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My cat's nursing 5-month-old kittens after losing new litter. Normal?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Cat | Maine Coon | Female | spayed | 6.6 lbs

Changu, my unspayed female cat, delivered 2 kittens almost 5 months ago. A week ago, she again delivered 2 kittens. Before her recent delivery, she completely seperated herself from old babies. Unfortunately, her new babies, couldnt servived. I doubt she purposely did ignore new babies. Surprising and strange is, she is now nursing, feeding and loving her 5 month old babies. She has now completely different attitude towards them. Is it natural? Isn't there any ill effects?

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1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Megan, DVM, CVA

Veterinarian

Published on October 2nd, 2017

This is quite odd behavior, but she is likely taking care of them since her other kittens passed away. I don't know of any ill side effects except maybe becoming overweight or an upset tummy from the change in diet. I would try to separate them so that the 5 month old kittens don't get over weight from nursing and eating regular cat food. Also the kittens could cause some harm to the mothers mammary tissue since they have teeth now. Also I would recommend to spay or neuter the kittens and mom to prevent any additional litters if at all possible. If either of the kittens are male it could mate with the litter mate or mother causing some kittens to be born with some serious genetic defects. Plus if the mother isn't nursing her new kittens then she likely won't properly nurse her upcoming litters. If you are unable to fix all of them, you may want to start with any of the males. I hope this helps!

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