Wondering how many kittens your cat can be expecting? 

This blog post is all about that! 

However, this is a hard question to answer with “usually,” because so much depends on the individual mother cat and the circumstances around the pregnancy and birth.

When it comes to reproduction, cats are quite prolific breeders.

But, how many kittens do cats have? 

In this blog post, we will answer this question in as much detail as we can and go through everything you need to know about it. 

Let’s begin. 

How Many Kittens Do Cats Have?

Feral mothers, who have stressful and often malnourished pregnancies, it is unusual for the mother to have more than 3 or 4, and even if she does have 4, they do not all always survive. 

There are also some breeds, purebreds with veterinary supervision and good health, non-feral, that routinely have larger litters and 6 to 8 kittens. 

One female kitty has the ability to produce an average of about 12 kittens each year if not spayed. 

Some rare instances, however, have occured. Take a look: 

• In 1970, a 4-year-old Burmese named Tarawood Antigone gave birth to 19 kittens, 15 of which survived
• One study in Australia found that Burmese have the highest average, at five kittens per litter
• A cat named her 12 kittens into two groups, placing them in separate nests so that the weaker kittens weren’t pushed aside 

Summing It Up 

Most cats, or queens (unspayed female cats), have a litter of three to five kittens, but feline litters can vary in size from one to more than 10. 

As a feral cat begins to age and goes through the stress of multiple litters, it seems that the size of her litters decreases or the number of stillbirths increases or both. 

Whether that is something that happens in utero or as a result of the strain of giving birth multiple times with a deteriorating body is something that’s not currently known to us. 

Has you kitty ever had kittens? Let us know in the comments…