Almost the same events happened in our household just recently. My first reaction was shock.
The young mother had 3 kittens, everything seemed to be going fine after the birth, but on day 3 around 2 in the morning I awoke with a start (I think to a squeak), went out the the laundry and the firstborn kitten -- a beautiful and quite large white male with a black "dragon" on his back -- was dead.
Just an hour or 2 earlier he'd been apparently starting to explore and been experimentally chewing his paws.
I removed him from the nest, but left him nearby for a few hours in case mother wanted to inspect the body.
We had a little funeral at the bottom of the garden in the morning -- more for my feelings than anything else. ;)
The mother didn't seem to notice any problem right away.
Only after she moved her remaining kittens into the loungeroom a couple days later did she seem to notice something was not right.
There had been 3 big pains during birth, but now there seemed only 2 squirming lumps to move! :)
She keep going back to the laundry and sniffing around and whimpering. She could probably pick up some scent from the floor and matting out there. Part of the afterbirth had ended up outside the nest for her first delivery (i.e. the death kitten), when she didn't really know what was happening.
I did a bit more of a clean-up with bleach, but she kept going out there for a couple of days.
Everything has now returned to normal.
Oct 13, 2009 Rating
by: Izzy
thats so said......I think you should do whatevr you think is rite. email me atizzycalamari@yahoo.com
