As noted, the
mother cat eats the afterbirth. She also eats any stillborn kittens. This offends our human sensibilities, but there is some logic to it: the kitten is already dead, so by eating it she is using it as nourishment both for herself and for the surviving kittens. Rarely, a highly nervous female may devour her own kittens, especially if it is her first
litter. Cat breeders make a note of such females and do not breed them again.
