Shelters get overwhelmed this time of year, especially when it comes to the 24-hour care and feeding of extremely young kittens.
NEW YORK — Strawberry, Blueberry, JoJo, and Mazzy were about six weeks old when animal rescuers coaxed them out of long metal pipes in the parking lot of a storage unit company. Meatball was a single kitten living in a cold garage with a group of semi-feral adult cats. Meanwhile, Spaghetti, Macaroni, and Rigatoni were just two weeks old when the dedicated volunteers of LIC Feral Feeders, a cat rescue in Queens, took them in and bottle-fed them until they were strong enough to survive.
These adorable little ones are the face of kitten season 2025.
Kitten season typically unfolds during the warmer months when most cats give birth, leading to a surge of fragile neonates flooding animal shelters. This influx overwhelms shelters, especially because extremely young kittens require intensive, 24-hour care and feeding. The sheer volume of kittens creates a pressing need for more foster homes, as many of the approximately 4,000 shelters across the U.S. lack the resources to provide around-the-clock care, explained Hannah Shaw, an animal welfare advocate better known as the Kitten Lady, who has over a million followers on Instagram.
“We see about 1.5 million kittens entering shelters every year. And most of them will come into shelters during May and June,” Shaw said. “Shelters need all hands on deck to help out through fostering.”
While many people are familiar with the concept of fostering animals, Shaw says that fewer understand what fostering actually involves. There’s a common misconception that fostering will be expensive for the caregiver, but nowadays, many shelters and rescue groups cover the costs of food, supplies, and medical care.
“A lot of people don’t foster because they think it’s going to be this huge cost, but fostering actually only costs you time and love,” Shaw said.
Lisa Restine, a veterinarian with Hill’s Pet Nutrition, recommends that potential adopters consider adopting kittens in pairs, as cats often bond early in life. But how many cats are too many for a household?
“This is nothing serious or medical but my general rule of thumb is the number of adults in the house, like a 2-to-1 ratio, because you can carry one cat in each hand, so if there are two adults you can have four cats and still be sane,” Restine said.
Restine also advises that sufficient living space can help avoid territorial disputes. Her guideline: two cats per 800 square feet of home space, then about 200 additional square feet per extra cat.
Littermates, like Macaroni and Rigatoni, are much more likely to form strong bonds. Kittens who aren’t biologically related but raised together, like Meatball and Spaghetti, can bond as well. However, adopters hoping to bond an adult cat with a new kitten might be disappointed.
“Once they’re over that 3- or 4-month mark, it’s hard to get that true bonding,” Restine said.
Typically, kittens stay in foster homes from a few weeks up to a few months. While shelters don’t keep detailed statistics on how many fosters “fail” — meaning they decide to keep their foster kittens — some report success rates as high as 90%. Despite the language of “failure,” advocates see this as a positive outcome.
Shaw identified another barrier preventing people from fostering: the belief that it requires special training or skills. To combat this, she has dedicated her life to educating the public through videos, books, and research available on her website kittenlady.org.
Supporting these efforts, companies like Hill’s Pet Nutrition have launched programs like Hill’s Food, Shelter & Love, which has provided more than $300 million in food support to over 1,000 animal shelters across North America.
“About a quarter of a million kittens, unfortunately, don’t survive in our shelters every year,” Shaw said. “The shelter’s going to be there to mentor and support you. So I think a lot of the fear that people have about fostering, they might find that actually it is something you totally can do. It’s just scary because you haven’t done it yet.”