Cannibal cats

[niknik]

I know it´s quite ommon /normal for a cat to "dispose" of newborn/young kittens, if they are the runts, or not thriving,
but lately, quite a lot of, not so young kittens have "disappeared". I know the dog "played" with 1 and it seemed dead ( but revived and crawled out of the bin, but thats another story), and it probably is the one found dead in the garden( 3 absolutely identical kittens so cant be sure)

Whilst I was away for 3 weeks, my son informed me that the Matriarch had "killed and eaten " 2 kittens (not hers).which may or may not be correct, but I just went out and found on the path, the dismembered head of 1 cat, technically still a kitten, I guess, but not quite fully grown. Other bits elsewhere, in various places, and several cats /kittens chomping away.

What is going on? they are all well fed, usually get on quite well together, and this latest one seemed quite well and healthy yesterday.

Is there anything that can be done to prevent this?

Tbh...... I dont actually want any of them, they adopted us, and albeit they might wander off for months at a time, have made their homes in my garden and utility room, but although I´d like them all gone.......not like this!

[spider8]

Well niknik it looks like you've stumped this -isher group for sure! Sorry I can't help you as what I know about cats could be written on a stamp but it certainly sounds very unsavoury and weird! Not nice to discover bits and pieces all over the place . Hope someone will know what's going on.

[bonniethomas06]

Oh my word! That sounds horrible!
I am no cat expert, but how old are the kittens? When our family cat had them when I was younger, we had to keep them in the spare room for (I think) a couple of months until they were big enough to go out safely.

Is there any way you could do this?

HOpefully someone with a bit more knowledge will be along shortly.

[MKG]

Apparently, it's the done thing in the cat world (all cats, including lions etc.) for a male to kill any offspring which weren't fathered by said male. Females will, in the wild (and yours sound pretty wild), form groups which look after all offspring, so it's unlikely that the murders were perpetrated by one of them. Far more likely, I think, that you have a wandering tom who got in amongst the kittens.

Mike

EDIT: ... and I've just noticed that you're in Spain, a place renowned for its feral cat population.