#a lot of the mother cats I've dealt with seemed relieved to be rid of their babies lol

[l3irdl3rain]

Okay so ignorant questions here because I don't know anything about this. From your experience do cats feel upset when their kittens go to be adopted elsewhere? I know there is a time when mother cats start encouraging independence, but when are they okay parting? I end up thinking about in human ways, or "woah those kittens are so small how can they be okay without their parent in a big world with only humans!", which I don't think actually reflects the reality of cats. Do kittens miss their littermates if they're adopted separately or do they just bounce back? Unrelated question, do you know why lavender decided to stop nursing bug? I don't know how cats decide on when to stop nursing either.

Yeah this is definitely a case of applying too many human emotions to an animal. I will say though, kittens may miss their littermates if they go to a home with no other cats to play with. But in my experience it's more of a boredom thing than actually missing their specific siblings. Obviously cats can bond with each other and they can be sad or scared when they lose a friend. But it's rarely a serious concern, especially for confident cats.

In regard to why Lavender stopped nursing Bug, she's kind of a bad mom lol. She hardly wanted to take care of her own kittens. She improved a little after getting spayed. But there was a period where I was hand feeding one of her babies because he wasn't ready to be weaned and she didn't care. She's also probably running really low on milk, considering she stopped nursing her kittens weeks ago and she has been spayed. She does still want to carry Bug around the house like a little trophy.