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!

I got mine in August from an irresponsible owner who didn't get their cat spayed.

We ended up with a stray who was pregnant. We kept all the kittens and mum cat who were all spayed/neutered
Glad we did they have paired off into best friend groups.

As a child there was a one eyed manky feral cat that each year would deposit a litter of kittens in our greenhouse. Managed to catch her eventually and get her spayed at the vets.

We kept a couple of the kittens one year. Best mousers ever

When I was a young child a stray my grandmother was feeding gave birth in her front room. We kept two kittens, my grandmother kept one and one went to a house down the road. I was too young to remember exactly what happened to the mother cat. They weren't hand reared so she must have stayed until they were weaned, but then she disappeared again.
In retrospect it was quite a gift to know an animal from birth. My cat saw me well into early adulthood.

@forinborin - How are you contributing to animals being murdered? By breeding your cats and not allowing shelter animals the chance to be adopted. You are clearly against the animal rescue charities who campaign for people to neutering and spaying their pets.
What if all those kittens you gave away could no longer be looked after by the people you gave them too, would you take them all back? Or would they end up in rescues?
Also spaying protects female cats against various cancers, so you’re putting your cat at increased risk of this.
So I stand by my point you are irresponsible!

Comparing a cat overpopulation crisis to an endangered situation is the most strangest thing I’ve read.

When I first left home, we rented a flat above a shop, and got a kitten. The only outside space she had access to was the flat roof of the shop's kitchen extension.

She must have met a very determined and agile tom, because she had a litter of 5 beautiful tabby kittens.

We kept the landing window shut until we got her spayed.

@NeverDropYourMoonCup

No. Because, much as I adore kittens, I'm a responsible pet owner and get them spayed.

The people who don't might say 'oh, she got out' but it's not hard to spot a cat on heat and get them done within the next week or two if you've been too slack to book it beforehand. If the cat is anything more than 4 months old, the odds are they know full well because they've been through the noise and writhing and calling plenty of times and are waiting for the time to have the accidental litter and resulting sale of kittens.

Indeed. We had one cat we were late getting spayed for various reasons and we made damn sure she did not get out, so had no "surprises".

Yes. But it seems to be on a par with ritual satanic child abuse in some circles, so I can see little point in elaborating. God only knows how the cat species survived this long.

Yep a stray that wandered in had kittens 2 weeks later, we thought she was a kitten herself we got her spayed shortly after , she’s now an 8 yr old old lady who has the run of the place

[quote zigzog44]@forinborin - How are you contributing to animals being murdered? By breeding your cats and not allowing shelter animals the chance to be adopted. You are clearly against the animal rescue charities who campaign for people to neutering and spaying their pets.
What if all those kittens you gave away could no longer be looked after by the people you gave them too, would you take them all back? Or would they end up in rescues?
Also spaying protects female cats against various cancers, so you’re putting your cat at increased risk of this.
So I stand by my point you are irresponsible!

Comparing a cat overpopulation crisis to an endangered situation is the most strangest thing I’ve read.[/quote]
People who had my kittens wanted my kittens, not an animal from a shelter. I am pretty sure they were not stealing anyone's place. And one family even tried to adopt a kitten - they were told no chance as they had small children and both were working (the horror!)

If ALL the kittens I gave away (three last time, expecting two this time) will simultaneously be abandoned by their well-off, mature, stable, animal-loving owners who are also good friends then yes, I will take them back under my responsibility, six cats it is then. I estimate the odds of that happening as negligible though.

I am putting my children at an increased risk of cancer by living in London, and not in the clean countryside. Actually, I put them at increased risk even by breeding them from myself, as I do carry some cancer-linked genes. Irresponsible me.

I cannot wrap my head about an idea why neutering all domestic cats and running a programme of rehoming kittens from feral strays, as explained to me earlier on the thread, is seen as a better solution to compared to neutering strays and responsibly breeding from loved and healthy pets, with proper socialisation from young age.

I haven't seen the other thread that you're referring to but yes I have.

It was about 25 years ago, before we had DC. We had a cat and consciously decided to let her have one litter as we had several friends at the time who wanted a kitten.

No money changed hands, they all went to people we knew or friends of friends (and we kept one too).

We had her spayed immediately afterwards.

We foster rescue kittens. We had mum and kitts from 2 days old. She was found going through bins and taken to the vets where she dropped her kitts. The next lot came from someone who won't get their cats spayed and hands them over to the rescue society. The last lot came from a cat hoarder. All are lovely and have gone to good homes but cats are complete tarts and breed young and fast. We are keeping a 5 month old kitten in at the moment and the local boy cats are singing the songs of their people by the back door. Spaying this month.

I would love to foster a cat and look after her through motherhood. I've got three dogs though and it probably wouldn't be fair on her or the kittens.

Yes, we've always had cats, always neutered before letting them out but this particular one was a rescued stray and unfortunate timing. We did realise before she had them and could have had the vet abort them but didn't. We kept two, the rest went (free) to friends/family but we could and would have kept them all otherwise. Not ideal and not something we'd have aimed for but it was a fantastic experience and no harm done (although I know some will disagree additional kittens is harm done). She was spayed once the kittens were weaned.

@forinborin - You are willing to heighten the risk of cancer to your cat than spay her, so you can provide kittens to your friends, well that says a lot doesn’t it?
We have a cat over-population crisis and you’re adding to this, can’t you see it? You are taking the place of a rescue cat by breeding your cat and not giving those ones a chance.
Like it or not, you are the problem that these charities are trying to stop.

@zigzog44
OK, I see, it says a lot about me to Internet strangers . Does then every house cat in the world take a rightful place belonging to a rescue cat somewhere? Every biological child born takes a family place belonging to a child who could be adopted instead? Every immigrant coming to the country takes a job rightfully belonging to someone native... oh wait. Where does this logic stop? That's one of the weirdest ethical arguments I've ever heard, and ethical research is one of my lay hobbies.

Even when you are choosing to give birth to a human child, you are simultaneously sentencing them to guaranteed death at the end of it, and clearly non-zero cancer risks. What does it say about how responsible parents are? Never mind cats.

It's not always easy getting a kitten from rescues though either.
The ones near me don't home kittens to people with young children and only home kittens as a pair.
I think it's quite stupid to be honest.

@forinborin - I can’t be bothered to argue with you, just do the right thing and spay your cat and stop using her as a breeding machine.
Responsible pet owners spay/neuter their pets. That’s why many animal charities will spay/neuter before rehoming, to avoid unnecessary breeding and adding to the huge cat population.

Wow, now my cat is a breeding machine anyway, all the best to you too.

We adopted a cat 10 years ago from someone who was moving out of the country. We knew she'd had litters before, hadn't been neutered, and we planned to arrange for her to be neutered soon after she moved in with us... only in the following weeks, she kept getting rounder - quite quickly! We had her checked at the vets and it was confirmed that she was indeed expecting. We assumed a litter would be maybe 4 to 8 kittens and had homes lined up for them! When the time came, she only had one kitten. We still have him now, although sadly we lost his mum a few years ago. She was a lovely mum, and she largely took care of everything birth/newborn kitten related herself. I was expecting to be a lot more hands on! When she stopped feeding her kitten/he'd fully moved onto solids, we had her neutered, and she underwent a bit of a personality shift. Still a lovely cat, but she didn't see her kitten as her child anymore which was a bit sad. After a few weeks of her trying to bat him away, they ended up more as best friends rather than parent and child.

Yes, but she was a feral cat who decided to have kittens in our conservatory, actually my husband's conservatory at the time. His parents took 2 so lived to grips old age.

Ripe or age.

Yes, took in a dumped and pregnant stray cat. Rehomed the kitten (only one survived) to our neighbour and then had her spayed! Had her for years, she was a lovely cat and I missed her for years after she died.

I’d never knowingly let a pet have a litter, I’m too squeamish and I don’t think it’s fair to profit from a pregnancy that the animal may not want or survive.

Rescue Kitties UK had to crowdfund £1,600 recently for a stray at a vets where they wanted the cash upfront to operate on a cat with a poor kitten stuck on its way out

Not their usual vet so no credit available to them. There was nothing magical about the experience for the cat or rescuers.

For owners letting their cats have kittens have you plenty cash put aside for any issues? Even if insured most policies don’t cover pregnancy

No, Ive always had cats from childhood, so for over 40 years, but all our cats have been neutered so never had a litter of kittens.
Incidentally was looking at pets4homes earlier today and moggy kittens are going for £500-900 !!!
We would never have owned a cat if they cost that much when I was growing up. Its very sad that having a pet is becoming out of reach and now wonder if people will be tempted to buy a female cat or dog to breed and make money.