Litter of Kittens?

[SammyCat]

Hi Everyone, My "Kitten" Sammy (Sam) is 4 months old. A friend told me she would be eligable to have babies in one month and the pregnancy process is approx over a month. I was wondering.. when she gives birth to the kittens, will they all look like her?

What I mean is, are they doing to be the exact breed as her?

Can a black cat give birth to: a white kitten, tabby etc..?

I dont really understand please help.

[catcrazylady]

I'm not sure I understand.
Is your kitten pregnant or are you planning to breed her at such a young age?

[jazzcat]

Do Sammy the greatest favor and have her spayed within the next month.

Yes, it is possible that she could go into heat as young as 4 months old but around 6 months of age is average.

There are too many homeless kittens and cats in the world, please don't contribute to the problem.

Welcome to PT and I hope you will find our comments and advice helpful.

[QueSarah]

im not entirly sure about breeding myself, only what I know from genetics lessons in biology and dominant and recessive (and even still mother nature throws a curve ball from time to time...especially with cats...i.e. bald cats and curly cats...complete surprize!)

But 4 months seems AWFULLY young to consider breeding...and I would think you'd want to do a LOT of research on it before you began.....God forbid something go wrong. And personally, I'd think twice about breeding cats, unless you have a purebred. There are so many homeless kitties out there looking for good homes. Also you have to be commited enough to deal with Sammy when she's in heat. Scary thing that!

[moosmom]

Do Sammy the greatest favor and have her spayed within the next month.

What the world doesn't need is more kittens. Jazzcat is right. PLEASE!!! do yourself and Sammy a favor and have her spayed.


There are too many homeless kittens and cats in the world, please don't contribute to the problem

[QueSarah]

and as far as can a black cat give birth to a white kitten...i believe so....if a black cat is white recessive Bw and mates with all dominant white cat ww it would look like this....potentially....

4 kittens options
Bw
Bw
ww
ww

so potentially you'd get a white kitten, but I don't know how to calculate in stripping (stripe not strip but i dont know which has 2 ts...i think im right lol)

i do know that they were worried that my baby girl had gone into heat when I had her spayed (which makes it an AWFUL HORRIBLE experience) b/c she was starting some of the signs (even "played around" a bit with dodger...whom had been neutered the previous month...THANK GOODNESS) but I got her to the vet in time and they said it was ok, but not to wait any longer.

[catnapper]

Well, I too am a bit confused... most often, the younger the kitten that goes into heat and gets pregnant, the igher the risk to both the mother cat and her babies. My Allen's mom went into heat young and birthed 4 stil born, 2 lived. It broke my aunt's heart to watch 4 dead babies come into the world.

The best plan is to spay and neuter your cats. There are too many euthanized unwanted pets a year. Even if you could garuantee loving homes for any of her kittens, that means less loving homes for others out there. Also the earlier you spay a cat the less likely she'll develop cancer. The risk of cancer increases after each time she goes into heat.

Please provide the best chance at a long life for your Sammy and get her spayed beofre she goes into heat.

[kimlovescats]

I hate to sound un-welcoming ... but most of us here on Pet Talk do not support intentional breeding of our kitties. There are far too many homeless and abandoned cats and kittens, to be letting cats have babies just for the sake of having the fun experience. As far as your questions though, 4 months would be way too young, and very unsafe for your cat. Technically she should be at least a year for her own safety ... but the BEST thing you can do for your female kitty, is to have her SPAYED by the age of 6 months!

It sounds like you are a new cat owner, and probably don't know a whole lot about cats, so please don't take our advice and comments as anything but trying to help and educate you!

Welcome to Pet Talk!

Kim

[Laura's Babies]

Before you breed, go to your local shelter and see the already born ones that are unwanted. If you want a kitten, go get one of those. There will be THOUSANDS of unwanted kittens put to sleep this kitten season in shelters all over the country. The massive amounts of kittens that are born, have only a few homes that will want them and black cats are them most unwanted in the world.

It is not healthy for a cat to start having kittens at a young age or to keep having kittens every heat cycle. It is not good for the Mama cat or the babies. Search your area for low cost spay/neuter programs and get her fixed ASAP! She will be a far healthier and happy cat and be with you a lot longer. PLEASE, do not add to the overwhelming over population of unwanted pets..

Here are some numbers for you to see the BIG picture. A unspayed female cat, her mate and all the kittens if none are spayed/neutered add up to

first year- 12 kittens
second year- 66 cats
third year-382 cats
fourth year-2,201
seventh year-520,715
tenth year- 80,399,780

THIS IS HOW MANY LIVES THAT YOU CAN SAVE, simply by spaying your cat NOW!

[catmandu]

Please have your Cat,spayed,as there,is really no need,to bring more Kittens,into this world.There are shelters,that are full,of Pets,that will DIE.sad,and alone,because,noone,thought,to spay thier Pet.Please have that Cat spayed.

[Laura's Babies]

Welcome to Pet Talk and I hope you stay around and let us know what you decide to do. All of us here love cats and want to improve the quailty of their lives and the only way to do that is to spay/neuter.

There are some here that go out and feed colonies of the ones that people dump, out in the night, in all kinds of weather. Some trap to take and have spayed/neutered and then return to the wild. There are fosters here, that take in the unwanted and just about every foster I know is full to the limit and more fosters are needed all over the country. If you read back, past thread and some of the horror stories, things that happen to the unwanted.. Go read about Birdie

http://67.15.70.205/talk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=58074&highlight=birdie

Pictures of Birdie early on
http://67.15.70.205/talk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=58488&highlight=birdie
More pictures of him
http://67.15.70.205/talk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=58945&highlight=birdie
Here he is now after a lot of nursing from QSL and vet care, in his new home, growing up..
http://67.15.70.205/talk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=63169&highlight=birdie
Birdie is a poster child for reasons to spay/neuter. Not all cats are lucky as Birdie was to get rescued in time to save them...

[MULTICATMOM]

Originally posted by moosmom
What the world doesn't need is more kittens. Jazzcat is right. PLEASE!!! do yourself and Sammy a favor and have her spayed.
THERE ARE SOOO MANY KITTENS IN THE SPRING HONEY! DON'T MAKE SAMMY HAVE KITTENS...JUST HANG OUT ON PT, YOU'LL HAVE YOUR CHOICE OR AT YOUR LOCAL SHELTER:D :D
"HELP CONTROL THE PET POPULATION!! HAVE YOUR PETS SPAYED OR NUETURED."-- BOB BARKER, THE PRICE IS RIGHT

HAVE KIDS?? IT HURTS:eek: :eek: IMAGINE 4-8 AT ONCE:eek: :rolleyes: :eek: OOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHH!!

[SammyCat]

I think I've given out the wrong idea. I wasn't intending that I want my kitten to have babies. I was just saying.. The idea of my questions is Can a cat give birth to multipal breeds of kittens?

Example:" A cat gives birth to a black, white, striped, and grey kitten in one litter. The father is the same breed as the mother.

I just don't understand. How can a cat have different breeds of kittens?

It's like a white woman giving birth to a black baby.

I just dont understand, thats why i am confused.

Please help me, I am getting a headache

[aly]

First of all, one mother can have babies in the same litter from multiple fathers.

But to understand everything about cat genetics, I would do a google search on it. It can get a little complicated (for me) to explain and I end up confusing people more.

[jazzcat]

Just because the colors and marking are different does not make the kitten a different breed. If the mother and the father are Persian cats then the kittens will always be Persain kittens, even if they are black, white or calico. Calico is not a breed, it's a color pattern.

Just remember the color of a cat or kitten is not it's breed. The color of a kitten is determined by genes. It's one of those wonders of the world - cats can have different colored kittens.

I hope this helped some. Maybe someone else can explain it to you better.

Edit: I just saw Aly's post - she's right, researching it online will probably help.

[MULTICATMOM]

THE CAT CAN GET PREG BY MULTIPLE OTHER CATS. EACH PREG DEVELOPES IT'S OWN AMNIOTIC SACK. THEREFORE THE CAT CAN BE IMPREGNATED BY AN PLAIN OLD ALLY CAT & STILL GET PREG BY A SIAMESE.
UNFORTUNATELY, I LEARNED THAT WHEN I HAD A PREG "FOSTER" SPAYED. A DIFFERENT VET TOLD ME THE DAY BEFORE SHE WASN'T PREGNANT, SHE NEARLY DIED ON ME. HOPE THIS IS USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

Say my parents both have brown eyes. How did I end up with blue eyes? It's the same concept with cats having kittens. Unless a cat is a specific breed that has a particular color pattern, like Bengals have spots for example, all colors can be represented in a cat's genes, some dominant and some recessive.

The best thing to do is google it like Aly suggests, but to try to summarize, and to the best of my knowledge - here goes. Cat genetics are different than human genetics. Usually with a human there is one egg and one sperm fertilizes that egg. With cats, there are many egges and more than one sperm fertilizes each egg, which is why, like Aly mentions, a litter of kittens may have more than one father. Each egg and each sperm have their own genetic make up. If a brown tabby mom and an orange tabby dad create one kitten, that kitten could be any combination of colors from brown, to orange to calico and even white or black. It all depends on what color genes the egg and sperm are carrying. I take it you have studied this in biology yet, because you'll go through all the different combinations of dominant and recessive genes and how you can get a blue eyed baby out of two parents with brown eyes.

And maybe to help you....maybe...a white woman and a white man could have a black baby. If both the white woman and man have black genes in them, it's possible their baby could be black. What appears on our surface is not all that we are carrying in our genes. Also, just on a side note, I learned in my biology class that "black" genes are dominant when combined with "white" genes, which is why, if a black woman/man and a white man/woman have a baby, it will more than likely be "black" or at least have more "black traits" than "white traits."

Also, like someone else mentioned, different colors are not different breeds. They are just different colors. For example, Tubby was all black and Cracker Jack is orange and white. They are both of the domestic short hair breed, they are just different colors.

Probably confused you more here.......

[SammyCat]

Thank you sooo much that really cleared it up!!!! :)

[rosethecopycat]

Just the thought of more kittens can really scare a lot of people who spend time and money on rescue efforts, just to save one at a time.

It is very daunting to think that if with my STONGEST effort, I personally, can rescue and find homes for 6-12 kittens (cats) per year, and that only amounts to one or two litters someone decides to 'let happen'.

As far as the colors/breeds go, it is hard to determine, without purebred (papered) cats what will be in a litter.

A Siamese cat may not have any Siamese looking kittens.
The genetics is very interesting, to me too.

Do enjoy your kitten, and do have her spayed too.

Welcome to PT.