I always thought that stray cat White was different from other stray cats, but I didn't expect that what happened today shows that in some biological learning, cats are cats.
White is a white stray male cat whose territory is in front of my house. I've told his story in several previous posts. He has high emotional intelligence and is exquisite, deeply loved by cat lovers in this building, gained a group of fans, and lived a good life by relying on fan feeding. My daughter is a fan of White.
White was about two years old and had two children: a white cat and an orange cat. Some time ago, I heard my daughter say that White took two children to eat together. I wasn't quite convinced at first. How can a male cat take care of a kitten, isn't this the work of a female cat? Later, I checked the information and learned that stray cats will also take care of their kittens when there is enough food. This is also in line with White's reality, after all, there are many people who feed him and there is plenty of food.
The night before, two kittens surrounded my daughter for food, timidly, and didn't see White. I was a little puzzled, what did their daddy White do, why didn't he accompany the kitten?
This evening, after work, my daughter will feed the cat downstairs as usual. In my eyes, my daughter's meal is naturally more important than the cat's meal, so I went downstairs to urge her to go home to eat. Downstairs, I saw White eating alone with his head almost buried in the food, and his two children crouching not far away. According to her daughter, today White began to protect the food and did not allow the kitten to go near the food. I was surprised, is this still the model cat father who took his children around to eat and drink some time ago?
It seems that what should have happened still happened. According to the data, male cats will take care of kittens until about 8 months. After this point in time, the male cat will drive the kitten away. This is probably the biological instinct of cats, and White is no exception. Nature certainly makes sense of this arrangement.
When I went downstairs again, I faintly saw two kittens eating in the dark, probably eating White's leftover food. White was not present. For the two kittens, the time has come to leave the cat father.
