cat behavior?

Question
Tina,
 We adopted a cat about 2 months ago.  She was found with the rest of her litter abandoned at a construction site.. and all of them were bottle fed and then raised.  She is now just over 6 months old.  My question is about her behavior with certain toys.  She will take the toy and hold it in her mouth and growl - loudly.  She only does this with the toys that have feathers on them!  She runs to another room with it, and as soon as she hears my dog or one of the family coming she starts to growl again! I have never had a cat before so even if it's normal - it's new to me :)  Any other toy she bats around and plays with... but doesnt go all spastic!  Should I just plan on keeping the feather toys away from her - or just ignore it??
    
          Tisha  

Answer
Hi Tisha,

I have seen kittens growl and guard their "bird" before. Your kitty thinks she has a real bird to eat, or at least is finding it fun to pretend it is real. The only thing I'd be concerned about is if she were to chew apart the toy and choke on pieces, trying to find the "meat" inside. It might not be a good idea to let her play with these unsupervised. But as long as you are around there is no harm in her playing "stay away from my bird". She will probably grow out of this game, especially when she figures out there is never any meat in that bird!