Has anyone let their young cat have kittens before neutering? Is it OK to do this?

[Fauve]

I was brought up in the remote countryside and our cat always had kittens - population control was largely by natural selection.
We're planning to get 2 kittens, one for each child, and I've read that you can allow a female cat to have one litter before neutering (I think I read that there were advantages to this). I would love to have some kittens - really little ones - and I know the dc would. We're only getting moggies, though, not pure breeds. And we live in London (if that's relevant).
Any cat lovers got any advice?

mine is in season at present and has gone awol. I think it is great ot have kittens

I suppose that's another question - do we let her choose her own boyfriend? Got plenty of rough trade round here

Our litten (only 4 months old) had kittens!!!! It was not that I "let" her - she just went off and "did it" before we had chance to get her to the vets.

Anyway the kittens were gorgeous, I say were because 2 were cat knapped from our garden and my sds had 2 and one of them was stolen!!!! There is one of the litter still alive.

We then had the cat neutered asap.

I would say that when the kittens went she was much happier and so was our other cat, she was a great mum and reared them well, but when they could fend for themselves she wanted nothing to do with them!!!

Good luck - it was brill watching the kittens being born, I tood a video (sad I know) and sat with her stroking her all through her birth!! Wonderful. My kids loved them.

The dad was was a "no hoper", tatty looking fat black cat with a short tail!!!

Didn't get any choice in the matter though! ;-)

There you go - I've gone all maternal, now. Would love a litter of tiny kittens, and to see them grow up.

I'm desperately hoping our cat is pg again - should be had loads of s** over the right couple of days. Her only offspring last year was hit by a car at six months - speeding twunts, dc's and i were gutted. We live out in country though so can easily accomodate quite a lot more cats. i'm sure you'll find homes for well handled kittens easily enough

There are thousands unwanted of cats/kittens at animal shelters. I personally don't think it's right to bring more into the world just 'cos you quite fancy the idea.

There are no benefits to letting your cat have kittens before being neutered, in fact neutering provides protection against Feline Influenza Virus.

Cats Protection League

PetPlanet

Have to agree that kittens are gorgeous, but they soon grow up, and you can't always know that they are going to a good home.

Thanks for those links - I hadn't really thought of all that just what I was used to in the countryside. I did read somewhere, though, that it was better for the health of a young cat to have one litter before neutering. Obviously not a view supported by those orgs.

Agree 100% with trillium. My cat was neuterd last month at 6 months old.

No benefit to them whatsoever to have a litter first.

There are already too many unwanted cats in this country. And kittens grow into cats.

agree with trillium and northerner. charities like cats protection are full to capasity with unwanted cats who are largely the result of unwanted breedings. Yes kittens are lovely, for the 8 weeks you have them before having to find homes for them. And then what? can you be sure they'll go to good homes? be treated right? not go to people who might be cruel to them when they climb the curtains/scratch the furniture/bring in dead animals?

My cats were adopted as kittens. from the RSPCA. They'd been found abandoned in a box. One of them is unable to hold her tail up straight and vet believes that this is because she was mistreated as a kitten and that the nerves in her tail were damaged.

There are no benefits to allowing a cat to have a litter.

Not sure if this is relevant but..
We got our cat from cats protection when she was about a year old. She had had a litter of kittens when she was found (so at less then a year) and the CPL tried to put them together and she completely rejected them.

I don't want to be even more controversial, but...I wonder if I should be considering pure-bred cats then?

Why?

why would it be better to get a purebread? if you pay 4/500 quid for a cat will you be happy letting it out where it could get run over and potentially end up mating some moggy in the street which would mean you wouldn't get pure kittens anyway? and even if you bred a pure with a pure and got pure kittens, you still have to rehome them, and just because someone's prepared to pay £500 for a cat doesn't mean they won't neglect it in the same way they would a moggy kitten.

plus purebreads are much more prone to illness than moggies.

plenty of cats in the world- agree with the person who linked bleow.

ANd if you decide to randomly mate your cat you put her at risk of contracting FIV which is actually feline immunodeficiency virus- in the same group as HIV in people (not known to cross over to people)

So if you want a pure bred you will have to get the cat flev (another nasy virus) and FIV tested before the owner of the stud cat will let your cat naywhere near him.
This will all be done at your expense of course.

If you neuter a female cat early in her life, the likleyhood of her getting mamary tumours is cut dramatically and I think this is an overwhelming reason to neuter your female cat as early as posible.

There are no health benefits to aloowing her to have kittens, in fact she runs the (slight) risk of needing a caesarian and all the other ptential problems associated with having kittens.

HTH and enjoy your cats