In the days before the pampered house cat, when our domesticated feline friends lived in barns or storehouses as pest control, tiny kittens born in the depths of winter had little chance of survival. Thus, female cats evolved to have a winter dormancy in their reproductive cycle, which comes alive with fertility as the weather warms to spring. This seasonal fecundity has given rise to what we in the cat-rescue industry refer to as “kitten season” — that magical time of year between May and October when a seemingly endless parade of baby puffballs inundates the shelter.
For reference, one unaltered (not spayed) female cat can become pregnant as early as 4 months old. The gestation for a litter of kittens is about two months, and the average number of kittens per litter is four to six. Once that female cat has given birth, there’s no “downtime” before the next fertile period — meaning they can get pregnant and start the cycle over almost immediately. Do the math: If one unaltered female gives birth to eight kittens a year, and the female half of those litters each give birth to eight kittens the following year, and so on — it’s not long before you have a colony of 250 feral cats forming an army in the field behind your house.
But this is not a spay/neuter PSA, nor is it a call to keep your cats indoors (though both are good ideas). This is instead a guide for handling found kittens this spring/summer as their numbers explode into the community. As a longtime volunteer with ASAP, the Animal Shelter Assistance Program cat shelter in Santa Barbara, I’ve seen my share of kittens found in dumpsters, car engines, crawl spaces, and, once, gently cradled in a dog’s mouth.