huge difference between kittens from one litter?

Neighbours have pointed out several kittens around the complex, kittens much larger than SemiFeralKitten, which they say are litter mates of "the little black one that died." (They don't know I have SFK.)

These supposed siblings seem weeks more advanced than SFK in development and size. They easily jump onto meter-high walls, while it's only in the last few days that SFK has managed to get off the ground.

Even if the runt of the litter is removed from the mother early then tortured by human kids, is such a difference to its feline siblings really possible?

Keep in mind the mom can get pregnant at diferent times so your may be from the last mating she had of that heat. I got 2 kittens from a litter of 6. one was fine the other lagged alot. both were small for while but fatter one caught up alot faster to a normal range.

Today they both are fine(year later) the big one jumped onto bed while the little one continued to pull himself up with claws many weeks afterward

btw different fathers are possible too

I've found a mother cat with kittens different ages before - 4 weeks and ~6 weeks. There's no way that all of them were hers, she stole someone's kittens. It may be possible that your kitten got lost from it's mother and was taken in.

Just to add. Size can really vary sometimes, though generally the kittens will look the same age and be close in development. Example: at one point Blann was 9lbs while his little sister was 5.2lbs. But still they looked the same age and lost their teeth within days of each other.

Nuts(inside male) is the largest at a 12 lbs and some change, Half-Tail(outside female) is less than 5 lbs and they are all from the same litter. Attitude(inside female), Runt and Goldie Jr(both outside males) are all on the big side, Attitude was around 9.5 lbs at her last vet appointment but she has gained weight back so she is at least 10 lbs. Not sure how big Goldie Jr and Runt are(and neither one would let me weigh them even if I wanted to) but I'd say 8 -10 lbs each.

Runt was actually the runt of the litter(duh, how do you think he got his name) but Half-tail I guess being female grew a lot slower. Attitude and Nuts have a small size difference Nuts is longer and taller than Attitude.

The moms are small though, Mama who is grandma is around 5-6 lbs(don't know exactly and don't feel like being ripped up trying to find out) Biter and Goldie(who disappeared never to be seen again, I think she became coyote chow) were also on the small side. Biter is bigger than Mama but is less than 7-8 lbs. Goldie was also about the same size as Biter.

Understand their dad was a HUGE black and white extremely short haired cat, he was almost like a Spinx but with really short hair, I've never seen a cat with hair that short(Attitude has the same marking but much much longer hair), standing on all 4's he came up to my knee so it appears most of them got the HUGE gene. He was the only neighborhood tom so I knew he was all the kittens daddy. Biter and Goldie had the previous neighborhood tom average size tabby(he looked exactly like Nuts) whose reign had ended when he was run over by a car as their dad.

I know all of them have the same father since we only had one neighborhood tom at the time. Not sure if they were different ages but they all appeared to be the same age when the moms brought all 9 of them over at 4 weeks old. 4 cats gave us 15 kittens, I honestly wanted to shoot myself and we got the moms done as soon as the low cost s/n clinic could get them in, by then Mama was in heat and Goldie was around 2 weeks pregnant and Biter wasn't either.

So yes it is possible. All of mine were with mom and grandma until at least 12 weeks(Attitude and Nuts) the other 3 are still with mom and grandma, were never ever tortured by anyone and there is still a big difference, Half-tail is the only one who won't get on the roof of our house or the neighbor's(at 8 weeks old I found Attitude on the neighbor's roof with 4 of her siblings sleeping in the gutters) and has never climbed a tree, when I go outside I see at least one cat climb out of a tree to come see me. You can have a big difference, Attitude can get on the counter from the floor, Nuts has to use something to get on the counter(and only Attitude is allowed on the counter, it's her safe place to escape from Nuts when he won't give up trying to bite the 'Tude and her hissing and growling and swatting won't deter him, stupid cat.)

Taryn

It's definitely possible! I have three from one litter. The big boys were .4 and .6 pounds at 4 weeks, the girlie was .2 pounds. She is a few weeks behind in everything. They are 6 months now, and the boys are 7-8 pounds, and she is probably barely 5. She also jumped, played, cleaned, and everything else weeks after the boys. We suspect that she has a different daddy then the boys, and might be a week or so younger then them, plus she was definitely the runt!

Like I said, our runt outgrew mom, grandma and Half-tail, his sister. You could never tell he was the runt now, he's a big cat.

They all seemed to develop at the same rate even though Attitude and Nuts were most likely to get into trouble. Nuts at 4 weeks old 'Halloween kitty' a full grown Siamese and trying to take on the neighbor's dogs. Attitude lounging on the neighbor's roof, falling behind her fence and meeting her 2 dogs then hissing at us when we tried to rescue her.

Taryn

Thank you so much, Taryn and Laceface, for chiming in!

Semi-Feral Kitten also seems to be semi-longhaired, while her purported siblings are definitely very shorthaired.

This sounds kind of awful, but in case I can't re-home SFK, it's encouraging to think she might not ever be able to jump to counter height.

Out of the 15 kittens we had only 2 were long haired, Attitude and a little fluffy tabby that found a new home(I literally begged my boyfriend to let me keep Attitude.) Everyone else is a normal DSH. Mama appears to be either a Maine Coon mix(both her and Attitude look very Maine Coon like, but I don't care if they are or aren't) or a regular DLH but only 2 kittens out of 15 got the longhair gene. Out of the 9 kittens Goldie and Biter had we had 2 tabbies, 2 black and whites and the rest were black cats like their moms. Mama is a tortoiseshell and I know she had one black cat, a tabby and a tortoiseshell. I can't remember what Callie had except she had 3 kittens and one was brown.

Like I said I know they all(all 15 of them) had the same dad and they were still all different colors and as I said I had 2 longhairs and the rest had short hair.

Weight and size as a young kitten, especially one that has lived outside on their own doesn't really say much for their eventual size. Attitude was 2.8 lbs at 8 weeks old, Nuts was around 3 or 4 lbs at 12 weeks old, but I could already tell they were going to be big. Runt was tiny and suddenly his growth exploded and he is now the same size as Goldie Jr.

Taryn

Taryn, that's fascinating!

Semi-Feral Kitten certainly eats like a big cat ...