cats first litter

Question
I have a young cat who became pregnant very early in I beieve her first heat. She had the kittens on april 7.She had the kittens during the night She did everything I thought such as broke the bags,ate the afterbirth, but when I found her they were all dead excpet one. I forcefed him but he dies two days later. She never nursed and I could never get any milk from her nipples. I tried to let the remaing one nurse but she seemed to want to eat it, she kept grabbibg by the head and legs. Was that normal, I was concerned with giving her the kitten so I decided to feed it which didn't work. I was just curious as to what may have happened.Thanks so much for any feedback. Amanda

Answer
Hi Amanda, That is such a sad story. What a shame and what a terrible experience for both of you. If your cat was quite young it is possible that she either neglected the kittens or even killed them. I have had cats attack their kittens and try to kill them just because the pain of delivery is so bad that they lunge out at whatever it is that seems to be causing them such intense pain and that is the kitten. It doesn't take much of an injury on a newborn kitten to kill it. It sounds like you really tried hard to save this last little guy but that is not an easy job. It takes quite a bit of skill and knowledge to be successful at force feeding a newborn kitten and if the kitten never had the first milk from mom he probably would not be very healthy anyways and you may have lost him later to any virus that came his way.
I would encourage you to get your cat spayed so this will not happen again. Some cats are just not meant to be mothers!
But do not blame yourself...
Teresa