Do Mother Cats Recognize Their Kittens After Being Separated?

The connection between a mom cat and her babies is a deep and unpredictable bond. They act in a mysterious way to care for their kittens. When mother felines and their babies are separated, whether because of relocation, adoption, or because of any other factor, you might think about this question: do mother cats recognize their kittens after being separated? The answer is NO. They forget their babies if the period of separation gets prolonged. However, the motherly instincts of felines play a significant part in the entire time period after-birth.

In my experience, the answer is complicated. But for sure cat doesn’t remember each other as humans do. The bond between mom and her babies are not more than 10 to 12 weeks. After this time period, they may remember each other if they are at the same place but they treat each other as individual.

Let’s talk about how long it takes for a mother cat to forget her kittens

When their little ones are around four weeks old, the mothers begin weaning their infants. This procedure is finished when they are about 90 days or three months old. At this stage, the little ones become mature enough to live independently and are fully prepared to search for new places so, they can live without their mom.

Once the baby has reached that age, the mother cat will spend less time with them gradually, and the connection between mom and little ones becomes weaker at this stage, which could be why moms will start to forget the babies.

Babies live in their nest and spend time there so their scent remains same but when they grow up they go out of their nest. Slowly, their scent changes according to new environment. When the scent is changed this may cause the “identity” of cats to change.

Do Mother cats miss their kittens after being separated?

After answering the question ‘Do mother cats recognize their kittens after being separated?’ its time to discuss whether they miss their kittens after separation?

Felines behave differently in their parenthood as compared to people and don’t develop that level of emotional connection with their babies. Mother felines are highly defensive of their little ones and are exceptionally determined moms until the babies are weaned and ready to move to another place. Once you observe a cat moving through parenthood, it might leave you wondering whether she misses her babies when they are separated or not.

When her babies are weaned and self-sufficient, she is not generally committed to them. It is a usual behavior noticed within almost every feline. Moreover, it is essential to know that if the infants are separated from their mothers before the weaning period is finished, it can make the kittens scared of being alone and takes more time for a mother to recover. It is a mother’s natural urge to raise her babies until they can take care of themselves.

However, after the weaning of little ones, mothers aim to make their babies live alone. From that point forward, the connection isn’t guaranteed to continue as before, and a decrease in the mother-baby relationship can be expected.

That’s why if babies are wholly weaned, the mother may stay sad just for two or three days maximum. Whatever the case is, mom felines don’t stay sad endlessly. When the fragrance of her kittens diminishes, the queen will forget them altogether.

Have You Ever Thought, Do Kittens Remember Their Siblings?

When a cat becomes adult, they treat all other cats equally even if they are related to each other or not. Cats that are stranger or even sibling, they are protective to their territory and their food. However, we can’t say with surety if they do remember their siblings or not.

I must say when some cats live together they behave change as compared to unknown or the cats come from outsides. For example I have 4 cats they act change towards them but when they saw any stranger cat entering their area they are suddenly possessive or aggressive.

Let’s now take a deeper look at the behavior of male cats towards their babies.

Do Male cats know their kittens?

Tomcats are not as engaged with the lives of their babies as compared to the mother feline. The job of a mom feline is tougher than a dad. However, this doesn’t mean all male felines act like this. No doubt, tomcats sire many babies but they do not pay much attention to their brought up.

Once they have mated with the cat, they mostly don’t remain at that place for the little ones. They keep changing their places. Furthermore, there are chances that in the litter of babies, there may be different dads.

Felines are creatures that train their senses relying on fragrances. However, as male cats are not as involved from the beginning, they might not remember their babies as they are not familiar with their smell.

What Do You Know About Cats’ Memory?

Cats are brilliant creatures. The precise amount a feline will remember relies upon their mind capacity and experiences. However, one question will come to your mind: Do cats have a good memory? Yes, they generally have quite a good memory. Studies have revealed that they have long and short-term memories similar to humans.

Long term Memory

The span of long-term memory of a feline differs from one feline to the other. Long-term memory is defined as the memory cats have from the beginning periods of their lives. They remember those things even after a long time. These memories are put in a specific part of the feline’s mind and can be triggered when the feline needs them.

If you have observed a skittish feline at any point frightened of a particular sound, it is not due to her short-term memory; it is generally because she was scared of that sound when it was significantly small. When she listens to that sound once more, it stimulates her memories and makes her quite nervous.

Short term Memory

For felines, short-term memory is critical to assist them with solving issues. Furthermore, studies additionally show that they succeed concerning food and short-term memory. For example, when a feline is required to seek their prey, they can remember where they chased before that time.

Also, if anybody placed their food in a corner and left, they can still recall where it was placed. If you give your feline food at a specific time or day, it will remember to eat around then. As per broadly accepted scientific theory, felines have an average short-term memory span of around 16 hours. A feline will probably remember each other for approximately 16 hours after meeting them at first.

Let’s ponder over how long cats remember each other. Cats have great memories and can remember different felines for quite a long time. If they have been around other felines and lived with them regularly, they will probably recognize them for quite a while. But if they have met others once or twice, they might not remember them.

That’s why keep in mind that if you are familiar with another feline in your house, your occupant feline will not recognize them immediately. However, after some time, as they get to know one another properly, they will probably develop an enduring bond.

Do cats know their name?

As we discussed their memory in the above discussion, one question arises: do cats know their name? Yes, cats know their name, they respond you when you call them. I want to add something here, when you have many cats, then maybe they can not distinguish between the names but if you have one or two, they absolutely know how you call them. Another interesting thing is, they respond only when cat owner calls them by her/him name, they do not respond to everyone.

In addition, they can hear and then reply to something beyond their names because their astounding ears can turn right around 180 degrees and move free of one another. Cats can also distinguish and remember particular vocal patterns, meaning a feline replies to a known member better than a less-known visitor.

Let’s head towards the discussion of Cats’ sense of smell.

The sense of smell of a cat is the primary method by which it distinguishes individuals and items. Felines have more than 200 million scent sensors in their noses. If we compare it to a human’s sense of smell, it is approximately 14 times better.

A research shows that we don’t know how far cats can smell but generally they can smell 126 to 154 feet away. Also we don’t know which breed’s sense of smell is better than others. We do know that the sense of smell in cats are extremely strong based on the amount of olfactory tissue and types of receptors.

To detect the scents and chemicals in environment cats have two primary organs that work together as a sensory level.

We assume cats use sense of smell mostly when we open up their favorite food, they also use their sense of smell for communication and detecting danger.

When female cats are on heat they exude different pheromones for the male cats in the area. Male cats use their sense of smell to understand the pheromones from miles away. When a female cat is in heat they spray their urine to mark their territory, or leave the scent for male cats.

But the most common way they use it is through scent and sound, as the primary senses felines depend on most to comprehend their general surroundings. Felines identify owners as alternate species, so they are likely to be more careful about different felines than people.

Do cats understand the tone of their owners’ voices?

After discussing the sense of smell, let’s shed some light on their sense of hearing. Felines are responsive to non-verbal communication as well as the tone of voice of their human buddies. They might not follow the particular words spoken by humans, yet they can understand the emotional signals conveyed by the speaking tone.

A study proclaims that felines might change their way of behaving when they hear the voice of their owner talking in a familiar tone. The felines, however, do not change their behavior on hearing an outsider voice or their owner’s voice talking to someone else.

Using a sweet and calm voice can give feelings of love to a feline, while a brutal or harsh voice might cause dismay or make them sad. Additionally, like any creature, every feline can have fluctuating sensitivity to human tones of voice.

What do you think? For how long do cats recognize people?

Undoubtedly, humans remember their felines for quite a long time even after they leave them. They establish a long-term connection with the cats who live with them. But in this case, one question may come to your mind if felines also remember humans or not? Or even if cat recognized the faces? The answer to this question is yes, they do recognize people. But if you are thinking about the period of how long they recognize people, it is hard to find out.

As discussed earlier, short- and long-term memory development and maintenance have vital importance for felines’ mental development and general prosperity. A feline can remember owners and visitors who visit often. 

Felines keep their owners in long-term memory since they communicate with them daily, for example, by being cared for and playing with them. Guests or outsiders who cooperate with a feline for a little while and have restricted contact with them will move to the short-term memory class. 

Wrapping Up

Cats do not develop the same family bond like we humans do. Do mother cats recognize their kittens after being separated, or do they get sad and miss their babies? We hope that after going through the information above, you will have the answers to your questions regarding cats’ family bonds. The mother cats develop an emotional bond with their babies, but they will forget their babies as soon as they are separated after the weaning period.

However, kittens will also remember their siblings with the smell of the litter only if they keep living together. Shortly after they are separated, they will forget each other. Moreover, they have a strong sense of smell and hearing. They can recognize their owners from their faces and smell but cannot remember the guests or visitors who come occasionally.

Reference Links:

• https://www.catster.com/guides/can-cats-recognize-faces/
• https://animalpath.org/how-long-does-it-take-for-a-mother-cat-to-forget-her-kittens/
• https://betterwithcats.net/can-male-cats-recognize-their-own-kittens/