Ever had kittens?

[somethingelsethere]

In response to another thread, I just want to ask if you've ever owned a cat that has had a litter of kittens?
Interested to see how many people have..
Posting here for traffic and range of audience!

We rescued a stray who promptly had kittens - simultaneously very cute and an utter, uncontainable nightmare! What do you want to know?

No. We wouldn’t let an unspayed female out.

As an adult every cat I have had hasn’t been allowed out until is was spayed/neutered
When I was about 8 or 9 our cat had kittens though

No never - even as a child in the 70's every cat we had was spayed before going outside

Nope.
Only ever had female cats.
Always, ALWAYS, had them spayed as soon as they were old enough.

Ndn had a black dcat. And 2 feral dc... Dcat had 5 dkittens in my airing cupboard(quieter than her house) .. I moved and had to take the whole big black bundle!! Ndn had the dm back and I rehomed the dkittens.
I kept 2 boys!!
Once fostered orphan dkittens for a charity-dozens. .
Dkitten overlaoded me!!

No but when I was a child my dad bought a feral cat and her kittens home. He was a builder and he found them on one of the sites he was working on. When the kittens were old enough we rehomed them for free and kept them mum who we had spayed.

Why would you have an unneutered cat to let this happen?

The cat we had as a child had kittens. I was only young but from what I can gather it turned out she was pregnant when we got her.

We have cats now, we had the female spayed as soon as she was old enough.

When I was a kid we had a female cat that wasn’t spayed for some reason (every other cat we ever had was done), and she had a couple of litters. We were in the countryside and she was pretty much an outdoor cat, so we had trouble finding and gathering up the litters. I still remember reaching into a hollow tree and pulling them out with their little claws clinging to my 7 year old hands.

Maybe she was a feral who had become semi-tame, I can’t really remember.

I have always had cats both as a child and adult. They mostly have been rescue cats but always neutered. The three I have now the oldest was from a rescue centre who found him living wild about 3 years old and still an intact male. The rescue centre had him neutered before he came to us.
My other two came to me at 8 weeks old so far to young to be done. I kept them inside until they were done at about nine months old.

Once when I was a kid and we took a stray in who gave birth two eight kittens about two weeks later.

My own cat had an accidental litter. She was booked in for her spay and the vet practice flooded so it was cancelled. I had to go to a course for work so asked my sister to house sit for the two days I was away. Cat managed to sneak out while I was gone. I didn't even know it had happened until she was very pregnant and I could feel the kittens moving. She had four and all went to great homes.

(even my rabbits and guinea pigs were spayed or neutered so I felt really bad about it. All my dogs have been done too, apart from one who had a severe heart murmur)

Yes, twice.
It shouldn't have happened and I'm totally responsible for it.
It was quite a few years ago now and won't ever happen again, but I won't lie, it was lovely.
Watching them from birth to adult is amazing.
I especially love watching them learn to walk.

Yes

No we had our cats spayed before we let them out.

Someone is selling a litter of your average moggies for £500/£550 each near me. It’s a DISGRACE.

We are looking for a kitten and prices are crazy. £500 for moggies.

Yes. I foster for a rescue charity. I have a nursing mother and litter of kittens in my spare room right now.

I've also seen many distressing tales, often involving cats who are still babies themselves needing emergency c sections, rejecting their kittens or even killing them, pregnant cats dumped on roundabouts etc etc etc.

There's far too many unwanted cats and kittens out there to need to deliberately breed any more.

I have.

Yes. The vets fucked up when she was due to have a hernia repair and be spayed. We didn't know and let her out.

Giving birth to the kittens killed her. She was a tiny little cat and had likely been in labour for hours before I realised, I only hunted her down when she didn't come down for food. All of the kittens bar one died. That one, who I still have, had to be hand reared.

I've no idea why people do it willingly because it was horrific.

If you meet the admittedly strict criteria, a rescue will cost far less than £500.

Our adoption fee is pretty much equivalent to the cost of neutering, vaccinations, flea and worm treatment, health check and microchip and that's all included. We should charge more, especially as we've not been able to hold any of our fundraising events for the last year.

I wanted to as I love my cat so much I wanted another one like her, she's the sweetest cat I have ever known.
I haven't yet and am leaning more towards not wanting to.
I think for me also I would have trouble rehoming the rest of the kittens as I would want to make sure they were going to good homes.
So I probably won't.

Nopes never in 20 years of owning cats.

All my of my cats have been neutered before being allowed outside this includes my males.

Yes we let our cat have kittens. She had 4. It was a magical experience.

All of myn have been spayed before being allowed out, even our two males we had. My female cat I rehomed off a selling site, she was 5 months when she became pregnant, all of her kittens were gone by 6 weeks and when we brought her home she was still lactating, she had fleas, diarrhoea and was underweight. She’s my little shadow and I adore the bones of her!
I personally think it’s irresponsible not to spay/neuter your pets, it protects females against certain cancers and males from roaming, spreading diseases and fighting with other males. Also if you look at how many cats are euthanised every year, it seems morally wrong to breed your cat(s).

Yes, my cat jumped out of an upstairs window during her first season, luckily all was well and she had 4 beautiful kittens. Almost 20 years ago now though and no more kittens since, all spayed and our Tom neutered