How Many Kittens Can Cats Have In A Lifetime
The average mature cat can have 3 litters with a total of 12 kittens per year.
How many kittens can cats have in a lifetime. The maximum number of litters in one year is 4. The average gestation period for a cat is 63 days so theoretically she could have 3 litters a year with an average litter being 4 to 6 kittens. 4 kittens per litter 3 times per year for 15 years makes a total of 180 kittens over a lifetime. Most domestic cats tend to live around 12 15 years.
While it s true that cats can reproduce at any age the number of litter can decrease as they get older. If an unneutered queen cat has twelve kittens at her first mating and ten survive of which five are female and if the same pair of cats continues to breed and their offspring continue to breed unchecked even despite a twenty percent death rate and a thirty five percent sterilization rate after only ten years 10 680 female cats will produce 57 672 kittens of which 49 021 will survive and 22 795 will be females who will go on to breed again. If you do simple math with the average statistics of kittens per litter you ll get the following result. That means theoretically one cat could have a staggering 2265 kittens over its lifetime.
When you consider the fact that there are so many cats that don t have homes refusing to desex your cat will only contribute to the problem. Theoretically your feline companion can give birth to three litters of kittens per year with an average of four kittens per litter in an average lifetime of 15 years for an indoor kitty. This could result in up to 180 kittens in her lifetime. When cats reach a certain age they stop bearing kittens in their last two years.
With an average of 5 kittens per litter and four sets of litter a year your cat can give birth up to 300 kittens in its lifetime.