I’m confused!!! IS MY KITTEN A DWARF KITTEN?

by Nicole

My cat had kittens with her dad, I know, STRANGE!!! but when she had them she had 4. she had 1 MASSIVE still born, 2 normal size kittens, and one supposedly 'dwarf' kitten!

She had the still born first then one of the normal ones than ran of for an hour. When she came back she took the kitten and had two more.

We noticed that she was rejecting the 'dwarf' kitten every time we put it back near her. We took it away but then did we realise it was stone cold and tiny.

We warmed it up and now she will feed it and everything is normal again APART from this tiny kitten. here are the symptoms he has, please help

. small short scrawny legs
. normal size head
. you can feel his ribs
. much smaller than the other kittens
. had his eyes open and now there gunged up

PLEASE PLEASE help!!! I need to know so I know what best for him.
thanks!!

Nicole

Hi Nicole.. thanks for visiting and asking. Sorry for the long, long time to publish this. I thought I had!

First up, it is not that uncommon in the cat world for a daughter to mate with her father. But it does call into question inbreeding and health issues that come from that. In the wild it probably does not happen as the cats leave the natal area to establish their own territories.

Mothers sometimes reject the weakest kitten. This is cruel to me but it is a way of making the survival of the others more likely as mother can give attention to those most likely to survive. It is all instinctive and based on what a wildcat would do in the wild. Domestic cats behave like wildcats in this respect.

As to the little kitten, this will now be one month older! And you should see if the body is normal size and if the legs are shorter than normal. If that is the case you would have a dwarf cat.

But the gene that produces dwarfism is dominant so there has to be two dwarf cats in a litter of four (half).

As this is not the case and as the little fellow is likely to be a runt (small cat), I suspect that he is just a small cat that needs extra care and attention that you have wisely given - well done.

I hope he has survived. If you have time please leave a comment to update us.

Thanks.

Michael