i have 2 lovely wee kittens, roxy and scooby, who are 15 weeks and 10 weeks, and a gruesome twosome lol. hubby has made a suggestion that we allow them to have 1 litter before neutering roxy (scoobs will be done also, but hes the younger of the 2 so we'd have to wait for him to be old enough) as he is of the opinion that its healthier for her to have a litter before being dressed. several of our friends and family have asked for kittens if we have a litter, so they would all be homed, and any that were not homed we would keep or rehome via local cat shelter - asking them to check out potential homes whilst the kittens remain with us. does anyone know if hubby is right in thinking that its better for rox to have a litter before we have her dressed? neither of them are outdoor cats yet, and wont be until they have been 'done'

thanks!

Hubby is wrong, there is no reason to let your cat breed on 'health grounds'. The younger a cat is spayed, the less likely she is to contract breast cancer or pyrometra, conditions which can be fatal. I get my female kittens neutered at 5 months, males at 6 months.

I would also be cautious about friends who say they will take the kittens. See the trouble bluebell has had rehoming young Dolly - what people say and what they actually do are two different things. When faced with the reality, they may well change their minds.

And as for taking the kittens to the local cat shelter.... shelters are absolutely inundated with kittens needing homes, please do not add to that number and so deprive other kittens of the possibility of finding a good home - or add to the volunteers' heavy workload by asking them to inspect homes for your kittens.

If any of your friends genuinely want a kitten, ask them to visit the local shelter - that way they will be helping an existing kitten in need.

If anything having the litter will endanger the female cat's health more than not having one.

As for the male - ask your husband which of the following scenarios he thinks is the kindest:

1. Giving the boy the chop before he knows what having sex feels like.

or

2. Giving him the chop after he's tasted the honey, then telling him he can never have it again.

I would get them both neutered. Kittens breed kittens and before you know it one act of intercourse leads to thousands of homeless animals.

sorry i didnt make myself clear - we wouldnt givde the kittens to the shelter to rehoms, we would ask them to assist us finding suitable families, while they stayed with us. they would remain with us until such time they were homed, however long that would take.

reading the posts here has affirmed my resolve not to let them have kittens!

Glad you've decided against kitens

Even if you only asked a shelter for help in rehoming, that is an extra (average litter of) five kittens the shelter has to find homes for. Including a home check.

This year has been particularly bad for kittens for some reason - perhaps the credit crunch means people can't afford the £70 odd it costs to spay their girl kitties. And they are struggling to rehome - again the credit crunch?

Your kittie has 5 kittens, you find great homes (though Lippincote made an excellent point about homes falling through), but they decide to let kittie have a litter... That's (on average) 25 kittens...then they have kittens...125 kittens....then they have kittens....625 extra kitties in about a year. Will they all get great homes?

There are no health benefits to a litter. Even if they are house cats they could escape and be at risk of FIV, infected bites, RTAs - all sorts of nasty trying to fullfill what is a purely hormone driven 'need' that is completely taken away by neutering.

Even if you keep them in, the boy will start spraying (unpleasant), the girl's calling will drive you nuts. She is still at risk of womb infection - my Layla almost died from a womb infection. Her kittens did die because of the infection. Horrid to say, but it was the best thing that could have happened to her - she was handed into a rescue who paid for all her treatment then we adopted her.

I know you've decided against kittens which is brilliant, so this is more for anyone who might still be thinking 'just one litter'.

I couldn't agree more with the above. Please don't do it just for the sake of it, so many unwanted and cruelly treated cats need homes, why add to that burden for no good reason?

Sorry, just read this, I'm glad you've made the right decison!

Glad you've made right decision jessica-r!

(I did realise you were 'only' going to ask the shelter to find homes - that is a lot of additional work for them. But irrelevant now anyway) Good points made by Stress Monkey too.

fantstic post, if i hadnt made up my mind, that certainly would have done it! i wasnt too keen on them having a litter anyway, with the 2 cats, 2 under 5's, a hubby, a house and a job to be getting on with i'd have been stretched pretty thin! but i agreed to think about it, now i have and i've put my foot down lol. rox and scoobs are going to remain a house cats, as we stay VERY close to a dual carraigeway and busy main road. they have run of the house, and their favourite place to play is in the rolled up rug in the conservatory - lots of hide and seek lol! they will be 'done' as soon as they are of age, and as there is exactly 1 month between them, will be at same time! thanks everyone for your time