[Jamastiene]

4. Could be a milk duct problem.

Or something like that. I know sometimes they cannot make milk for the babies or they may know they are dying and want the babies to have a chance. As with Yogi and Domino's momma, that was the case. She did the best she could, but she was an old street cat who entrusted me to take care of her babies. I did. They are healthy happy opinionated cats today, 5 years later. She died not long after she brought them to me. The next day I found her dead in the front yard under an azalea. I buried her. She was technically not "my" cat, but a stray, but I took the babies in for her. I knew she wanted me to take care of them. It was obvious.

So that morning, I buried her and took the babies to get their shots and spayed and neutered. Domino was wild, but Yogi was always following me around anyhow. He even fell in a kiddie pool I was converting into a pond while I was planting the water lilies. Didn't phase him. They both came home tame and healthier than when they went to the vet. Yogi needed drops in his eyes for respiratory disease, but he healed. Domino has asthma. She takes medicine every other day for it. It's no big deal.

They just needed some vet care and they were good as new like any other healthy kittens. She did the best she could then came to me for help. I couldn't say no to those mournful eyes. She was so old and tired that day. I knew she didn't have long. That was obvious too. There are no bad momma kitties. It's just that sometimes circumstances keep them from being able to take care of their babies like they need to be taken care of.

[stuntcat]

5. Thanks for caring for them!

.. the babies you could save.
I got no answers I just wanna say that.