The SPCA is calling on Kiwi animal lovers to consider fostering or adoption in the lead-up to another hectic kitten season.
Kitten season, also known as breeding season, typically begins in spring, before easing off around March and April the following year.
“The season isn’t a very set season. We’ve noticed that it’s getting shorter and shorter each year as we’ve had milder and milder winters," SPCA support manager, Laura Millar, told 1News.
"It also changes according to how far up the island are versus how far south you are. Obviously down south, you’ve got much longer winters than what the winterless north does.”
The Māngere centre received its first litter in August ahead of kitten season.
Millar said the SPCA gets "absolutely inundated with cats and kittens" every summer, and there's not enough space to care for them.
"Ultimately, there isn’t enough space in not just animal shelters like us, but also private rescues across the country to care for everything that comes in.
"There’s too many cats, there’s too many kittens that need our help and unfortunately, there’s not enough help to go around.”
While there are concerns around the number of kittens being born each year, the welfare of mother cats is also worrying.
Female cats can begin breeding from four to six months of age, and can give birth to two to three litters per season.
Millar says cats who go into heat or give birth receive "huge fluxes of hormones and those can increase their risk of cancer quite dramatically".
It can also lead to the possibility of mother cats "developing something further up the line" such as prolapsed uteruses and the death of kittens in utero.
"Just like humans, there can be a lot of things that go wrong during pregnancy," she said.
Millar called on Kiwi animal lovers who are "not in a position to commit full-time to an animal" or have travel plans to consider fostering.
"Fostering’s a great way to be able to choose to give back to the animals in the community and help them out more when we’re looking for their forever homes while they’re recovering from medical care.
"We’re always in need of foster homes so if anyone’s got some spare time over the summer holidays, that would be fantastic for us.”
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