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Do Cats Remember Their Kittens – Everything To Know!

Do Cats Remember Their Kittens – Everything To Know!

Cats are one of the fluffiest and cutest pets to own. As a cat owner, the newborns of your cat are mostly taken away by people for keeping them as a pet. At times, we feel bad when the kittens are separated from their mother cat, and the most common question that arrives in our mind is: Do Cats Remember Their Kittens?

Mother cats don’t remember their kittens once separated from them. Mother cats recognize their kitten’s smell and cry till the time they remain together. Once they are separated from each other, mother cats forget their kittens after 10 to 12 weeks.

Below, we have discussed everything in detail, such as why cats forget their kittens, how long it takes a mother cat to forget their kittens, and whether cats miss their kittens when taken away. Do kittens miss their mother cat once separated, and many others.

Reasons Cats Forget Their Kittens

Cats are no different when it comes to forgetting their kittens. Like every other animal, they do not recognize their kittens after years. There are several reasons why they forget their kittens after 10-12 weeks after separation. Here we have discussed a few reasons in detail.

Cats love to live in solitude, and unlike humans, they don’t hold a type of deep relationship with their babies.

Smell Changes

The smell of kittens changes as they grow up, which the mother cat cannot recognize. As and when your cat has a bunch of adorable kittens, people from several places come and get themselves one or two of them. The distance between the mother cat and kitten increases. 

Right from birth, every kitten has a unique smell that the mother knows. Slowly and gradually, as they grow up, they play with each other, and this way, the mother cat retains their smell. But once they are separated from each other, cats tend to forget the smell as they are no longer playing together.

The kittens also change their smell when they are distanced from their mother. This way, it becomes natural for mother cats to forget their little ones. Even if they stay together, the kitten’s smell changes after a certain period due to the surroundings in which she lives. Each of them starts to develop their smell, and this way, they no longer smell the same as they used to at the time of birth.

Hence, it is natural and obvious that mother cats generally forget their kitten’s smell over some time. The distance increases, and the smell changes, and they are longer able to recognize who their mother is and vice-versa.

Lack of Family Bond

Like humans, cats do not develop family bonds, which is one of the prime reasons they easily forget their little ones once they are separated. Various studies have pointed out that even if the mother isn’t separated from their kittens, it still develops a distance from the kittens. She does not see them as her little ones anymore after a period of ten to twelve weeks.

This nowhere indicates that the mother cat does not love her kittens. During the time of birth, just like any other mother, cats also love them and take care of them. She even ensures that they are well-fed, but she starts seeing them as other cats after a while. 

They no longer treat them as kids or take care of them. This is innate in cats and is a gift of nature that they easily forget the kittens after some time. They are not interested in developing deep family bonds with their young ones.

See Owners as Their Mother

Cats feel more connected towards their owners as compared to their kids. This seems like a myth, but it is not one, indeed. Their owners are the ones who have taken care of the cats since they were kittens, and as we all know already, cats have a great memory. 

This contradicts the fact that they tend to forget their little ones, but it is true. Cats have good short-term memory, especially in the case of food. 

Cats see their owners as their mothers and develop a deeper connection with them than their kittens. They consider your home as their own and treat you like her mother. They don’t think of their owners as their actual birth-giving mom (don’t get sad since they don’t recognize their real mom, too) but give them the same respect and love. 

This is also why they forget their kitten easily without much pain after separation because they already have you. Every cat-owner should be proud to hear this!

Cats Love to Stay Alone 

By nature, cats love to live in solitude without the presence of other cats or even animals. You may have already witnessed that cats don’t like other cats to enter their territory, and every cat has a defined territory. The same goes with the kittens too. 

Mother cats also leave their kittens for specific periods, even when they are just born. This is because they like to spend that time in peace, away from the kittens.

They even leave their kittens so that they can become independent and learn things on their own. This is a clever tendency of a mother cat to help her kittens grow and develop in their way without any help. As soon as they feel like the kitten is no longer a kid and can live independently, she starts leaving her for a more extended period.

This way, the distance between them increases, and the time spent together decreases, leading to a snapping of the bond between them. They soon begin treating each other the way normal cats do. They can even fight, and this way, they forget their kitten.

A Missing Sense of Belongingness

Mother cats do not feel belonging, and even though they recognize the smell of their kitten, they still fail to distinguish their kittens from any other kitten. This is because every newborn kitten smells almost the same. It seems unnatural, but it is true!

Mother cats will treat any newborn kitten as their own and feed them without even knowing the difference. In addition, mother cats can also feed orphaned kids. Mother cats don’t know how many kittens they have given birth to, and thus, they can hardly make it if any of them goes missing. 

This lack of sense of belongingness is also a reason why cats easily forget their kittens and vice-versa. 

How Long Does It Take a Mother Cat to Forget Their Kittens

Generally, it is seen that a mother cat forgets her kittens after ten to twelve weeks of birth. This does not mean that she’ll abandon them entirely. She’ll start treating them as other cats and won’t treat them as her kittens. 

After this stated period, the weaning stage gets over, and this is where the mother cat starts seeing them as grown-ups and independent. Thus, she distances them from her and forgets them after some time. 

On the other hand, if a kitten is separated at the weaning stage itself, it is natural for a mother cat to look for her for a few days, but eventually, she will search. With each passing day, the memory of the kitten fades away. 

Do Cats Miss Their Kittens When They Are Taken Away

This entirely depends on the situation. If the kitten is taken away after the weaning period, mother cats do not worry much about it, comparatively. However, this does not mean that she will not look for the kitten. 

She will search for her, but just for a few days, and after that, she will become completely oblivious that a kitten is taken away.

If the kitten is separated from her mother at a very early age, even before the weaning stage, the mother cat will show signs of anxiety and despair for several days. She will try to look for her at places. She will be a little upset and won’t be that playful and energetic. She will even yowl and become listless. But this behavior will improve after a few days. 

Do Kittens Miss Their Mother Cat Once Separated

If the kittens are separated before three months, they will surely miss their mother-cat a lot. They will even cry and yowl at night and even during the daytime. It becomes hard for them to adjust to the new environment without their siblings and mother.

Kittens can refuse to eat and will be limited to a particular place. You can easily sense that she is also afraid. This behavior will last for a few days, and then the kitten will adapt to the new surroundings.

Things to Consider

Cats are way different from humans when it comes to building a bond with their offspring. They take care of their kittens during the weaning stage, but after that, they don’t treat them the way they used to. She starts distancing herself from the kittens. It makes it easier for her to forget them once they are taken away from her.

Mother cats wean the kittens for ten to twelve weeks. During this period, if a kitten is separated, the mother cat will get upset, which you can easily notice. But she will recover after some days. 

It is seen that if the mother cat spends a reasonable amount of time with her kittens during the weaning period, she will feel less distressed and anxious when the kittens are separated from her. But she will still look for them. 

In a nutshell, cats do not develop strong mother and offspring connections. After 12 weeks, she will refrain from distinguishing them from other cats. She can even become aggressive at them. So it hardly matters if the kittens are separated or not because in the end, the mother cat will not recognize them as her own, and the same goes for the kittens too.