Expert: Ali - 3/7/2009

Question
My science teacher was talking about sexual reproduction, and said a human can have only one father for their children. So I said,"What about cats." So he said to write a report on it. So my question is:Can one mother cat have 2 or more kittens, each being fathered by a different sperm doner,and birth them all at the end of her 9 week gestations period, if so why?  

Answer
Myles,

Thanks for your insightful question about feline reproduction. As I'm sure you know cats are mammals just like human beings, however there are a number of differences with respect to reproduction. Male and female cats reach sexual maturity around 5-8 months of age on average depending upon health status, time of year and breed. Passing through puberty in female cats (usually referred to as queens) is marked by coming into estrus which signals that the queen is sexually receptive and ready to mate. Once a cat has gone through puberty s/he is capable of reproducing. A queen in estrus typically becomes quite vocal, howling loudly to ensure that intact male cats in the area know she's interested in mating. Often female cats in estrus will roll around on the floor, become more affectionate often rubbing herself against furniture and people, and the queen will also assume a characteristic position that she assumes to indicate her readiness to mate by lying flat on her tummy with her head lowered, her rear end raised and her rear legs paddling. Women generally ovulate once a month at the mid point of their menstrual cycle. This is one of the areas that cats and women differ. Cats are referred to as induced ovulators which means that they don't ovulate unless stimulated to do so by mating (having sexual intercourse) with a male cat. It's not uncommon for more than one male cat to mate with a receptive queen. It's possible (and fairly common) for each kitten within a litter to have a different father. Since female cats will come out of estrus after becoming pregnant the majority of kittens will be around the same gestational age which means that most of the kittens are born healthy and strong at the end of the gestation period. The female cat's reproductive system also has another key difference from that of a woman's - women have a pear shaped uterus, two ovaries and fallopian tubes. Female cats also have two ovaries and fallopian tubes, however their womb is divided into two parts referred to as uterine horns.

In the vast majority of cases litters of kittens are born healthy and they generally survive unless there is some sort of health crisis or life threatening birth defect. Cats are quite prolific when it comes to reproducing and having healthy litters much of the time. Unfortunately this means that there are millions of homeless cats and kittens worldwide. Due to the serious pet overpopulation crisis it's very important for pet guardians to do their part to control the population of homeless pets by having their veterinarian perform surgeries known as spay for a female cat or neuter for a male cat. During an operation to spay a female cat her uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes are surgically removed under general anesthesia. For a male cat to be neutered is minimally invasive, the surgery involves removing the testicles through a tiny incision the scrotum under general anesthesia. The surgeries to prevent pets from reproducing are quite routine and by preventing unwanted babies from being born these surgeries save countless lives every single year. An unspayed female cat and her offspring can be responsible for creating more than 11,606,011 cats in just nine years. Sadly there are far more adoptable pets in the world than there are good adoptive homes so many homeless pets will not get a second chance at a life and a family. The best possible solution to this dilemma is to prevent pets from breeding at all by spaying and neutering them before they have the chance to reproduce. I hope that you've found the information you need for your report, if there is anything else you'd like me to clarify for you on the subject of cat reproduction I'd be happy to do so.