Practical feline behaviour understanding cat behaviour and improving welfare

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Kitten to Cat 65


Feldman (1993) found very little evidence to support this. Other reasons that have
been postulated are disturbance by other cats, especially unknown males, or the need
to move to a new site where prey may be more plentiful (Fitzgerald and Karl, 1986;
Deag et al., 2000). Moving the kittens will also help to keep them hidden from poten-
tial predators (Bradshaw et al., 2012).


Maternal aggression


During and after parturition a queen may become aggressive towards conspecifics
and other animals, including humans that she may have previously tolerated or
appeared to be friendly with. This behaviour is more likely to occur if she has reason
to believe that her kittens might be under threat. Therefore, care should be taken to
avoid severe disturbance and too frequent or inappropriate handling of the kittens.
It is also advisable that queens that have demonstrated maternal aggression are
not bred from again because this behaviour can have a detrimental influence on the
future behaviour and welfare of her kittens. Occasionally this aggressive behaviour
continues after the kittens have been weaned, especially if the kittens remain with the
mother, but it usually declines after weaning.


Weaning


When the kittens are around 3 weeks of age the mother starts the weaning process by
bringing to the nest site initially dead and then later live, but injured or exhausted prey for
them to play with, kill and eventually eat. Once they have mastered capturing and killing
weakened prey, she will then provide them with live, active and uninjured prey (Fig. 5.2).


Fig. 5.2. The mother starts the weaning process by bringing injured or exhausted prey to
the nest site for the kittens so that they can learn and practise their hunting skills.

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