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!

Stupid question but those wanting one litter with their cat do you just send it out on heat or find a specific male?

Absolutely not, there's far too many without homes and I wouldn't risk my cats life like that

Nope

I love kittens and would love to see a real birth, but it isn’t fair on the cat as they come into season too young

Rescued a cat that turned out to be pregnant. I think she only moved in to have her kittens! It was a real treat and privilege, to be honest. I'd never had, and never will have, a pregnant animal or baby again- we always rescue.

I wouldn't ever deliberately breed. There are too many rescues in need.

frequently growing up. Not sure why my Mum didn't get them neutered.

@fireplaceburning

Stupid question but those wanting one litter with their cat do you just send it out on heat or find a specific male?

Well judging by the young mothers who end up in rescue it 'just happens' as if it's a complete surprise to their owners.

As mentioned upthread, female cats in season can be very determined to get out and get pregnant and there's usually no shortage of willing tom cats to DTD with.

Unneutered male cats aren't usually pets so the fathers are rarely nice clean family pets but farm or ratty feral cats.

Yes, my very young boycat mounted his own mother whilst we were watching telly and she got pregnant.

So incest, shagging way too young before he'd even been allowed outside. Dirty little bugger.

The resultant kittens were lovely though. I love kittens. Never allowed any other cats to breed since. There are far too many cats who don't have homes.

Yes, my very young boycat mounted his own mother whilst we were watching telly and she got pregnant.

So your poor cat had 2 litters in a short space of time, rather than you act responsibly

Always had cats but no, never kept a female un-neutered and therefore never had any kittens.

The kittens I’ve had in my lifetime have always come from rescue shelters. There’s never been any shortage of them 😣 in fact we’ve almost always come away with 2 ❤️

Please, please contact a shelter rather than paying a ‘breeder’. It hurts my heart to think of those poor females

And I agree with some posters on here re kittens and cat charities. I've had cats all my life and love them. My kids love them and are gentle and kind. We were refused by 2 organisations because 'we had a safe enclosed back garden and children' , neither of which was suitable apparently. Nuts. Absolutely nuts.

We couldn't be more perfect cat parents. I ended up going to gumtree because that was the only way to get a cat. I mean, nuts. !!

@lightlypoached she got pregnant by her son. And you let her have the kittens? Could’ve been some bloody awful birth defects.
And THAT is why you shouldn’t buy from irresponsible people who don’t neuter their pets.

@activitythree yes. It was back in the 80s I had inherited the mother cat from friends - I took her and the kitten boy cat from her 1st litter. The boy cat was only 4 months old so we were somewhat surprised that he was capable (as was the vet).

I was saving up for the op which at the time was very expensive, when the deed happened. All of my cats since have been done as soon as possible.

In the 70s and 80s it was common practice for cats to have kittens and be given away to friends and neighbours.

@Wolfiefan I was worried about that too but the vet at the time told me that it was extremely common in cats. Grim. The kittens were perfect though and lived healthily for years with their nee families.

This was way back in the early 80s. Cat abortion isn't really a thing , esp later on in pregnancy - we didn't know she was pregnant until too late - see previous post - we thought the very young boy cat just wouldn't be capable of an effective impregnation so young. Wrong.

None of my cats has had a litter since.

As a kid we adopted a cat when she had kittens in our back garden in November. We had her spayed as soon as possible. Our neighbours also adopted a cat the same week. They were both from the same original home a few doors down. The neighbours ond was long haired and had to be shaved it was in such a state

Honestly if you couldn’t afford neutering you should never have taken them both.
My point stands. Responsible owners don’t allow their pets to randomly breed and flog the kittens.

Not intentionally, but a stray cat started coming into our house when the window was open, and I woke up one day to find she was under our stairs with four babies.

@JustLyra
I agree with you, but it is the same as with literally every decision people take in life. Including whether to have children themselves - also done for selfish reasons and many people have them too young or end up neglecting them. Does not mean that everyone does it.

I have a genuine question to all outraged people on this thread. Ok, let's assume an extreme scenario - that tomorrow it is made law that all female cats must be spayed immediately, and no more kittens can be produced in the entire country, or even in the entire world. Is it a good thing? Why? If not, should someone retain the "breeding rights"? If yes, who should it be? Commercial breeders of pure breeds, who often do a fantastic job, but often at the expense of narrowing the genetic pool significantly? State facilities? If not, who?

I agree with you, but it is the same as with literally every decision people take in life. Including whether to have children themselves - also done for selfish reasons and many people have them too young or end up neglecting them. Does not mean that everyone does it.

@forinborin No, not everyone does it, but when someone says that kittens cost them nothing, despite not charging for them, it’s a perfectly justified question to ask.

Yes. A rescue cat that was already pregnant and another cat that we didn’t get spayed in time. We kept most of the kittens. A couple went to friends but none were advertised.

It's irresponsible to not get your pet neutered. So many rescues full up with unwanted animals it's awful

@IHaveBrilloHair - Then you’re very irresponsible, if they cost you nothing, they’re meant to be having health checks after birth, along with their mother and when old enough, flea’d, wormed and vaccinated before being rehomed.

No - spay, spay all the way.

Yep used to breed Siamese and blue Russians wonderful

@forinborin - Don’t be ridiculous, there is a huge cat population problem in the UK, that’s why many charities euthanise so many cats every year. Are you ok with healthy cats being murdered, whilst people continue to breed their cats? Off course if the numbers dwindled, their would be a controlled breeding programme in place, that’s not hard to work out but that’s simply not the case.
So yes breeding your cats is irresponsible and contributes to cats being abandoned and killed every year.

Yes when i was a teenager and first left home, i had a cat that had 3 kittens. I couple of years later i had a cat that had kittens again. Since then i always get my cats neutered.