first time cat nother with 8 kittens, 2 sick?

[giraffe17]

A first time mother has eight (!!!) kittens, one stillborn and the other having a physical deformity of the chest, 6 seem absolutely fine.

Are sick/stillborn kittens more likely with first litters?

Are the 2 ill/dead kittens to be expected in a liter of this size, especially for a first time mother?

Do the ill kittens indicate in any way that there is a genetic problem or most likely due to unusually large litter and probability of sick kittens in first litter?

Thanks

We had a cat when I was a teenager who had a litter of 4. There was obviously something not right with the litter as they died one after the other. I even tried hand rearing the last one in case her milk just had not come in. But that one died in my hands just after a 3 am feed even after taking nearly a whole feed . It happens.

Thanks, I am thinking of having one of the kittens but I wanted to have a first litter from her and wasnt sure if it was a bad idea because of the 2 sick siblings?

If the stillborn kitten was smaller than the others it may have been down to the litter size. It's common to lose at least one from any litter, breeders quite often lose more though that may be due to the cats genetics being less robust.