How do mother cheetahs take care of their babies?
Although cheetah cubs are blind and completely helpless at birth, they develop rapidly. At 4 to 10 days of age, their eyes open, and they begin to crawl around the nest area; at 3 weeks their teeth break through their gums. Due to the possibilities of predation from a variety of predators, the female moves her cubs from den to den every few days. For the first 6 weeks, the female has to leave the cubs alone most of the time, in order to hunt. Also, she may have to travel fairly long distances in search of food. During this time, cub mortality is as high as 90 percent in the wild, due to predation. The cubs begin to follow their mother at 6 weeks old, and begin to eat meat from her kills. From this time onward, mother and cubs remain inseparable until weaning age. To learn more visit the About the Cheetah section of the website.
