Morbidity and mortality in neonatal kittens.

The mortality patterns of 294 Domestic Shorthair kittens indicated that birth weight was closely related to survivability. Slightly over half of the nonsurviving kittens lost at 0 to 3 days of life were stillborn. Abnormal gross anatomy did not appear to be a major factor in neonatal kitten death. Mortality was lowest at the 5th parity and in litters of 5 kittens. Litters of 1 kitten experienced high mortality. Smaller queens tended to deliver fewer kittens per litter, but with improved kitten viability. Overweight queens experienced increased mortality of kittens. Further examination of mortality by litter size also revealed that low birth weight kittens tended to survive less often than normal birth weight kittens, even within the same litter.