Please help

[Madcatlady]

My cat recently had kittens, she was a great mother. When the kittens were about three months old, the mother cat turned on them. She hisses and attacks them even when they are sleeping. She will not even let us near to her without hissing at us. I have taken her to the vet and there are no health problems, we have tried felliway. Has this happened to anyone else and please does anyone have any suggestions for them all to live together. We want to keep all three kittens and mum cat if possible.
Thank you

[Kay]

are they still trying to feed off her? if so, that could be the source of her distress, as they are old enough to be fully weaned now

[Hunnybunny]

Mum gets often get aggressive to their kittens at about this age as in the wild they would naturally drive them away so it is a normal behaviour. I won't home mums and kittens for this very reason.

Is mum spayed yet as if not she is a bag of hormones and will be getting ready to get pregnant again if she isn't already.

Get mum spayed, give her time out from the kittens and get the kittens all neutered at 4 months and hopefully peace will reign over time when they are all done and there isn't the hormones bouncing about.

[Diana]

Mum needs to be neutered asap really and I would suggest getting the kittens in just to give them a check over. Kittens are old enough so if they are really close to mum, mum may want her own space. Some mums can act out like this. She really needs to be done.

[Madcatlady]

Thank you everyone that has replied, I forgot to say the kittens are completely weaned and have been for about a month, the mum cat started doing this just after they were weaned, and just before she was spayed, she came into call again, which is when it started, I really hoped once she'd been spayed things would settle down but she has been like this now for about six weeks. It's reassuring to know it could be normal.......

[sarie]

My cat had kittens when I was very young and my family decided to keep both of her kittens. They went through a similar situation where the mum became very aggressive towards the kittens after a certain point. She was spayed and the behaviour took a while to settle down but eventually did. However, she never liked the kittens even when they were much older and they all simply avoided one another and she'd give them a good bash if they got too close, it wasn't ideal. My parents often regretted not rehoming the kittens when they were young, as they felt that mum cat would've been happier without them around, but they did all end up living to old age without too much trouble.. the mum cat outlived her kittens and lived to 21!

Best of luck, hopefully things start to improve for you soon.

[bobbys girl]

When we took Lily to be spayed we found out that she was in the very early stages of pregnancy. We found Bobby several weeks later. But Lil's hormones must have still been washing around because she took Bob as her own kitten and suckled him! How much milk she was giving him, we never found out. But he didn't take much supplementary feed from us.

It might take some weeks for things to settle, but settle they will. I know a family of cats, mum, 2 boys, 2 girls. The boys can do no wrong, the girls get on ok but the mum and girls.....!

I hope things settle down for you soon.

[Diana]

So mum has be done, thats good. Her hormones may take longer to settle. Keep a close eye on them all.

[Madcatlady]

Thank you again, all really helpful. I think I just need to be patient and hopefully they will all reach some sort of compromise to all live together. Mum doesn't seem 'unhappy' as such, when she's in her sleeping place she stretches out and looks relaxed and happy, and she does seem to be letting us get a bit closer to her again and letting us stroke her. She's eating and healthy, so hopefully things will work themselves out.

It will be sad if she does never have anything to do with them, but they have each other, and there is another cat in the family she gets on with. Fingers crossed for the future.