Longer days, warmer temperatures, the return of wildflowers, birds, and other wildlife are all welcome and wonderful things about spring. Unfortunately, spring also starts “kitten season”, which is not so wonderful. It sounds great at first glance. I mean, who doesn’t love adorable little baby kittens??? The problem comes when you realize exactly how many adorable baby kittens are hitting the ground, and what happens to a lot of them. As most of you know, I live in a rural area, and the problem is worse out here, but it exists pretty much everywhere when people and cats live together.

Cats are what we call “long day breeders”, meaning that the females begin to come into heat as the days start to get longer. In the fall, as the days start to get shorter again, they stop coming into heat. This makes them very different from dogs, who come into season about twice a year, but the time of year doesn’t matter to them. The other big difference between dogs and cats is that dogs go out of heat after a short period of time, while cats usually don’t go out of heat until they either get bred or get sterilized. All of this results in a huge number of kittens being born in a relatively short period of time. That’s why we call it kitten “season”. This breeding cycle is part of the problem, too. All these kittens coming into the world at the same time overwhelms available adoptive homes, rescue organizations, and shelters.

People complicate this situation tremendously. Many people keep cats as pets and for one reason or another decide not to have them sterilized. Some people are also compelled to feed stray and feral cats, but provide no other care for them, including sterilization. When people provide food and care, two things happen. First, and most importantly, instead of producing one to two litters per year, females can produce three to four litters per year (that’s twice the number of kittens!!!). That’s because they are expending less energy on finding and hunting food, they wean kittens earlier since food is being provided for them, too, and they need less time to recover body condition lost during heavy nursing.

Second, more kittens survive to reach breeding age. With food being provided, kittens wander less and are less prone to accidents and predation. Kittens with plenty to eat also tend to stay healthier so fewer of them succumb to diseases and parasitic infections. With easily accessible food, they also mature faster and reach breeding age sooner. A female kitten can have her first heat at just four months of age if well fed and healthy! This means that female kittens born early in the spring may be capable of producing a litter before the end of the same breeding season!

Now, it may sound like I’m advocating not feeding or caring for your cats. That’s definitely not the case! I don’t even have any issues with people who decide to feed strays and feral cats. In many places, feeding them is against the law, but that doesn’t stop people from doing it. What I am advocating, is that if you decide to feed them, get them spayed or neutered!!! There are free or extremely low cost programs available in almost every community in this country. In the long run you will have healthier, happier cats, a more stable group, and a considerably smaller feed bill. Win, win. How many of you have or feed cats? How many of you have had them sterilized?