When a female cat is strayed and not sterilized in time, it is very easy for a female cat to go into heat and become pregnant, transforming from a single cat into a family of cats...

At this time, in order to give the cats a better life, there will be kind people everywhere looking for and adopting the kittens. (Also remember to neuter the mother cat!)

When the kitten leaves its new family, will the mother cat miss her child?

To answer this question, we must first understand whether a mother cat can clearly know who her cubs are?

1. Can mother cats recognize their own kittens?

Bánszegi and others from the Mexican Institute of Biology were very interested in this and conducted relevant experiments to explore it.

They first asked the mother cat to sniff among a group of kittens, and then asked the mother cat to sniff the cotton swabs that had been rubbed against different kittens.

It was found that mother cats spent less time sniffing their own kittens and swabs than other kittens.

Researchers believe that this is because mother cats are more familiar with the smell of their own babies, so they infer that mother cats can identify their own kittens among a bunch of kittens.

The reason why the mother cat can recognize her children so clearly must have paid a lot of attention and love to the kittens. Will the mother cat's love for her children remain the same? ​​​​​​

Two, time-limited maternal love

In order to "study whether the maternal love of cat mothers changes over time", the team designed another experiment.

Because female cats are very sensitive to kittens’ cries for help, from this point of view, researchers explored whether the appeal of kittens’ voices to their mothers changed from birth to weaning.

Will a mother cat’s maternal love change?

The researchers selected eight mother cats and their babies to participate in this experiment.

The experiment was conducted in a corridor connecting three rooms.

They randomly placed the kittens and a loudspeaker (used to play the sounds of kittens when they were young) in one of the rooms, and recorded the time when the mother cat returned to the room.

Each room has a nest + a speaker

It was found that as the kittens grow older, the mother cat's response to the kitten's meows becomes slower and slower, even if the previous kitten meows are played back.

During this period, the mother cat will gradually reduce the number of times she returns to the nest to take care of the kittens, and will also reduce her willingness to breastfeed, and eventually even refuse to let the kittens drink milk.

Researchers believe that,These behavioral changes are affected by hormonal changes in the cat's body, which can promote the female cat to pass the lactation period as soon as possible, return to estrus, and facilitate the birth of the next generation.

So mother cats have maternal love for their kittens, but this maternal love is limited.

When the kittens become individuals that can take care of themselves, the mother cat can retire, and this maternal love may disappear.

From this point of view, if the kitten is taken away from the mother cat after 10-12 weeks (8 weeks of weaning + 2-4 weeks of learning skills), the mother cat will most likely not miss her kitten. Cat's...