Two cats trying to nurse one litter???

Question
Our siamese just had a littr of four kittens today...one of her kittens from a prior litter seems to be experiencing a strong sense of maternal instinct and strong attatchment to the new litter. To the extent that she is crawling into the cat bed alongside the mother cat and allowing the kittens to try and nurse from her! The mother cat is allowing her to do so...the kittens who were caught trying to nurse from the other cat looked as if they were content to do so...is this behavior common among two closely bonded female cats living in the same house? Is it even possible for the other cat to help with the nursing...and if she is able...is it okay for the kittens to do so? I have never seen this behavior among two female cats before. The other cat (not the mother) has never had a litter before....is this common or even okay?

Answer
Marilan,

This is absolutely fine, it's quite common actually. In feral cat colonies related females often raise kittens together and I've seen cats who have never had kittens begin producing milk in order to care for orphaned kittens. Provided that neither cat has any communicable infections it's perfectly okay to allow the two cats to mother the kittens.