# Cats, tails, umbilical cords, and new mothers **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 9, 2013, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-tails-umbilical-cords-and-new-mothers/652490 "2013-03-09T17:14:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2013, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-tails-umbilical-cords-and-new-mothers/652490/1 "2013-03-09T17:14:32Z")
By now you’ve read about our [new cat](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=684023). (OK, it’s actually a used cat.) His tail is about half the length of a normal cat’s one, and it’s got some kinks in it. The shelter volunteer that helped us said that mother cats chew off the umbilical cords of their offspring as they are born, and an inexperienced mother cat often gets confused and chews off the tail or part of the tail. :dubious: I’ve had cats before, and the SO has had cats off-and-on since she was an adolescent. Neither of us had heard of this tail-chewing-off phenomenon. Does this actually happen with some regularity? I’ve seen a couple of message board anecdotes that indicate it happens, but are there any legitimate cites for it? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2013, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-tails-umbilical-cords-and-new-mothers/652490/2 "2013-03-09T17:26:11Z")
It’s not true. It’s just someone’s uninformed notion of how a cat might end up having a deformed tail, and the story was passed along. Siamese cats typically have that little bend at the tip of the tail; other cats have that bend gone wild. Some cats simply have the genes for a short and/or kinked tail. I had one foster kitten whose tail was so kinked it was like a ball at the end. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2013, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-tails-umbilical-cords-and-new-mothers/652490/3 "2013-03-10T01:31:14Z")
Way back when I was a kid, we had a cat with a kink in his tail due to an unfortunate incident with a car door. ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2013, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-tails-umbilical-cords-and-new-mothers/652490/4 "2013-03-10T04:41:29Z")
He could have the Manx gene. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2013, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cats-tails-umbilical-cords-and-new-mothers/652490/5 "2013-03-10T04:49:11Z")
They may be confusing the situation with short cat tails and short rabbit ears - mother rabbits will eat bits of babies with the placenta (a newborn rabbit is tiny, and mommy’s teeth are huge. See “broken” rabbits. It’s usually the tips (or more) of one or both ears, but tails and feet also get nicked, IIRC.