How can cats have so many litters easily and dogs can’t?


cats
Elizabeth B asked:


Don’t hate me for this question. My friends cat has had 5 litters of kittens with different stray cats. The cat was fine every time. How is that so much easier?
The cat was outdoor so they didn’t know she was going to have kittens. After the five litters they decided to spay her. Every kitten the cat has was taken very good care of and either kept of given to one of their other family.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Cats. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “How can cats have so many litters easily and dogs can’t?”

  1. Bob N Says:

    Cats are spectacularly fertile, conceive at fantastically high rates when mating, mate with multiple males when they are in heat (technically called estrus), go into estrus frequently, have relatively easy deliveries, and are superb mothers.

    Now, as regards your friend - browbeat him or her until they get the cat spayed and end this needless reproduction.

    What has happened to the kittens from these five litters?

    Edit your question and tell us what happened to them.

  2. Bethnyc Says:

    ditto above and if you think there were a lot of dogs killed in shelters, even more cats are killed.. so spay your maltese/poodle and please ask you friend to spay her cat.. it’s incredibly irresponsible of her to let her remain in heat. they cycle in out of heat cycles approx. every 2 months if they don’t mate or mate over and over.

  3. Dances With Woofs! Says:

    Cats come into heat again right after giving birth. They can have 4 litters a year,while dogs only come into heat twice a year.Having so many kittens is not good for them. Just because the cat seems fine doesn’t mean that it is. Tell your friend that by letting his/her cat mate with so many stray cats, that he/she is probably exposing the cat to feline leukemia and also the feline AIDS virus,which is spread by sexual contact,and she/he is also contributing to the already heartbreaking overpopulation of cats. Ask him/her to get the cat spayed and keep her indoors for her health and safety. And what happened to all of the kittens from the previous litters?

  4. J C Says:

    Nature made cats to be very efficient breeders because in Nature, a cat is both predator and prey. All those kittens are just like the baby bunnies, and the baby mice, and even the ducklings. They are food for larger animals, and multiples are born/hatched because that way one or two will survive. Now that cats are domesticated companion animals, they still can have litter after litter. But sooner or later it catches up with them - the next stray cat she mates with could be infected with FeLV which will infect her and her kittens. And each litter takes a toll on her health as well, sort of “wearing her out” before her time. Is there any way you can encourage your friend to have her spayed? There are over 12 million cats and kittens, dogs and puppies, put to death in shelters each year because of irresponsible people like your friend who don’t bother spaying and neutering their pets.

  5. Cinnamon Says:

    cats are smaller

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