Father cat kneads mother cat while she nurses her kittens

To me, this looks unusual and it is the first time that I have seen it. Mother is nursing her kittens. That is completely normal and we see it many times on the Internet in videos. While she is nursing the father of the kittens is kneading her side (her flank). Why is he doing this? It's a tricky question. You could almost believe that he is doing it for the same reason that the kittens are doing it which is to encourage the flow of colostrum for the kittens' benefit. Kittens knead their mother's breast to encourage the flow of milk. But I think he believes that he is a kitten feeding at his mother's breast. He has got that thought in watching his kittens doing it!

He may be doing it for a different reason. We know that domestic cats knead their human caregivers. They do it all the time or they do it on clothes or bedclothes which smell of their human caregiver. It is an example of how people keep their adult cats in a permanent state of kittenhood. It may be the fact that this father kneads his owner and instinctively does the same thing to the mother of his kittens because he's confused between his human caregiver and the mother of his kittens! That might sound a bit far-fetched but it is possible I believe.

Daddy giving the kittens milkshakes#meowed #meowedofficial #TheMeowedClub pic.twitter.com/UdlP2wQHPR

— Meowed (@MeowedOfficial) September 16, 2021

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Domestic cats can be confused with their role in life because they do so many things which indicate that. I mentioned one which is kneading humans. They believe that they are at their mother's breast when they do it which they clearly aren't because they're lying on their owner's lap.

And we see cats bringing back items of clothing from a neighbour's house. That is a mixed-up version of catching prey and bring it back to the home or it is carrying young kittens around in their mouth and bring them to a new den. It is confused behaviour albeit charming.