jupstin

When a cat is pregnant for the first time (or any other animal for that matter,) does she have any clue what's going on? This may sound like a joke, but I'm completely serious.

tronvillain

You mean, does the cat know that it is going to eventually give birth to kittens? I would guess no.

Strawberry

My uncle runs a pig farm, and I once watched a sow who was in labor for the first time and was absolutely terrified, running around the pen and snorting, etc. My uncle explained that she thought she was dying, because she didn't understand why she was suddenly in so much pain. So my guess would be no, most animals don't know what pregnancy is.

Of course, some of the really intelligent animals--elephants, gorillas, dolphins, etc.--may have more of an idea, or at least might know what was going on during a second pregnancy. I know that some specialists say elephants have some basic understanding of death, so maybe they understand pregnancy as well.

doghouse

Many animals certainly behave as if they know they are going to give birth. For example, dogs and cats will often find and prepare a nesting area. This behavior is mostly triggered by hormone changes. Dogs with false pregnancy will produce the same hormones despite not being pregnant. They will often exhibit identical nesting behavior and may even “adopt’ inanimate objects, which they treat like puppies.

I doubt an animal that is pregnant for the first time would consciously “know” they are going to have babies. How would they? Hell, there are cases of women (usually very young) that don’t realize they are gong to have a baby even as they start to go into labor.

Corwin

I think you have to make the distinction between animals in the wild and domesticated animals.... or at least pets. A deer or an elephant, as an example, is part of a herd.... in the past they'll have seen other females give birth, so they'll at least be vaguely familiar with it. (Modified for intelligence of course.... deer are so stupid that having seen it before might not make much difference, as are sheep. Elephants are another story...) A cat, unless you have a large group of them (like barn cats) has likely never had any experience at all with pregnancy in their memory. So it's an entirely new experience for them.

Wild animals in a group have past experiences and whatever passes for parent to offspring teachings in their species. Pets frequently have neither.