How Many Kittens Can A Cat Nurse At Once

Some owners think that kittens can only nurse a couple of times.

How many kittens can a cat nurse at once. Carnivores need to hang out with mommy for quite a while unlike their prey who literally have to hit the ground running. The most effective way to find out how many kittens can a cat have at once is to put her through an x ray examination. A queen can have as many as eight kittens but the average size of her family is usually between four and six. That s quite few kittens but cats often have litters of 8 or so.

Kittens get used to the mother s milk and getting them off that diet is going to take a lot of time. This procedure can be done when a cat is more than 45 days pregnant and up to the 54 th day of the pregnancy when the kittens will develop their skeletal system. In large litters like that some kittens will nearly always die. I don t think it would be advisable to expect one mothert cat to nurse nine kittens without some help with kitten nutrition.

Larger litters are seen more frequently in pedigree breeds such as oriental siamese and burmese. True the weaning process begins after 1 month of age but it is not completed till about 8 weeks to 10 weeks of age however what you can do is slowly start the small kittens. While cats usually have an average of four kittens in each litter this can range from one to 12 kittens. However many cats even kittens nurse for up to seven or eight times.

Sometimes when one or more kittens have been born the mother will cease straining and rest quite happily suckling those kittens already born. Some cats seem to feed on their food and then become hungry again while nursing. Look at the kittens preferably when mother cats are not around and see if they look lively and well fed. Watch them while nursing and see if any of the kittens are being excluded by the mother cat.

Housecats tend to have 3 to 5 kittens but as many as 19 have been recorded. The first few moments of life.