Cat Behaviour.

Question
Hi my cat gave birth 2 weeks and 2 days ago. We have handled her kittens since they were born and she has been fine about it. We give her lots of attention throughout they day. Lastnight I was stroking her and she bit me really hard. She also started to run around as if she was crazy. I wondered if you knew why she has turned vicious? I'm very concerned about her.
Thankyou

Answer
Andrea,

There are many potential reasons for this type of behavior in nursing queens. Things like loud noises, unusual household activity, medical issues with mom or babies or even just fatigue can cause mom to be a bit on the crabby side. If you have young children in your home she may be anxious about the noise levels that inevitably are part of life with children. If mom has mastitis (an infection of the mammary glands) she may just not be feeling well. It is a good idea to have mom assessed by a qualified vet to rule out any medical issues ranging from fairly minor issues like constipation to more serious conditions like pyometra and mastitis. When you take momma cat to the vet clinic to be assessed be sure to keep her babies with her because there is a possibility that mom will need medical treatment that requires hospital care. It is also a good plan to try and keep the mother and her babies together as stress can sometimes cause mothers to reject their babies if they are kept apart for too long and some mothers will actually cannibalize their babies if they become too stressed out. If mom is normally a fairly highly strung kitty it is quite possible that she is feeling fairly anxious about people handling her babies, she may even feel that you are handling them too often or too roughly for her taste. I am not suggesting that you stop handling her or the babies, but it may be a question of only one person in the room at a time with mom and her little ones. If too many people are handling her babies fairly frequently she may feel threatened and it is possible that she is simply protecting her babies from a situation that she is uncomfortable with. It is also worth noting that age, temperament, history and procedures like declawing can affect a cat's predisposition to bite or scratch. It is quite common for declawed cats to skip the usual warning signs that they are about to lash out simply because they have lost a crucial part of their defenses. Declawed cats often do not warn before they bite. A normal cat of reasonable temperament is likely to escalate in stages to a bite. Usually you will see signs like pupils dilating, ears being laid flat against the head, the cat's tail lashing back and forth. Most often cats who still have their claws are more apt to scratch to make a human or another animal back away..Typically hissing and growling along with the above mentioned sequence of behavior is present and easily observed. It is possible that mom may be uncomfortable, there may be too much noise, too much traffic and even if the place where her and her little ones are seems to be appropriate mom may feel unsafe because of the level of traffic, possibly hearing sounds from the outdoors along with other seemingly insignificant factors can create anxiety and explosive behavior like you have seen where mom just escalates to the last stage of aggression without warning. I would recommend that you try to keep mom in a bed (an old cardboard box with some old towels that mom can come and go from with ease works nicely for this purpose), plenty of food, water, and toys along with keeping the room as quiet as possible, making sure that only one person at a time goes in to spend time with mom and her babies should all make a difference. It is also a good idea to not allow any young children in the house to handle the babies or their mom without an adult closely supervising what happens. Young children really shouldn't be handling such young kittens without supervision as kittens are fairly immature, with soft bones and they can be easily hurt by children who aren't aware of their own strength. I would highly recommend that you continue to handle the babies, but try to keep visits short, calm and quiet. Mom may settle if she is simply feeling insecure. If the vet finds that mom has an infection of her uterus or her mammary glands that could also account for mom feeling less than accommodating. If mom has mastitis you may have to step in to feed the kittens with formula as mom's milk will not be safe to feed the kittens. Just be aware that mom is not actually being ill tempered, you have noticed a difference in her behavior, that can mean anything from infections to stress. If the vet is unable to find any medical cause for this change in behavior I recommend that you try a homeopathic remedy called Bach's Rescue Remedy which is a blend of flower essences meant to soothe and reassure. I would suggest that you put about 8 drops a day in fresh water each morning. If mom settles then she may just have been stressed out for one reason or another. Rescue Remedy is not going to harm the kittens and you can generally find it at health food/natural health stores. You are certainly more than welcome to keep me posted and let me know what is going on. I will offer as many suggestions as I can. If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me again.