To think having 30 cats is a bit too many??

[SarahH12]

Friend of ours is a foster Mum to cats. Speaking to her last night she said she has 30 cats at the minute

Whilst I think it's great she looks after cats (I couldn't do it, I'd get too attached!!) I'm not sure 30 is in the best interests of the cats? I suppose what's worse - not taking them in or then having 20-30 cats in your quite small house?

Any more than 2 is crazy cat lady territory imo

So you don't foster cats, but you can tell that someone else is doing it wrong?

How many of the cats are kittens being fostered with their mum?

This is my life goal.

Depends on the space you have...

Also if you have nursing mums, then a cat and kittens is easily half a dozen in one go. Although five mum + kittens groups does seem a lot!

30 is a lot, but if she has the space and can provide the care then fair play to her.

If I live long enough to be retired, I'm going to have 30 cats.

Probably better for them than being in small pens at a shelter.

Sounds like there's a huge need for foster carers for cats.

I would imagine she usually has less, and there may be some litters of kittens in there somewhere.

Well done her.

I would love to visit!

I have one cat.i love her very much. And she's hard work. I can't see how someone could reliably care properly for 30 of the furry buggers.

Ours has had a mishap and is currently housebound and shut in the living room due to having to wear the cone of shame. She's terrified of the hoover so we haven't used it in a week. The fur is piling up, and the living room is smelling musty, even with the window open. Trying to keep a home sanitary with many moggies would be quite a challenge!

the foster parents I know have to keep them in cages, they are not allowed to be loose other than when being handled etc

The foster carers I know have an arrangement in the garden like a cattery and they are completely separate to the house. Anyone viewing goes straight out there.

When we adopted ours the foster carer had her in the house as she was the only cat she had at the time.

It’s not ideal, but if it’s a straight choice between that or living out on the street, then it’s obviously the better option.

Not much lap time per cat tho. SaucyCat can spend upwards of 12 hours a day/night sleeping on me. It would upset her to have to share with 29 other cats long-term.

The worst thing you can do to a cat psychologically is have another cat - I know a plethora MNers will say they know better than anyone with a doctorate.

Cue: A slew of anecdotal stories about a house full of kittens

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/10/01/multiple-cat-families-bad-news_n_5911868.html

Sorry, as much as I like cats, I bet her house stinks of piss and shit and catfood, you cant let foster cats out to roam free. How does she separate them out if its a small house, they must be fighting territorially. I'd say it's damaging to the cats.

That's just insane unless she has a cattery.

So even if you have a bonded pair they'd prefer ideally to be on their own? Genuine question.

I was wondering that - I've seen many rescue cats that must be rehomed as a bonded pair.

You see a lot of cats in rescue that need to be rehomed together, and it would be cruel to split them.

Hope she never has to sell her house

I’ve seen that study about multiple cat households before - but I’ve also seen others which documented the behaviour of feral cat colonies and found that semi-wild domestic cats naturally congregate to live in groups, so I’m not entirely sure I believe cats are meant to be solitary. However, I can appreciate that the space available to a feral cat colony is much bigger than the average house in Britain, so perhaps the issue is number of cats per square foot.

30 adult cats would be too many. I shudder at the thought of the litter trays. However, as pp have said, 6 mothers with 5 nursing kittens each doesn’t seem as excessive. Depends on the age of the cats I’d say.

I have 15 cats, they don’t fight, some love each other, some prefer to be a bit more aloof, but it’s fine, in fact feral cats tend to live in colonies

When I foster it’s usually young kittens, some needing bottle feeding, or sick/recovering cats and they’re in separate pens, not mixed in with my cats

hope they keep the queens and toms seperate or she will have a lot more than 30 to cope with

Does she post on the litter tray and is she utterly amazing?

I would imagine someone who fosters cats would be well aware of that
labazsisgoingmad.

Plainspeaking

Yeah because cats don't form large colonies in the wild with other cats or form strong bonds with those other cats and it hasn't recently been discovered that these colony cats actually look after each others kittens..... no because cats must roam around alone...

As being around cats for over 40 years and having experienced multi cat households there is nothing more beautiful than a huge pile of cats sleeping together in a sun beam.

I'd rather go by what Celia Hammond has to say who has dedicated her life to looking after cats than someone who merely has a Doctorate and hasn't lived and breathed cats 24/7 for years.

Fostering 30 cats is NOTHING like owning 30 cats. Fostering is short term, normally kittens and nursing mums or pregnant queens or looking after injured animals recovering before they can go for adoption. Sometimes they are there for a couple of days, sometimes until the kittens are old enough to leave their mum.

She wouldn't be ALLOWED to foster cats if she didn't have enough room FFS.

So she could just have 4 nursing mums and the rest are kittens.