Can I keep a stray kitten that came into my house?

Image: MikeB

There are two major aspects to the question. There may be more. But this is what comes to my mind: there is the legal aspect namely does somebody own the kitten that came into your home. You don't want to be accused of theft, do you? That goes to answering the question in the title but there is a second aspect; one of animal welfare. You will have a compulsion if you are a sensitive individual concerned about animal welfare to adopt the kitten if in a place to do so. To at least look after the kitten and then rehome them. There will always be pressing welfare issues under these circumstances.

This is a complex question actually. You're going to have to find out whether the kitten is owned which would be unlikely under the circumstances and I'll tell you why. And then you're going to have to look after the kitten and protect them before adopting them if that's feasible and legal or before rehoming them all reuniting them with their owner. You can guess the complexities.

Unowned almost certainly

Perhaps I am making it more complex than it really is because I am sure that in 99% of cases when a kitten comes into a home, they don't have an owner because their mother is a stray or feral cat nearby and their kitten has come in for warmth and feeding. Their mother might also come into the warm and/or other kittens. 

Health often poor

The typical scenario is that kittens under these circumstances are in a bad way with upper respiratory infections, often, and they are commonly flea infested. There is work to do on health issues.

Wait and see

You could just look after the kitten if you want to adopt them and carry on as normal. You can wait and see what happens. Sometimes these things resolve themselves in a natural way over time. For example, if the kitten does have an owner, the owner will come around perhaps and chastise you for stealing their cat at which point you will return the cat to them. All you might argue that you should keep the kitten because you've looked after them and they are in a better place. You will play that card as it arrives.

Rules?

There may be legislation by which I mean local rules in your neighbourhood as decided by city administrators or county administrators or perhaps even state laws if you live in the United States of America. You might wish to check the local laws on this but I don't know of any federal laws which dictate how you should handle this situation.

Circumstances

The natural and normal thing to do is to take the kitten in and look after them. Of course, you might not be in a position to look after a kitten for various reasons. You might have too many cats already. You might have a dog that doesn't like cats. You might have a husband who doesn't like cats or if you are a man, you might have a wife who doesn't like cats. You have to take these things into consideration.

Microchip scanning

As to ownership, you might scan the kitten for a microchip. This would depend on how old the kitten is. If they are very young then they won't be micro-chipped probably. If they are a sub adult by which I mean a kitten that is somewhat grown-up, they might be micro-chipped. You can buy microchip scanners on Amazon quite cheaply. Or you could take the kitten to a veterinarian for a checkup and they scan at the same time.

In fact, this is what normally happens. If the first thing to do is to check for ownership and in parallel the next thing to do is to check the health problems then the natural consequence of those obligations is to take the kitten to a veterinarian for a quick check and scan for a microchip.

Due diligence

If there is no microchip and if on the face of it there is no owner, you can go home and look after your kitten. Or, if you might do due diligence on ownership and knock on a few doors and ask whether they have a mother cat who has given birth to kittens and if so, you can tell them that you have a kitten and can you keep her. That may be the way it pans out. There is an obligation here to try to find the owner but I don't think it extends to trying massively hard. It's just a natural step to take.

Rehoming

If you can't keep the kitten then you might take them to a shelter for rehoming. Or you might rehome the kitten yourself by talking to people you know. I would tend to prefer the latter because you can't always trust shelters as sometimes, they are euthanised even when healthy. But kittens are very adoptable normally and therefore there shouldn't be a problem in this regard.

Personal

The bottom line is that it comes down to whether there is an owner and if not whether you want to keep the kitten and look after them as an adult for the rest of their lives. This is a big obligation and if you've not cared for cats or pets until that moment then you would have to think about this seriously as a cat will change your life. It restricts you and you take on a responsibility in terms of expenditure (it can be quite expensive) and in terms of time and commitment. It's a big step like I say. I wouldn't take it casually.

How Chekhov's uncle made his cat frightened of mice!

Anto Chekov in 1889. Image: Wikipedia.

Anton Chekov (1860-1904) wrote a story about his uncle and how inadvertently his uncle trained his cat to become frightened of mice when he was trying to train them to catch mice. At the time the cat was a kitten. Each time a mouse was caught in a trap, uncle Pyotr grabbed his kitten and pushed his/her face towards the mouse. When the mouse was released, the by then terrified kitten ran away.

I think it was the whole experience of being pushed into the mouse. Perhaps the kitten associated the mouse with the handling they'd received from uncle Pyotr. It was a form of negative reinforcement. The opposite to the classic positive reinforcement training model.

It is strange that the 'training' completely upturned the cat's natural predatory drive to catch mice. That said another factor would be that kittens might be cautious around mice as they might believe that they could be harmed. Mice are amazingly brave in the face of instant death in the jaws of a cat. They stand on their hind legs and scream at the top of their voice.

Chekov

Anton Chekhov, often spelled as Anton Chekov, was a prominent Russian playwright, short story writer, and physician. He was born on January 29, 1860, in Taganrog, a port city in southern Russia, and passed away on July 15, 1904, in Badenweiler, Germany. Chekhov is considered one of the greatest playwrights and short story writers in world literature.

He is renowned for his unique style that combined naturalism and symbolism, portraying the complexities of human nature and the subtleties of everyday life. Chekhov's works are characterized by their deep psychological insight, realistic dialogue, and the exploration of the human condition.

Some of his most notable works include plays such as "The Seagull," "Uncle Vanya," "Three Sisters," and "The Cherry Orchard." These plays often depict the struggles and disillusionments of the Russian middle class during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In addition to his plays, Chekhov wrote numerous short stories, often with a focus on the lives of ordinary people and their struggles. His short stories are celebrated for their concise yet powerful narratives and exploration of the human psyche.

Chekhov's contributions to literature have had a lasting impact, and his works continue to be widely studied, performed, and appreciated worldwide.

America's pet store owners need to be both ethical and businesslike

Entirely understandably, American's pet store owners, take a commercial stance when running their business. They have to in order to make a profit. The world is highly competitive. But my argument is that they need to temper that objective with the objective to ensure that they run their businesses along ethical lines.

Inherently unhealthy bulldog for sale at Perfect Pets. Image in public domain.

And I'm referring to the acquisition of cats and dogs from puppy mills to supply their pet stores. No doubt these animals are quite cheap because they are bred in a cheap fashion. They are bred in facilities where there is poor regard to healthcare and socialisation normally. I don't want to brand all puppy mills with the same criticism but they are called "puppy mills" for a reason. They churn out puppies which means the pet stores can buy them cheaply.

It also means that the puppies are going to be popular breeds such as dachshunds and French bulldogs. But both of these dog breeds have health problems particularly the French bulldog which I think is the unhealthiest dog breed of them all with a reduced lifespan as a consequence.

RELATED: 21 genetic diseases inherited by the French bulldog. Are they always in pain?

The moral aspect of acquiring cats and dogs from puppy mills is this. They should be selling rescue dogs and cats from local animal shelters because in that way they will save the lives of some animals scheduled for euthanasia because the shelters are oversubscribed. Sometimes there is not enough space for incoming unwanted animals.

And when an animal shelter does not run a no-kill policy with commitment, you get a situation where you have to euthanise healthy animals. Nathan Winograd would argue that if you run a proper no-kill policy there is hardly ever if ever a need to euthanise healthy animals. But it does require a huge amount of commitment and a smart approach to running a shelter.

RELATED: Pet stores in America are unfeasible unless they buy from puppy mills.

Back to the moral point. In Aurora city the council has passed an ordinance to ban the sale of cats and dogs that have been commercially-bred at puppy mills. Pet stores are going to have to sell rescue animals acquired from animal shelters.

And, as expected, the pet store owners are up in arms. They think the decision by the city's administrators is entirely wrong. They state that many pet store owners are good people running good stores and are not evil and overly commercial in disregarding animal welfare.

I get that. But the moral dimension is still there for all to see. It doesn't matter if the pet store is run really well if they are stocking the outlet with puppy mill cats and dogs. That's because in doing so, as mentioned, they are indirectly encouraging the killing of healthy animals are animal shelters, which is unsupportable.

And it is interesting to note that one pet store owner, Jens Larsen of Denver Perfect Pets in Centennial says that the decision to ban the sale of puppy mill dogs and cats as "wrongheaded". He's outspoken but he should keep his head below the parapet - see below.

He said that not all people are evil or wrong that run pet stores. Correct. And he adds that he has never had any violations or citations against him. He says that puppy mills are often licensed and regulated and therefore to ban supply from these facilities to pet stores as "just wrong".

In some ways he is correct but I have to stress once again the moral dimension. The ethics of the current situation in which puppy mills supply pet stores is unsustainable.

Jen Larsen's Perfect Pets

And interestingly, if you go onto the yelp.com website you see that his outlet has two stars out of five from 69 reviews. That definitely points to a problem and if you dig around further you will find a news media story on the Denver 7 ABC website with the headline, "Centennial pet shop accused of selling sick dogs to customers". That is a reference to Jen Larsen's pet store.

Some customers are accusing him of selling sick animals. One of them was a dachshund who was bought by a couple and they said that they "went to bed thinking I might wake up to a dead dog. So how could that get any worse?" Just days after bringing her dog home she said that he flopped and rolled and couldn't stand up on his own.

The dog had giardia, a protozoan parasite that most dogs contract from drinking faeces-contaminated water. The condition was not covered by Perfect Pets' insurance. They took the dog to a veterinarian, one that was not suggested by Larsen. As it happens, Larsen partly paid for the veterinary treatment. The dog needed oxygen but survived.

Denver 7 went to check out Perfect Pets with an undercover camera and noticed lethargic dogs and one that had mucus running out of their nose. An employee said that the place was too dusty. But the point here is that Larsen has been accused of selling sick pets and he is the one who is vociferously against the Aurora city ordinance banning the purchase of puppy mill cats and dogs.

And that's the point of this article. Business people owning pet store outlets need to balance the objectives of being ethical and of making a profit. The former puts a check on the latter and the former should underpin all their activities. In doing so, they will run a better business and it will be more profitable in the long run.

Do male cats kill kittens? (The disturbing truth)

There are a lot of theories about if and why male domestic and stray cats (tomcats - unneutered) kill kittens. There are different points of view about this. I've seen all those points of view and it's confusing. That is the disturbing truth! It appears to me that we are unsure about the reason and how rare it is.

I've just watched a video with the same title as this article and I don't think the person who presents that video is accurate (see video at base of page). Essentially, they say that male adult domestic cats kill kittens because they are threatening and they threaten to upset their territorial objectives. I don't believe that. I don't think kittens are threatening to adult male cats. I can't see how that can happen. So, I believe there is a lot of information on the Internet on this topic which is misleading.

Image: MikeB

A person I admire and respect, Sarah Hartwell, tells us that a tomcat will normally establish a territory which contains a number of female cats. I agree that. She then goes on to say that "it is in his own interest to repel other males and to destroy kittens which may have been fathered by another male and which contain the genetic complement of his rival". 

She goes on to explain that a tomcat will be able to recognise his kittens through their smell and their appearance. She is more or less reciting what people say about lions in the African Savannah when they kill kittens produced by other male lions within a pride as part of the process of taking over that pride.

I'm not sure that she is correct to be perfectly honest. I tend to prefer the thoughts of another person I admire, Dr. Desmond Morris (a great zoologist and author). He states in his book Catlore that the male domestic cat has been looked upon as a sex maniac for centuries. He disagrees that tomcats (unneutered male cats) destroy the litters of kittens in order to get the females back on heat again more quickly. This, once again as a reference to how male lions behave when taking over a lion pride. He says the story has lasted "well during the past two millennia and many people still believe it".

He doesn't see any "possible biological advantage of such a reaction on the part of tomcats". He, too, appears to have got that wrong because male lions do this in order to father their own kittens in order to further their breeding line. But do unneutered domestic cats do this?

Dr. Morris likes to refer to observations of the European wildcat. He is referring to the ancestor of the domestic cat which is actually the North African wildcat but there is no difference between that subspecies and the European subspecies in terms of behaviour.

He says when you observe the behaviour of the wildcats you will see that "far from being kitten-killers, the males sometimes actively participate in rearing the young."

He adds that:

"One tom was seen to carry his own food to the entrance of the den in which a female had given birth and placed it there for her. Another tom did the same thing, supplying the female with food while she was unable to leave the nest during the first days after producing her litter."

And this tomcat became very defensive and threatened human visitors in a way that he had not done before the kittens were born. These observations took place in a zoo where he says it would be more likely to see tomcat aggression towards their young.

In the wild, cats have very large territories. The chances of a tomcat coming across a female in her den with kittens is remote. This means there is little possibility of a male cat providing parental care or parental infanticide. In a zoo which is crowded and in which the cats are in closer proximity there will be an increased likelihood of tomcat/kitten encounters where four types of reactions might occur:

1. The male cat simply ignores the kittens.
2. The male cat behaves paternally towards them as mentioned.
3. The female attacks the male soon as he approaches her nest and drives him away before he can do anything concerning the kittens.
4. The male cat kills the kittens.

The fourth reaction is the traditional one that we read about a loss on the internet. But it is, in reality, extremely rare.

Dr. Desmond Morris states that a female cat sometimes experiences a false heat a few weeks after she has given birth. This may excite a nearby tomcat. The female normally fights him off and drives him away.

The male cat is in a great state of sexual arousal at this point. He is frustrated. If he meets a small kitten at this time, he may try to mount it and mate with it.

This may be enhanced by the low crouch to posture of the kitten which is similar to the sexually responsive posture of an adult female cat.

The kitten is unable to move away quickly when the male cat mounts it which acts as a sexual signal to the overexcited male cat. This, Dr. Morris says "seals the fate of the unfortunate kitten".

The male cat does not deliberately attack the kitten but when mounting the tiny offspring he performs the normal neck bite that he employs when mating with a female in order to keep her passive. For a kitten, this feels like their mother maternally grabbing the kitten when moving them to a new den. The kitten does not struggle. Indeed, it responds by keeping perfectly still. This is the sexual signal from the adult female that tells the male that she is ready to mate.

This compounds the misunderstanding which causes disaster when the "mounted tomcat discovers that the kitten is too small for mating. He cannot manoeuvre himself into the correct position. His response to this problem is to grip the kitten's neck tighter and tighter as if he is dealing with an awkward adult mate. In the process he accidentally crunches the tiny kitten's delicate head and it dies.

Once the kitten has been killed it may trigger off a new reaction in the tomcat. Dead kittens are often devoured by their parents as a way of keeping the nest clean. As a consequence, the male cat's sexual frustrations may now lead to the kitten being eaten as a further anomaly in the feline mating sequence.

These are rare instances but they led to stories of tomcat cannibalism painting the male cat as a savage monster intent on slaughtering and eating their offspring.

Dr. Morris goes on to say that often rare events when they become established become the "norm". They become part of folklore. But they are exaggerated and over-egged stories based upon, as mentioned, extremely rare and unusual instances.

That, in a nutshell, is what Dr. Desmond Morris states about tomcat killing and eating kittens. It does happen. I will leave it to you to decide what you think is the right answer. There is one certainty; it's a rare event and people should not think that it is normal male cat behaviour.

Turkish Van cat lookalike brings her kittens to the person who feeds her in an act of deep trust

The video on Twitter says that this cat was being fed by a person and decided (wisely, it has to be said) to bring her kittens to the person for help in raising them. It is a beautiful example of complete trust from a cat in a human. Good on that human whoever they are.

We are not told but it would seem to me that the video was captured somewhere in the Mediterranean region and perhaps even in Turkey as this cat is a dead ringer for a Turkish Van purebred but is in fact a stray cat.

RELATED: The Real Turkish Van Cat.

The Turkish Van in Turkey is more purebred than the registered selectively bred Turkish Vans in cat shows in America.

Most cat breeds have lost their inherited connection with their origins due to intensive selective breeding by breeders over decades in following breed standards.

Quiz: bottle-feeding a neonatal kitten

Quiz: bottle-feeding a neonatal kitten. Photo: Alley Cat Allies on Twitter.

Here is a nice little quiz: one question, multiple answers, from Alley Cat Allies, about bottle-feeding a neonatal kitten who is less than a week old. The question is how often should she be fed? The three answers are as follows:

A. Every hour

B. Every two hours

C. Every four hours

D. Three times a day

My answer (and I will be happy to be corrected) is C. For larger kittens D is the correct answer.

RELATED: Can cats drink Pedialyte? Yes.

It might be useful to add a little bit of detail to that and so here it is. I'm going to quote pretty much from the paediatric section of the book Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook Third Edition.

"Small, weak kittens at birth are often dehydrated and chilled. Before feeding formula, they should be rehydrated by feeding a warmed glucose and water solution (5% to 10% glucose) or Pedialyte solution at the rate of 4 mL per feeding every 1 to 2 hours until they are warm and well hydrated. Then begin using the calculated formula and feed every four hours. Older, larger kittens can manage on three meals a day. However, if a kitten cannot take the required amount at each feeding, then the number of feedings should be increased so the kitten gets all the recommended calories per day."

Reason why domestic cats are lactose intolerant

There comes a time when a mother of kittens decides to start weaning them.  This typically occurs in the fourth or fifth week of a kitten's life but it might be earlier in a large litter or if the mother is unwell or stressed.  The mother instigates the process of weaning as kittens rarely if ever decide to wean themselves.

Original photo by Addy Cameron-Huff. Cat is Finnigan. He looks like a Turkish Van.

The mother starts to spend time away from her kittens and/or blocks access to her milk.  She does this by lying or crouching with her abdomen against the ground.

The kittens get hungry and hunger drives them to search for food.  In the wild the mother brings back prey and tears it up to make it easier for the kittens to eat.

Prey is meat, the flesh of (usually) small mammals.  This forces kittens to develop their ability to eat and digest meat.

These developments include a change to their digestive tract.  The flesh of animals takes longer to digest than milk so kittens' intestines become lined with villi.  These are small finger-shaped projections which increase the amount of nutrients that can be absorbed through the lining of the intestinal wall.

Also, the enzyme that breaks down milk sugar, lactase, is permanently substituted by sucrase which breaks down the sugars in muscle which is meat.

As a result, the adult cat does not have the enzyme lactase in their digestive system to break down milk sugar and therefore it is indigestible or what we call “lactose intolerant". 

Cats are lactose intolerant to varying extents depending on the individual. Humans can also be lactose intolerant. I am. We are not designed to drink cow's milk. It's for cows.

Comment from Christine:

"Many who think they are lactose intolerant find this is only true when they consume pasteurized dairy products. This applies to cats as well. Pasteurized milk appears to remove the enzymes that help digest it."

The classic image from years ago of giving a domestic cat a treat of milk was a misconceived idea. I am sure that there were many cats with diarrhoea in those days although the owners would have been unaware of it as cat litter had not been invented.

Note: early weaning in domestic cats can cause behavioral problems.

What is the largest litter of kittens?

This is a Guinness World Record for the largest litter of kittens born to a domestic cat. It happened in Kingham, Oxfordshire, UK on August 7, 1970. A Burmese/Siamese hybrid owned by V. Gane gave birth to 19 kittens. Four were stillborn. That is all we know. Technically it is possible that a larger but unreported litter has been born but we'll never know.

Burmese kitten. This kitten has nothing to do with the record. This charmer is here to illustrate the page, no more. Photo: Pinterest.

A female domestic cat can give birth to anywhere between 1 and 10 kittens normally. The 19 of the record is, on the face of it, unique. An average litter consists of 4 or 5 kittens.

Mel and Fiona Sunquist in their excellent book Wild Cats of the World state that the record is 13 kittens. I am afraid they were incorrect. Their book was published in 2002. 

New-born kittens weigh about 90-110 grams at birth. This is 3 percent of their mother's body weight.

Normally the weights of individual kittens declines as the litter size increases.

Kittens are born with their eyes closed. Very rarely kittens are born with teeth. Usually they are born without teeth. They have poor hearing but a good sense of smell and touch as they are able, within an hour of birth, to find 'their' nipple and begin feeding. They return to their dedicated nipple which avoids arguments. Brilliant system to create calm and better feeding.

ASSOCIATED PAGE: 12 facts about the domestic cat purr

The kittens purr to their mother while feeding to say all is well. The mother responds likewise. It is their first purr signifying contentment. Many more will come in a good home.

Jet black mom and her dozen jet black kittens with luminous golden eyes

This photograph has been banging around the Internet for a while I think. I picked up on it quite late in the day. I don't know what to make of it to be honest. It looks as though it could be photoshopped but you never know nowadays. It just seems a little bit artificial, to put it mildly. And this is one litter of kittens. I have counted a dozen kittens which is at the very top end of the number of kittens for a domestic cat litter. Anyway, I don't know but it is an interesting image which I think needs to be featured on this website. 

The cats are all jet black with gold, luminous eyes. If the kittens are genuine, the photographer has creatively placed them in a pumpkin bed which is a hint of Halloween. Black cats go with Halloween but often in the wrong way. I'm sure you know all about the potential hazards for black cats during that holiday period. It's a ridiculous throwback to witchcraft and it amazes me that witchcraft still has a place in society today. Some people even believe in it which tells you how inherently superstitious humankind is.

ASSOCIATED ARTICLES:

• When did black cats become bad luck?
• What is the origin of the black cat superstition?

When the stray cat you were feeding shows up with her kittens

When the stray cat you were feeding shows up with her kittens

The film maker says:

"You kidding me, who said you're allowed to be this frigging cute"

This happens quite a lot. It seems to me that when a kind person feeds a stray female cat it is as if the cat is finding out if that person is friendly. And when they have confirmed in their minds that the person is, indeed, friendly they feel confident enough to show them their kittens. And they hope that the same person will be as friendly to the kittens as they were to them. 

It is a calculated, almost rational, decision to improve survival. I've always said that cats are not very good at rational decision-making. They are great when it comes to instinctive action. But I believe they do think rationally. They think more slowly than people or at least most people! But they know which side their bread is buttered on. They find a way. 

This mother and kittens look in fantastic condition, it has to be said. The woman now has a family to take care of and I have a feeling she will do a good job. She will probably find homes for them or perhaps I should put that in the past tense. You can see the bowl next to the building.

@girl.wonderlost

New members of the fam 😆 I need names 👀 ##cat ##mothercat ##kittens ##catsoftiktok ##cute ##foryoupage

♬ original sound - Leezenyyy

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

---

75% of kittens born to free-roaming domestic cats die or disappear within six months

This is going to be short because I don't have the full study results but I do have the conclusion. A study titled Reproductive Capacity of Free-Roaming Domestic Cats and Kitten Survival Rate published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association concluded that 75% of kittens born to free-roaming domestic cats died or disappeared before six months of age and trauma was the most common cause of death.

This photo is so damned sad. It is horrible. It is from Facebook. The photographer was Chris.

CLICK THIS LINK FOR THE STORY BEHIND THE PIC ABOVE

The study observed 2332 female cats brought to a TNR clinic for neutering. In addition, 71 female cats and 171 kittens from 50 litters were also incorporated into the study and they were from managed colonies (believed).

The data that they collected included pregnancy, oestrus status, lactation and the number of foetuses for pregnant cats. They also collected data for feral cats and managed colonies including the number of litters per year and kittens per litter. In addition, they collected information on the date of birth, kitten survival rate and causes of death.

They observed pregnant cats in all months of the year and the percentage of cats that were pregnant was highest in the months of March, April and May. The cats produced an average litter of 1.4 kittens with a median of three kittens/litter. The range was from 1-6 kittens per litter.

Overall, 127 of 169 or 75% of the kittens died or disappeared before six months of age. They say that trauma was the most common cause of death. The conclusion is that these cats had a high reproductive capacity and the information may be useful in controlling feral and free ranging domestic cats.

Why do kittens throw toys in the air over their shoulder?

This is an instinctive fishing action by a kitten who knows how to do it even if they weren't taught by their mother. It is not a kitten trying to create a bird flying through the air which they then catch and bring to the ground. In a study, it was found that kittens learn to catch fish from ponds at about seven weeks into their life. If they were taught to do it by their mother, they did it at five weeks-of-age. They learn faster when taught by their mother but it is still in their DNA to hunt like this.

CLICK FOR MANY ARTICLES ON CAT PLAY

Why do kittens throw toys in the air over their shoulder? To replicate fish hunting. Image: Pixabay.

There are three primary animals that cats hunt namely mice, fish and birds. Of course, they also catch insects quite often and other prey animals such as reptiles and amphibians. It is the hunting action when catching fish which is replicated in this kitten play behaviour.

They scoop the fish out of the water with their sharp claws and throw it over the shoulder onto the ground behind them. They turn, pounce and kill the fish with a bite. I would expect them to eat the fish while it is still alive.

Catching birds is a different process. They stalk and pounce but often the bird takes off. The cat has to leap up and grab the bird in their claws. If successful, they bring it to the ground and then kill the bird with a nape of the neck bite or a suffocation bite.

As for mice, often cats wait incredibly patiently by a mouse den. When the mouse emerges they pounce and kill with a bite. They immobilise the mouse with their front paws. This is essentially a stalk and pounce process again but a variation on the bird hunting technique.

Of these three techniques the kitten throwing a toy into the air most accurately replicates the fishing technique. Kittens will do this over and over again and pounce on the toy at the end.

Some people think that when kittens do this they are trying to make a bird fly. This appears to be a misconception because very rarely do cat owners see their cat hunting fish but it is commonplace to see them hunt mice and birds if they are allowed outside.

How many litters does a cat have in a year?

The answer depends upon whether we are talking about domestic or wild cats. And I don't think it is possible to produce a one size fits all answer to the question. In fact, you will see a variety of answers to this question on the Internet. My conclusion is that domestic cats have 2-3 litters per year. Wild cats in general have one litter per year. It is hard to find definitive answers with respect to the wild cat species because even the best reference work that I have doesn't provide answers sometimes on a species-by-species basis.

Image by David Mark from Pixabay.

However, the sand cat and the bobcat appear to produce 2 litters per year but this may not happen every year. In fact, a semi-tame bobcat in a zoo produced 2 litters but Mel and Fiona Sunquists, the authors of a great book on the wild cat species, Wild Cats of the World, said that this is probably unusual. This indicates to me that one litter per year is more normal for the American bobcat.

Theoretically domestic cats could have 5 litters per year but practically it is probably as stated above although Dr. Desmond Morris in his book CATWATCHING argues that they have 3 litters per year and if they have 14 kittens within those 3 litters then within 5 years, there could be more than 65,000 kittens!

You will see that there is a difference between the theoretical numbers and practical numbers.  Many kittens die, for example. And there are variables which influence the number of litters per year. For example, when a group of male lions take over a pride and they kill the cubs, the lionesses are brought into heat. They become receptive to mating. This artificially forces them to have a litter. 

But if their offspring become adults then usually they don't have another litter until their existing offspring have reached the age of 18 months. This would imply that they have one litter every 18 months if their cubs are not killed by incoming males in acts of infanticide.

Gentle horse befriends tiny kitten

Kitten and horse relationship is gorgeous. Screenshot.

There is a size barrier here! But there is love all around. The kitten brushes against the horse's nose while the horse smells the kitten's scent. It is gorgeous and super-tender. Horses and cats go together like apple pie and custard. There are so many examples of cats befriending horses at stables that we have to conclude that it is commonplace. Interspecies relationships are good for animal welfare. It makes humans sit up and pay attention to the sentience of animals and when we remind ourselves of it, we treat them with more respect.

Mother hen 'incubates' three tabby kittens

And extraordinary little video of a mother hen 'incubating' her three kittens! They crawl out from under her protective care in what appears to be a barn in Iraq. That is all we know. Except that it is not uncommon for mothers of one species of animal to raise the offspring of another animal. It is nice, isn't it? It is good to see. It restores our faith in the world or at least a little bit! Mothers do it naturally and humans do it too, all the time. These are interspecies relationships. I hope they make us more aware of the sentience of animals. An awareness of animal sentience improves animal welfare. Click on this link (opens new window) to see a cat protecting chickens! The exact opposite.

Mother hen protects and incubates three tabby kittens.

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Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

Do male cats eat kittens?

I've read various attempts on the Internet to answer the question in the title and I am not convinced by any of them. Remember, the question refers to any cat of any species not just the domestic cat. It also refers to eating kittens not just attacking and killing them. 

F1 Savannah cat. Photo: Kathryn Stucki.

It seems to be a question which is reminiscent of the behaviour of incoming male lions taking over a pride at which time they tend to kill the cubs in order to force the lionesses into heat so that they can procreate themselves to ensure that their genes are passed on. But when this happens the lions do not eat the cubs that the kill. They are simply killing them for the purposes mentioned.

It is a well-known fact that females sometimes killed their offspring and I'm referring to the world of feral and domestic cats. There are five reasons for this on my research and I have written on this topic before which you can read by clicking on this link. But the reasons are specifically related to the mother-kitten relationship. It's about survival ultimately.

But does a male feral or domestic cat kill a kitten in order to survive? I don't see that happening. I really don't and over 14 years of reading about domestic cat behaviour it has not once been mentioned to the best of my knowledge. That does not mean, of course, that it does not happen but it does mean that it is unlikely to happen.

There may be exceptional circumstances when a male feral cat eats a deceased kitten in an act of survival when food is short. That makes sense and in fact it might not be that rare and occurrence. But this would not be an act of killing and eating but of scavenging and I think that is quite an important distinction. Under these circumstances the male cat is simply eating available food in a coldhearted way.

In an earlier post I suggested that male cats do not recognise the kittens that they have fathered which would certainly facilitate eating a deceased one. I think that we have to apply some common sense to the answer because you don't get good scientific answers on this sort of topic.

Finally, a series of accidental events may result in a male cat eating a kitten. a male cat might try to mate with a kitten and kill it accidentally. And then instinctively the cat might eat the kitten. It would be a series of instinctive events which led to this rare occurrence. This is suggested by Dr. Desmond Morris in his book Cat World.

Cute clowder of Ragdoll kittens

Cute clowder of Ragdoll kittens. Photo in public domain.

The Ragdoll is already cute but kittens makes the breed cuter and a group of them leads to cuteness overload. You can read about the Ragdoll by clicking on this link.

When do domestic cats stop growing?

Domestic cats probably stop growing at around 3 years old. Disappointingly, I have to admit, my reference books on the subject of when domestic cats stop growing are short of information. It is a topic which has been overlooked or perhaps the authors regard it as unimportant. It is believed that the domestic cat's wild cat ancestor, the North African wildcat, are nearly adult in size at about 10 months of age.

Young cat entering the last phase of their growth to adulthood.
Image by DanaTentis from Pixabay.

My observation of my cat, who I raised from a 7-week-old kitten, is that domestic cats stop growing at around 18 months old. But that is a very generalised answer. Frequently, I read online that the purebred cat, the Maine Coon, does not become an adult until they are 4 years old.

And the tiger, yes, I'm referring to the wild tiger, is still putting on muscle at 5 years of age. I'm being very imprecise but perhaps we have to be imprecise because although domestic cats visually stop growing at about 12 months to 18 months of age, they may still be developing and changing towards completed adulthood over the next few years.

So perhaps a better answer is that domestic cats stop growing completely, probably, at around 3 years of age but depending upon whether they are random bred or one of the purebred cat such as the Maine Coon, which I have mentioned.

I notice that the North African wildcat remains in their natal area until they are about a year old which is the age when sexual activity has been observed in captive cats. This means that when the domestic cat's wild cat ancestor leaves their mother's home and becomes independent they are around 1 year of age. That would indicate that they are adult at that age or nearly adult and certainly able to behave independently and survive.

Humans stop growing at about 20% of their lifespan. Domestic cats stop growing at about 17% of their lifespan if we say that they stop growing at the age of 3 and live to the age of 18.

Teenage woman allegedly tried to poison housemates because they mistreated her kittens she claimed

COMMENT AND NEWS: This is a story from Brisbane Australia. Te Raukura Anahera Alexander, 19, clearly loves cats. She adopted two kittens. She lived in what appears to be a house which he shared with housemates. There appears also to have been some sort of dispute between her and the housemates which was simmering in the background and which came to a head when her kittens or a kitten wandered into one of the housemaid's rooms and scratched the person in the room.

Te Raukura Anahera Alexander, 19, outside the magistrates court. She refused to
talk to the media. Photo: Daily Mail.

It is claimed that a kitten or kittens were thrown across the room as a consequence. This is an allegation of animal abuse. Alexander became enraged and allegedly tried to take the law into their own hands by poisoning her housemates. She reportedly admitted to placing a teaspoonful of mosquito repellent into milk and yoghurt. The repellent is called Mortein Peaceful Nights.

My research indicates that if ingested this insecticide can cause serious harm in people. It may be fatal in a large enough dosage. Skin can become sensitised to it and it is very dangerous to aquatic animals. It should be handled with caution and with rubber gloves.

Nobody ate the yoghurt or drank the milk and therefore nobody was poisoned. The police came to the property when allegedly Alexander slashed all four tyres of a vehicle outside the house. It appears that she admitted the alleged crime at that time to the police. She's appeared before the magistrates court and is on bail pending the next hearing and ordered to live with her father and not to return to the home where she lived or approach the housemates. She will reappear before court on March 29.

She was provoked. She did something very stupid. She will no doubt be imprisoned if convicted. If that happens she will be without her kittens. She made a terrible mistake. Any number of alternative solutions would have been better including removing herself from the house with her kittens.

She could have reported the alleged abuse of the kitten(s) by her housemates or housemate to the police because on the face of it this might constitute animal abuse under Australian animal welfare law. That would have given her the high moral ground.

The story highlights the dangers of living in a home of multiple occupation if you own a cat, cats or a kitten. The animals are thrust into a home where their safety cannot be ensured. The cat owner does not know whether her housemates will treat her cat with care. She doesn't know whether they like or dislike cats. She doesn't know whether they are scrupulous about animal welfare.

But if a dispute arises, as appears to be the case in the story, one person may take out their anger on the cats. Cats are always vulnerable to animal abuse because of their immediate presence. They are an outlet for angry people.

I hope that the judge is lenient if she is convicted and that her sentence is light. Although she is on a charge which sound serious namely attempting to injure by noxious substances, assault and wilful damage (reference to the slashing of the car tyres).

Kitten to cat super fast time lapse

Don't need to add words to this because it works all by itself but I will!  I think it is great and so do thousands of others. The music works nicely with the visuals. It was a big project. Warren must have had the discipline to take photos over a couple of years or something like that. I suspect that the cat lives with him. He probably has a studio in his home. He would have plonked his tabby cat on the studio background every so often and taken a photo with the same lighting each time. Then he created a time lapse short movie using software. He then uploaded it to YouTube and 18 months later it has 15 million views. Magic.

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