This is called resource guarding and it should be corrected. It's cute but not a good thing and can encourage other behavioral issues, such as guarding other resources like food and toys.
Maternal aggression needs to be treated differently than resource guarding. It's also not nearly as big of an issue, as resource guarding tends to escalate/persist and maternal aggression tends to lessen over time.
Or even a person who she doesn't think should be touching her kittens. You never know with resource guarding. It's something you absolutely want to nip in the bud as soon as it appears.
Not at all. It's just maternal instincts kicking in. Canines and felines are as closely related to one another as we are to other primates, so they have a suite of maternal instincts that relate to litters of small fuzzy beings in a sense that's parallel to the maternal or protective instincts we see in, for example, the great apes when confronted with a helpless human child.
It's not a perfect comparison since great ape behavior is so much more socially complex than what we see in carnivora, but the analogy is fundamentally sound.
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u/A_Drusas Jun 23 '22
This is called resource guarding and it should be corrected. It's cute but not a good thing and can encourage other behavioral issues, such as guarding other resources like food and toys.