There are things cats do better than us. Fewer than they think, but still quite a few.
One of them is having babies.
On average, a cat has between three and six kittens per litter.
However, the number of kittens a cat can have ranges from one to twelve. Quite an impressive number!
If we look at the extreme cases, we’re talking about something incredible. The Guinness World Record for kittens in a cat is 19 kittens. The cat, a mix of Siamese and Burmese, gave birth to them in 1970 in Oxfordshire, UK. Unfortunately, of the 19, 4 were stillborn.
The number of kittens is very important.
An excess of kittens brings an additional problem: the number of nipples the mother has.
A cat (and a male cat) has between six and eight nipples, although not all of them produce milk.
The kittens usually choose a nipple and claim it, selecting it by scent. Each kitten stays with one nipple, which it considers its own for feeding.
Dog owners will be surprised by this, because with that species, it doesn’t happen the same way. Newborn puppies choose nipples randomly and don’t have a favorite. They are chaotic from birth.
When there are more kittens than functional nipples, it’s common for one of the newborns to die from malnutrition, as it doesn’t have its own nipple to get milk from.
Luckily, this problem doesn’t exist with domestic cats, as owners can bottle-feed them with commercial milk without any issue. Kittens can also be weighed regularly to control if they have low weight, ensuring they are being breastfed, or to supplement them artificially.
These supplements can also be used with kittens that are breastfeeding normally, if they show health problems, to relieve the mother’s energy effort. In large litters, the mother cat will appreciate it.
The factors influencing the number of kittens in a cat.
It depends on several factors:
- Age. The older the cat, from a certain point of advanced age, the number of kittens decreases. It’s not uncommon for a cat to have only one kitten in its last litter. The opposite is also true. Young cats have fewer kittens and gradually have more per litter as they mature.
- Breed. For some unknown reason, it has been found that purebred cats tend to have more kittens than their mixed-breed counterparts. And no one knows the reason.If we focus on the breeds, there are differences in the number of kittens they have. For example, Siamese cats and Oriental breeds are more prolific in their offspring.On the contrary, Persian cats tend to have fewer kittens.
- Health of the cat. It’s obvious that a sick cat or one with health problems will have fewer kittens than a perfectly healthy cat. Some conditions also decrease the number of kittens a cat has, such as feline leukemia virus or feline immunodeficiency virus.
- Number of previous births. First-time mothers typically have between two and three kittens in their first litter. In subsequent litters, this number increases. The first one is a sort of trial that the body itself goes through to get accustomed to the process. Also, as a first-time mother, few cats are given a margin to learn how to take care of them and pay attention to them.
If we look at the kittens born in one litter and the kittens born throughout a lifetime, a cat can have up to 208 kittens in its life.
A cat can become pregnant at just 4 months of age, and each pregnancy lasts approximately 2 months. If we’re strict with the timing, the average is 65 days.
Moreover, cats are very enthusiastic about mating. A few weeks after giving birth, a cat is capable of mating again. So, in one year, a cat can become pregnant up to five times!
That’s a lot of kittens.
We have the world record for the most active cat in the task of ensuring the survival of its species. A tabby cat named Dusty had 420 kittens over 17 years.
Also, in cats and other animal species, an event called superfecundation can occur. Superfecundation happens when two or more eggs are fertilized in the same menstrual cycle, but by sperm from different sexual relationships and fathers.
It’s something that can even happen in humans, but it’s much more common in cats.
The kittens resulting from superfecundation are born in the same litter, but they would not be full siblings, but half-siblings, as they share the same mother, but not the same father.
Otherwise, they are born in the same birth, with similar timing and weights.
The Birth Process in Cats and Their Kittens
With all this, expert breeders don’t let their cats have more than two litters per year, so they can recover from the births and avoid an overpopulation of cats.
The birthing process in cats is usually smooth and straightforward. Most of the time, they don’t require external help and lasts between 4 and 16 hours, depending on many factors, such as the number of kittens.
It’s recommended that the newborns stay with their mother for at least a minimum time of 8 weeks.
For the first 7-10 days, they don’t open their eyes, and when they finally do, their vision is much worse than that of adults.
During the first weeks, they are also unable to regulate their own temperature properly and need their mother to stimulate them to urinate and defecate.
After two weeks, their development speeds up. They begin to explore on their own and play with each other.
By 4 weeks, they begin weaning and start eating solid food. By 7-8 weeks of age, their diet should consist entirely of solid food. Although some may still decide to nurse occasionally, if their mother allows it.
If you prefer to sterilize your cats, there’s currently no risk to their health in the process.
And if you want to check your pets’ health before mating and having kittens, the Koko Genetics cat DNA test will detect any genetic problems they may have.