Who wants to wait whilst my kittens are born!

Wow, the joy thieves are out in force today. Lighten up a little and enjoy the pictures of beautiful new kittens.

I love cats, ours are rescues and are neutered, as all our cats have been. But I can think of many more valid things to get upset about with regard to animal welfare than someone having a litter of loved kittens with homes to go to.

Hmmm

1. You refuse to believe anything the OP says

2. You continue to berate her for all the fictional stuff you have decided she will and won't do in the past, or in the present or in the future.

I really hope you don't work in a court of law.

What gorgeous babies OP! I'd just keep all of them ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I really am struggling with the lack of comprehension and blatant failures to at least read ALL the OP’s posts on this forum.

And then the people who seem to just come for the aggro….

OP, I hope you will keep them until they are at least 8 weeks old, preferably 12 weeks when they can be vaccinated. If they are going to responsible homes where the owners slaves will get them neutered, they don’t need to be neutered early but can wait until 5 months or whatever their Vet recommends. They shouldn't go outside before neutering though.

Trust me, by the time you have 5 x 8-12 week old kittens bouncing round the house you might, just might find it easier to let most of them go ! We used to breed Burmese and Tonkinese and having half a dozen of them haring round the house could be challenging. Ours used to leave at 12 weeks, vaccinated and insured for 6 months. We also guaranteed to take them back if they didn’t settle happily with other animals or children in the house. Never had to though.

We had a lovely black male rescue too and he was one of the 'special' ones. Pet slaves will know what I mean.

Gorgeous kittens, and such a pretty proud Mama! What did your son say when he saw them OP?

Our vets have always recommended 5 months but, yes, weight does come into the equation. I understand the new thinking about earlier neutering in the circumstances I mentioned but I think most vets prefer a bigger animal to work on !

And, yes, I would expect the cats to be indoor only until after neutering. We were very ‘irresponsible’ with our first litter….. Our pedigree Burmese opened a window and went out calling on her own. The local farm Tom was part Manx so we had a real mixture of tail lengths. She went on to have many much loved pets and a few show champions too.

Lol, weirdly enough someone said my name suited me on here once.

'Let it go', am responding to posts to me. Should I just ignore them all because you disagree?
Catastrophising, lol, do some rescue volunteering then say that with a straight face. Always happily proved wrong when it comes to expecting lack of animal care, would make me a happy joe indeed. But then a real animal carer wouldn't have allowed kittens in the first place.

Yes @Happyjoe @grumpygrape I meant neutering on standard schedule at 4ish months dependent on weight. They can get pregnant at that age and I have seen horrible situations of inbreeding, and distressed tiny little kittens who have died from the strain of pregnancy, birth and nursing on their body.

The rehoming kittens at 8 weeks thing a lot of people still subscribe to is long outdated, it's much better if the kittens stay with mum for 12-16 weeks for their socialisation, behaviour and play with littermates. This will also allow their first vaccination course to be completed. OP may well be doing this as she has homes lined up, but I thought I'd mention.

Also to anyone who is looking after a pregnant cat who was formerly feral, or had a cat who slipped out ahead of the appointment - vets can and will do a spay abort up into the last week or so of pregnancy pretty much. It's perfectly safe and the recovery time is slightly longer than a normal spay. Much better than bringing more kittens into the world, particularly with the poor tiny kitten mums you encounter living outside.

Blimey never was a poster less well named! Just let it go and stop catastrophising. Just because some people don't do the right thing it doesn't mean everyone is awful and filled with bad or even careless intent.

People are not neutering and the problem is getting much worse (I presume cost of living?), that's why I think they wrote that (and worked in rescue). It will be observation.

But these aren't going into rescue.

It's 4 months isn't it? Minimum, or down to weight.
Not neutering is fine at the start, wait til a little older but they shouldn't be allowed outside and ensure they don't escape by accident which happens a heck of a lot. They can get pregnant at 4 months old.

Lol over slaves - that's the truth!

It's not a stretch - a previous poster claimed she could guarantee that at least two of the kits would also go on to have kittens - based on what I have no idea.

My vets and I don’t agree with early neutering except in certain circumstances; rehoming rescues and feral cats. These kittens have been responsibly bred and are going to homes the owner is happy with. I’m sure she’s responsible enough to oversee their new homes and owners slaves.

Yes, I realised I scanned that part as many people here have pointed out already, but I will stand by my post that really, there's enough cats needing a home right now than add to it. I am also cynical about her promise to neuter as was it mentioned as a reaction when others said about the problems, plus no mention of getting the black daddy cat castrated either. I presume he's allowed outside..

She needs to ensure that those kittens are neutered too, otherwise the cycle continues.

Many years ago two kittens (about 4/5 months old) were dumped outside our farm. They were delightful cats, sadly one died soon afterwards, but one survived. Within months she was pregnant and thus we got into a cycle of having kittens upon kittens as she got pregnant almost immediately and couldn’t be spayed whilst lactating - eventually she had a late abortion and was spayed at the same time. But there was a tremendous demand for the kittens as in my area, as others have said, it appeared almost impossible for families to adopt from shelters. I’m still in touch with many of the evil kitten buyers, and whilst Mummy Cat (we weren’t very good with names) has long departed, I still have her granddaughter (mother also managed to get pregnant before spaying, an issue with outdoor farm cats).

So the only warning I would give to @Kittenwatch is make sure you don’t let the mother cat out of your sight - 10 minutes in the garden and she’ll be pregnant again!

Virtue signalling? Ok. What you didn't read properly when said I had a friend in rescue is that I help out (and people say about not reading properly, lol).

I've helped my friend a lot when I can, she's so busy, works full time and spends every spare moment rescuing cats (and am not exaggerating), and she has a little army of friends such as myself who cannot do as much as her (me, because of ill health, others have their own reasons), that she can call on to scan a cat, put paper collar on to look for owners, drop off food for feeders (as they are less likely to feed a stray when it costs them money), while waiting months for rescue spots, actually personally go every day to feed strays that are waiting too, this isn't a few days, this is months of commitment. I've set up poly box and wooden shelters with straw in the winter, looked after them, gained trust, searched in the cold and wet looking for cats, captured cats and taken them to rescue, scanned strays, taken poorly ones to vets and picked them up again, personally paid for vaccines on lost cats returned to owners as cat's protection can only pay for chip and neuter, given books on how to look after cats to clueless owners too and donated food, blankets, toys for years.

I am a believer that if everyone can help a little bit, then it starts to make a difference but it's very hard to feel optimistic when people are still not neutering their own pets, as gorgeous as it is having kittens and attitudes such as yours that are selfish. Cheerio, enjoy work.

So Exciting! Congratulations and thanks for posting

The OP has stated in her first post that this will be the only litter that her cat is having.

I think you have misunderstood the OP, she was saying she was going to find it hard rehoming them because they were so adorable, not that she couldn't find homes for them - in fact she had homes lined up before the kittens were even born and if I remember correctly some of her friends are going to be disappointed as her cat hasn't had enough kittens

It is incredibly sad. It's just suffering that didn't need to happen.

What a beautiful mum and babies 🥰

Re keeping one kitten, we took a mum and baby pair from a rescue, mum was very protective of baby when she was younger but got to a point where she was clearly thinking 'why have you not left home yet?!' They co-exist fine but mainly do their own things. Mum is a grumpy antisocial creature though (apart from her few preferred humans whose beds she will happily invade) so it might just be a personality thing!

@PullingOutHair123 "Ignore the harbingers of doom, simply here to bring everyone down to their level. Would probably have made very good Puritans if they'd been born a couple of centuries ago."

I actually think some of the posters on here are gathering firewood as we speak and intend to burn the OP as a witch for daring to do what she has done

@Kittenwatch they are absolutely adorable and I would love to see more pictures

I've become more cynical over the years too. We used to live in an army garrison town up north and there was a large feral cat population living near our quarters. Families would be posted to other camps and just abandon their cats. It was honestly heartbreaking. Some of them seemed to be getting by on scraps from the kitchens at the back of the mess. It was ever so sad.

It doesn't always happen tbh. I would wait and see . My daughter kept two of her cats litter and it's been very successful

haha...yes!