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The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

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Original poster

Before you have a cat is it too much to ask for advice or read up on what they need?

10 replies

TheWinterOne · 02/10/2013 10:55

I'm not saying I'm the perfect cat owner but is it too much to read up/ask basic advice when you get a pet?

My mum and her friend A called in last night and said he'd had 4 cats - adult female and three 6 month old kittens (2 boys and a girl). I mentioned that maybe it's worth now getting the three kittens neutered as they're now at a sexually mature age. His response astounded me. He said it's up to his 9 year-old daughter as he's not sure if she wants the female to have kittens.

Now any picture I see of kittens I'm like 'Aww, cute!' but seriously? Of course a 9 year old is going to want kittens.

Secondly he thought I was "pulling his leg" when I asked if they were insured. He'd never heard of pet insurance.

He had no idea your meant to de-flea or worm them on a regular basis. And didn't know where to buy the stuff.

And also had no idea they need their jabs.

When they left I felt so sorry for those 4 cats...I can't stop thinking about them.

OP posts:

GerundTheBehemoth · 02/10/2013 11:06

Oh dear :( hopefully he has taken on board what you told him now...

A friend of DP's bought two female kittens a while back. When we went to visit them I asked him about letting them out, and was he going to wait until they were spayed. He replied that he wasn't sure he would get them spayed straight away as he liked the idea of letting them have 'just one' litter.

I did my best to dissuade him of this idea. Talked about how many cats are in rescues, how many unwanted kittens my own local rescue had had to deal with that summer, how early spaying has health benefits (at the time I was fostering a female cat with mammary cancer, a disease that's virtually absent in cats that are spayed early), how even if he finds homes for the c10 kittens he'd be producing, who's to say their new owners wouldn't irresponsibly breed from them, etc etc. I really thought I'd got through to him.

Heard a few months later that both of his cats were pregnant.

PassAFist · 02/10/2013 11:09

Gah! Irresponsible pet ownership seriously winds me up.

MissDD1971 · 02/10/2013 11:14

poor kittens.

I would say that if you did want kittens from a cat though (wish I'd done it with my cat) then you should think about spaying them.

of course a 9 year old will want kittens for the fluffy cute factor of playing with them!

MissFoodie · 02/10/2013 11:22

some people should not be allowed to have animals.....

IceCreamForCrow · 02/10/2013 11:27

God this winds me up too. Not just cats any animals. And worse it's people who dont/wont think it through properly who end up trying to dump the poor animal when it all becomes a problem.

How anyone can treat a pet as an object to acquire or discard at will sickens me.

Lonecatwithkitten · 02/10/2013 11:51

I advise people who are thinking of having just one litter to be prepared to have a bill of up to £1000 and to lose the cat and all kittens. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen and they should know it's a possibility.

cozietoesie · 02/10/2013 12:04

There is this thing around about 'They should be allowed to have just one litter' isn't there? I've heard it so many times, occasionally even with some 'health' tag on it. ('It's better for them.')

PassAFist · 02/10/2013 17:05

It's true cozietoesie. My oldest rescue dog is the result of "it's good for them to have one litter". Then the owner dumped the pups with a rescue and got her dog spayed. Moron!

MissDD1971 · 02/10/2013 19:16

cozie - that is very irresponsible re the just one litter generally.

but for my mum with our pedigree labrador (she had borderline hip dysplaysia (sp?) we wanted her to have puppies (she kept on having phantom pregnancies) not for a reason for us but for the dog. we would have sold the puppies - both our labrador and her parents were hunting stock.

with my cat - she would have made a nice mother and it would have been nice for her to have had kittens as I would have kept 1 or 2 and found the others good homes.

Having said that, I've got a friend who's bred from the same cat (mothers) down the line, the kittens got birth defects, heart problems etc - and that is cruel especially as those problems are most likely from inbreeding. my friend always found the kittens good homes though.

ZebraOwl · 03/10/2013 21:47

When I Rule The World people who fail to neuter their animals when they should will be neutered instead. Without any anaesthesia, obviously. Anyone who says cats wouldn't be neutered in the wild will have their life expectancy from that point curtailed to the average lifespan of a feral cat. That will help people become more responsible pet owners. I fecking hate this "just one litter" crap. Stupid irresponsible things should not be done ever, not Just Once.

Obviously I'd not be without my darling perfect cats. But for all the unwanted kittens who are found loving homes there are so many who will suffer, who'll die, whose mothers will suffer and/or die...

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