How Many Kittens Are Born In A Litter
Although the average size of a cat litter is 3 to 5 kitties if the mother is young or if it is her first time giving birth she will have nearly 2 to 3 kittens.
How many kittens are born in a litter. Young cat mother or a first time mother can expect to have around 2 to 3 kittens. Sometimes when one or more kittens have been born the mother will cease straining and rest quite happily suckling those kittens already born. That s a big range. Cats usually only have four sets of teats so feeding larger litters is challenging.
That domestic feline dozing on your windowsill without a care in the world has the potential to be a kitten factory if left unspayed. While average litter size is three to five kittens double digit litters aren t unheard of. Most cats or queens unspayed female cats have a litter of three to five kittens but feline litters can vary in size from one to more than 10. While cats usually have an average of four kittens in each litter this can range from one to 12 kittens.
On august 7th 1970 a litter of 19 kittens were born to a 4 year old burmese siamese queen called tarawood antigone which belonged to valerie gane in kingham oxfordshire the u k as recorded in the guinness world records making this the largest litter in history to be recorded as a single birth. Larger litters are seen more frequently in pedigree breeds such as oriental siamese and burmese. The first birth i witnessed was that of our calico cat fluffy delivering her first litter of kittens when i was about 6 years old. Healthy females can have litters so large they cannot feed them all.
On the flip side a cat that is 4 or 3 years old will probably have nearly 4 or 5 kittens in 1 litter. The data available on guinness book of records shows that the largest litter of a domestic cat was 19. Generally cats can have a maximum of 3 litters in a year. Eventually as the cat becomes old er her average litter size will naturally decrease.
If you had an x ray or thorough exam done and know how many kittens are in the litter you may be able to estimate her labor. On the other hand a cat that is 3 or 4 years old will most probably have nearly 4 or 5 kittens in one litter. Even though the moderate size of a cat litter is 3 to 5 kitties though a caretaker is young or whether it is her first time giving birth then she ll have not quite 2 3 kittens. A feline litter usually consists of two to five kittens.
Additionally with age the regular size of a cat litter decreases. For example if your veterinarian determines that she has approximately four babies from the time the first kitten is born she ll be in labor for another 45 to 90 minutes. These kittens were born in 1970 but four of them were stillborn. In addition with age the regular size of a cat litter decreases.
The most kittens on record from a single litter is 19.