How fast do cats breed?

Without restraint a cat population can increase at a startling rate.

This is because female cats are excellent mothers, and because domestication has led to a possible tripling of the number of litters and to an increase in litter size. European Wild Cats, with their single litter each year, have an average of two to four kittens, but domestic cats may produce an average of four to five kittens in each of their three annual litters. A simple calculation, starting with a single breeding pair of domestic cats, and allowing for a total of fourteen kittens in each three-litter year, reveals that in five years' time there will be a total of 65,536 cats. This assumes that all survive, that males and females are born in equal numbers and that they all start breeding when they are a year old. In reality, the females might start a little younger, so the figure could be higher. But against this is the obvious fact that many would perish from disease or accident. This paints a grim picture for the aspiring house mouse, a nightmare world of wall-to-wall cats. But it never materializes because there are enough responsible human owners to ensure that breeding restraints are applied to their pet cats, to keep the numbers under control. Neutering of both males and females is now commonplace and it is estimated that more than 90 per cent of all toms have suffered the operation. Females that are allowed to breed may have their litter size reduced to one or two, the unfortunate kittens being painlessly killed by the local vet. In some areas there are fairly ruthless extermination programmes for feral and stray cats, and in certain countries there have even been oral contraceptive projects, with the stray cat population given food laced with 'the pill'.

Israel, for example, claims to prevent about 20,000 kittens a year by using this technique. Despite these attempts, however, there are still well over a million feral and stray cats in Great Britain at the present time. It has been estimated that there are as many as half a million in the London region alone. In addition there are between four and five million pet cats, making a massive feline population of roughly one cat per ten humans.