Why the large litters lately?

I am starting to ponder why there are such large litters being reported, specifically here? I am wondering if it's like young girls (human) that with all of the growth hormones found in meat, they mature faster and earlier. There could be the same hormones in the cat food that we give our cats that may play a part in this trend.

Anyone else have any ideas on this? I just wanted to spark a conversation about it, being I'm an owner of a large litter myself.

Well I did ask the vet today what could be the reasoning behind such a large litter? She explained that the bigger the cat the more they can carry! And trust me, Miyah is a HUGE cat!

Now I am curious to see if the others who have had large litters, also had normally large cats.

My Lily is a very petite cat. She's lilac point siamese, and I know from in my childhood, siamese do have larger litters...but I was shocked with 8. She was the "white elephant" in the house. She was humungous and I knew she was gonna have several...I was posting her pics on here saying she was gonna have 7 by her hugeness. This was her first litter also, so the amount of kittens in that respect was large as well.

The Mom Cat that I was fostering was teeny tiny and she had 6 good sized kittens. I actually thought that she might spontaneously combust in her last few days!

Or, could it be the cats are better fed, less stressed, and just healthier in general, so that their eggs are more viable and the pregnancies go better? Same with the boys, I guess. On the other hand, this is all just anecdotal - there could be a ton of unreported tiny litters out there balancing things out.

My Lucia is so tiny I thought she was kitten at first. I didn't think she was a year old. She is maybe 6 pounds. Teensy weensy. But she had 8 fat babies.
I think maybe the litters are large on here because we give good care to our cats. We come here to learn and share with each other how to are for our cats better. 8 is a rare thing in litters.

CC, that's what I was talking about is that 8 is large for any cat. I know my cats are all well fed, but wondered if there might be more to it than that. But I do like a good conversation tossing ideas back and forth. Cats are much healthier with shots and given better food so this theory makes a lot of sense to me.

Maybe it is a cycles. Some years large litters are the norm and others small ones. But I do think vet care plays a role in large litters actually making it.
I am at a loss for further explanations. Every argument I come up with I debunk immediately after thinking it.

My cat Lauren who is a siamese was pregnant with her first and only litter with 7 (only 6 made it though) and she's a small cat.

Peri (is a my black kitty) had two litters before getting fixed and the first litter was 3 and the second was 2.

I personally think it partly genetics and partly the cat REALLY got around if you know what I mean.

Lily had a false pregnancy before she got pregnant for real. She is an indoor cat and I have an unfixed Devon Rex and we knew the exact date of mating. We do believe he got her twice in 24 hrs...it was what we heard and SAW LOL.

Lucia I think has Siamese in her background. She is tiny but boy can she talk and it is very different from my other cats. It is higher pitched and more pleading sounding. I saw video tape of siamese cats talking and they sounded like Lucia! So genetics...I can get with that.

From reading the other posts here maybe it has something to do with the care of the cat. I found my cookie outside in the winter she was half starved and frozen. when I took her to the vets everyone including me thought she was a kitten until she checked her teeth and she said that she had to be atleast 2 yrs old. She weighed 4.5 lbs she was very tiny and all skin and bones.. I was so happy when she gained weight and started getting meat on her.. little did I know she was pregnant..LOL cookie only had 2 kittens and they were born 7 hrs apart. I think their was something drastically wrong with the first one, because she didn't look or act normal and cookie kept turning her back to her and she cleaned her and left her in my closet.. I think that is why they were born prematurely because there was something wrong with the kitten and her body expelled them early.. tho little chip from the moment he was born I could tell he was a fighter, cookie was quickly cleaning him off and biting off the cord I saw him take his first breath and trying to fight his way out of the bag, as soon as he was free, he was off and crawling to her finding his first tete..

you could not tell she was pregnant her tummy wasn't fat she just looked like she had gained some healthy weight ..I think 2.5 lbs in all