I am studying spanish at a Mexican school right now. The school’s cat Pepita recently had kittesn…and then ATE THEM!! I’m not kidding! And I was told this is the second time she has had kittens and eaten them. Aside from the fact that this is horribly gross, it also seems to violate some kind of law of nature. It’s not like this cat couldn’t take care of her offspring. She is quite well fed and cared for. So WTF? Anyone have any idea why an otherwise healthy and normal cat would do such a thing, twice?! Is it kitty insanity, or what?
Damn! Wrong forum. Mod, if you’re paying attention right now, please move this to GQ.
Off you go. Cats sometimes eat kittens, particularly if they’re their first litter. Or they abandon them, or don’t let them nurse, or somesuch. Some animals need a few practice runs before they get the mothering thing down pat; and even in humans the hormones involved in birth and lactating can drive mothers a little (or a lot) loopy, even, yes, leading to them killing their children. Post-Natal Depression, anyone? I suggest they get her fixed, or next time she gives birth, take away the kittens and hand-raise them.
The only experience I have close to this is that my sister-in-law had a dog that ate her puppies. There were extenuating circumstances in that case, however.
When we called the vet, he said it was more common than people think and several things can cause it. The animal may be too immature to really be having offspring (I took this to mean that although biologically she could get pregnant, her mental capacities were not developed enough for her to know what she was supposed to do.), the offspring may be born with defects, the mother may be starving (although, this doesn’t appear to be the case with the cat in the OP).
Where is Michi when we need her?
We used to raise rabbits, same problem. According to the books at the time, there is some sort of vitamin deficiency. We started to feed them multi-vitamin supplements and that mostly solved the problem. Apparantly another common cause is if the mother is nervous while or shortly after giving birth. They liked to be left alone to do their thing. Also had to keep the bucks in seperate cages because they ate the babes too.
My WAG is that some animals, like some people are just ‘child-free by choice.’ My mom has a hideously spoiled Mini Schnauzer named Trudy who was this way. When Trudy had her one and only litter, she hated and neglected the pups. She didn’t eat them – probably because she is a very fussy eater. My mom says Trudy acted as if Mom had had these puppies and was trying to palm them off on her! Trudy would never even clean the pups; Mom had to do that – even cleaning up their hienies after they did baby puppy poops. At feeding time, Mom had to chase Trudy down and carry her to the puppy box and stand over her to make sure that the pups got to eat. Trudy would give Mom the evil eye throughout the feeding, and then leave the box as soon as Mom let her. She absolutely hated all 4 of those pups until the day they left. Obviously, Mom had her spayed ASAP. So, maybe Pepita just isn’t interested in raising offspring and doesn’t care to share her premises with a litter of brats. This is just a WAG, though. I agree we need Michi over her to settle it. I also agree that the solution is to spay Pepita – and the sooner the better.
BTW, Evilbeth? What were the extinuating circumstances around the puppicide in your sis-in-law’s family?
I thought I saw just the opposite. When my daughter was born, I saw her knawing at my wife’s breast! Then I found out she was supposed to do that. 
Huh. I’d never heard of human mothers having problems after giving birth. But then I’ve never been around a new mother for any real extended period before, either. I thought that a mother’s love for her child was a universal biological imperative. How sad that it is not.