# Would it be possible to give birth to kittens?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-give-birth-to-kittens/570391
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [February 6, 2011, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-give-birth-to-kittens/570391 "2011-02-06T13:55:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Ladymarmalade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ladymarmalade)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2011, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-give-birth-to-kittens/570391/1 "2011-02-06T13:55:02Z")
Would it be possible to give birth to kittens?
NOT mating with a boycat, that would be silly! I mean, say, could you have kitten embryos implanted, and then give be pregnant with kittens and birth to them?
I would need nine because I want to beat Octomom.
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### Author:  [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2011, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-give-birth-to-kittens/570391/2 "2011-02-06T14:31:50Z")
Go for ten. Then all the local TV “news” shows can play off the “deca” meaning ten versus decadent wordplay. Nothing sells like a good sound bite.
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### Author:  [@Giltathriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giltathriel)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2011, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-give-birth-to-kittens/570391/3 "2011-02-06T15:22:39Z")
I’ve wondered this about puppies before and I’m kinda relieved that someone else thought of it too. I’m sure my immune system would go nuts and reject them though.
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### Author:  [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2011, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-give-birth-to-kittens/570391/4 "2011-02-06T15:49:35Z")
HOw is tABby formED?
HoW gIrl get PReGnant with kiTTeh?
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2011, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-give-birth-to-kittens/570391/5 "2011-02-06T15:58:00Z")
😃
In all seriousness, no. Y’know how they’re planning on cloning a mammoth soon? [No, really, they are!](http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2011/01/19/japanese-scientists-plan-to-clone-a-wooly-mammoth-within-5-years/) They’re choosing an elephant to host it, as elephants are the closest living relative to mammoths. When clones are made, they have to use a host of the same or very similar species to the fetus, or it just dies in there. We’re nowhere near close enough to cats for it to work.
I mean, think about it. Your antibodies would freak out and kill the kittens. The hormones would be all wrong, at the wrong times. The gestation time would be wrong. The poor kittens would probably be crushed by the force of your uterine contractions in labor. We’re just too physiologically different.
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### Author:  [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2011, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-give-birth-to-kittens/570391/6 "2011-02-07T00:02:16Z")
At last! [Sooterkins](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sooterkin) are real!
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### Author:  [@Trubie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trubie)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2011, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-give-birth-to-kittens/570391/7 "2011-02-07T00:06:41Z")
> [@WhyNot](#):
>
> 😃
>
> In all seriousness, no. Y’know how they’re planning on cloning a mammoth soon? [No, really, they are!](http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2011/01/19/japanese-scientists-plan-to-clone-a-wooly-mammoth-within-5-years/) They’re choosing an elephant to host it, as elephants are the closest living relative to mammoths. When clones are made, they have to use a host of the same or very similar species to the fetus, or it just dies in there. We’re nowhere near close enough to cats for it to work.
>
> I mean, think about it. Your antibodies would freak out and kill the kittens. The hormones would be all wrong, at the wrong times. The gestation time would be wrong. The poor kittens would probably be crushed by the force of your uterine contractions in labor. We’re just too physiologically different.
The top part makes me think maybe there will be a real Jurassic Park one day. I want my own dinosuar. It’d be so cool to use it to terrorize others. 😃
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### Author:  [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2011, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-give-birth-to-kittens/570391/8 "2011-02-07T00:23:50Z")
I pity the gal who’d breast feed those tiny little belt-sanders.
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### Author:  [@xoferew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xoferew)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2011, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-give-birth-to-kittens/570391/9 "2011-02-07T00:25:34Z")
So, maybe you could give birth to a baboon or chimpanzee? Or we could use them to gestate our fetuses while we drink, smoke, and look good in bikinis? (I’m sure we’re not actually biologically close enough to do that.)
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### Author:  [@Turpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turpentine)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2011, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-give-birth-to-kittens/570391/10 "2011-02-07T00:35:44Z")
Among other problems, a cat has a different number of chromosomes than a human, which means that even if fertilization could occur, the chromosomal abnormality would be embryonic lethal.
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### Author:  [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2011, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-give-birth-to-kittens/570391/11 "2011-02-07T00:39:09Z")
The placentation type is not even the same as humans, I’d wonder how the uterus would react to a foreign zonary placenta (that actually, does not invade the uterus as much as a human placenta does). Not to mention the type of uterus humans have vs. cats is also different. I can see a zonary placenta fitting very well with the uterine horns cats have… but humans have a different uterus (less horns, more pear-shaped?). The “band” configuration of a zonary placenta would seem hard to work, even if they do get to attach, it may not offer as much nutrition as the tight overall, all around “fit” a queen’s uterine horn would offer.
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### Author:  [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2011, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-give-birth-to-kittens/570391/12 "2011-02-07T00:40:32Z")
Oh dear… That was geeky… and full of run-on sentence loveliness.
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### Author:  [@xoferew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xoferew)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2011, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-give-birth-to-kittens/570391/13 "2011-02-07T01:12:05Z")
I teach preschool and I have heard kids say not only “My tummy is full of kittens” but also that boys can get pregnant from eating too much broccoli.
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### Author:  [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2011, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-give-birth-to-kittens/570391/14 "2011-02-07T06:47:38Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#):
>
> At last! [Sooterkins](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sooterkin) are real!
“Sooterkin” is so going to be the name of my next druid in WoW.
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### Author:  [@Meyer6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meyer6)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2011, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-give-birth-to-kittens/570391/15 "2011-02-07T06:59:29Z")
> [@Turpentine](#):
>
> Among other problems, a cat has a different number of chromosomes than a human, which means that even if fertilization could occur, the chromosomal abnormality would be embryonic lethal.
I think the OP was asking about implanting 100% kitty embryos and just gestating them in a human, not creating 50% kitty/50% human hybrid offspring. Regardless, a difference in chromosome number is not necessarily lethal to the embryo - horses and donkeys have a different number of chromosomes and they can make mules. The problem with have odd/mismatched chromosomes usually arises when the hybrid tries to mate - meiosis is disrupted and thus the hybrid is sterile.
Now, I think there would be other issues with trying to mate cats and humans (and even bigger problems with the gestation process!), but chromosome count may not be one of them.
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### Author:  [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2011, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-give-birth-to-kittens/570391/16 "2011-02-07T08:01:28Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#):
>
> I pity the gal who’d breast feed those tiny little belt-sanders.
Spoken like someone who has had a personal encounter with a cat’s tongue.
I’ve bottle fed kittens, and I really don’t think that they could manage a human nipple because of the size difference. They wouldn’t be able to properly latch on and apply pressure to the right spots in order for the milk to be released.
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2011, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-give-birth-to-kittens/570391/17 "2011-02-07T09:10:35Z")
> [@Trubie](#):
>
> The top part makes me think maybe there will be a real Jurassic Park one day. I want my own dinosuar. It’d be so cool to use it to terrorize others. 😃
If you’re into the “birds are dinosaurs” theory then get a parrot. Trust me, they can be real terrors at times.
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2011, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-give-birth-to-kittens/570391/18 "2011-02-07T09:12:55Z")
> [@xoferew](#):
>
> So, maybe you could give birth to a baboon or chimpanzee? Or we could use them to gestate our fetuses while we drink, smoke, and look good in bikinis? (I’m sure we’re not actually biologically close enough to do that.)
Actually, I’m pretty sure we are close enough… not that I’d want to find out. Although an ape mother carrying a human fetus would have to have a C-section.
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### Author:  [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2011, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-give-birth-to-kittens/570391/19 "2011-02-07T18:18:12Z")
> [@xoferew](#):
>
> So, maybe you could give birth to a baboon or chimpanzee? Or we could use them to gestate our fetuses while we drink, smoke, and look good in bikinis? (I’m sure we’re not actually biologically close enough to do that.)
IIRC **Picket Fences** had an episode where _cows_ were being used as surrogate mothers for human babies.
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### Author:  [@Eriond\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eriond_s_Revenge)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2011, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-possible-to-give-birth-to-kittens/570391/20 "2011-02-07T18:45:31Z")
This has got to be the strangest question ever asked on this board…and obviously, that says a lot!
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