Have you ever watched a mother cat with her kittens? The mother protects them! Mother cats keep their babies safe so that they can grow up to be big cats.
What does the mother do to protect her kittens? First, a mother cat chooses a safe place to give birth to her kittens. If she lives inside a house with humans, the mother will find an area that is nice and quiet, such as a closet or under a bed. Wherever she goes, she will make a soft nest for her kittens.
Next the mother will give birth. The group of kittens she gives birth to is known as her litter. There are usually a few kittens in a litter.
Kittens are small and weak when they are born. They are also “blind” because their eyes are closed. They will be able to open their eyes after about eight days.
Like human infants and other mammal babies, newborn kittens need a lot of help from their mother since they are very weak and small. Their mother spends a lot of time feeding them and giving them baths by licking them.
If a kitten wanders off and gets lost, it can call for its mother. It calls by making the sound “mew mew!” The kitten’s call helps the mother find it.
As the kittens grow bigger, the mother will continue to protect them from enemies and even her human friends! Mother cats do not like it when people play with their babies, so they may attack. Kittens may also bite and scratch to protect themselves. So even though they can be very cute, you must always be careful around mother cats and their litters of kittens.
