New to breeding

I'm new to breeding and have been told if my female has more than 3 litters in a year it will mess with her mentally. Is there any truth in this?

kuriouscat said:

I'm new to breeding and have been told if my female has more than 3 litters in a year it will mess with her mentally. Is there any truth in this?

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You shall know, 3 litters a year is a quite a lot. Not to even mention more than three litters a year.    It takes a heavy toll on their bodies, if nothing else.

Serious breeders take one litter a year, perhaps two but only if the litters are small.   The typical is one a year or three in two years.

And we are a pro-spay and neuter  site, so  the family girls and rescuers here usually have one, at most two litters [in total], and they get spayed after it.

So I dont have firesure data on more than 3 litters a year, but yes, I can imagine it takes a heavy mental toll on them too. 

  It takes to be a good mother, raise the kittens, and see them leave.

Moms usually do miss and even mourn kittens who do leave to their furever homes.  Even if they are healthy kittens of 12 weeks, when they ARE ready for separation and HAD began to separate.

Lotsa of my breeder friends has described this.

Imagine yourself what happens if they must endure the sorrow FOUR times a year....  And I suspect its not always at the comfort 12 weeks, but perhaps already at 8 weeks, perhaps even 6....  

  Schrecklish, as the germans says.   

God forbide!   would  some others say.

Nay, please read on how to be a serious breeder, and forget everything about any plans to be a BYB breeder.   Please.

Good luck!

IMHO,  If you care about animals you don't breed them to make money, you adopt them from shelters and give them a home.

 How about one litter ONLY then fix her? I can dream.

This is how I look at it.

A female cat has a gestation of 9 weeks. It is common knowledge that it is BEST for kittens to stay with mom/litter mates until they are at least 10 weeks old (some prefer to wait until the kittens are 12 wks of age.). That comes to 19-21 weeks for mom to care for and raise each litter of kittens. Mom will need time to rest and recoup from raising each litter of kittens. There are 52 weeks in a year.

Based on that knowledge, I cannot see how a queen can have more than 2 litters of kittens per year.

Years ago someone dumped a pregnant cat around my house and she ended up having 3 litters,17 kittens in one year. It takes a tremendous toll on them, she ate constantly and still was skinny and weak. I took pity on her and had her spayed and still have two of her kittens, one wild from her first litter and our precious Casper who looks like a purebred Siamese with the bluest eyes I've ever seen! He was only 2.5 months old when that 3rd litter was born! If you've ever seen them mate you know it is a painful experience for the female, they can even be killed from a over zealous male. Please reconsider your plans and give her a break, she would be much happier spayed. Good luck!

CatPack said:

Based on that knowledge, I cannot see how a queen can have more than 2 litters of kittens per year.

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They CAN---I've seen it in farm cats. They can get pregnant right away after giving birth, so they can have the new litter when the last batch are 9-10 weeks old. So they sometimes have 3-4 litters a year (usually only tropical cats have the 4th litter as winter seems to make them stop going into heat and calms the toms down a bit). It's not good for them, and most unspayed female farm cats die young from the physical toll it takes on them.

For the OP's question---I have no idea about what it can do to them mentally. But it's absolutely a terrible strain on their bodies to be pregnant that much. It would almost certainly result in an early death for the female, and no responsible breeder would allow it.

Willowy, I didnt word that properly. What I meant was in breeding ethically, I cannot (justifiably) see how a queen could be allowed to have more than 1-2 litters a year.

Yes, I am VERY aware that a cat absolutely can have multiple litters a year. But, in a controlled environment, they simply shouldn't.