The Animal Welfare League's Tamworth branch has a huge amount of kittens currently in care, and many of them are there because of dumping or surrendering.

Cat and kitten coordinator Annette Johnston is looking after about 16 of them in her own home, many of them needing special attention like bottle feeding.

In total, the league's members are caring for more than 40 kittens at the moment, thanks to "kitten season".

Ms Johnston explains kitten season as any time of the year that people have kittens they can't look after.

"Quite often it just seems to be a seasonal thing, it used to be August/September through to December, but the last couple of years, the carers have commented we've had kittens and cats all year around and we haven't seen an end to it," she said.

"I picked up five myself [on Sunday] because people had commented they were going to drown the cats."

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She said dumping kittens was unfortunately a common occurrence, because "people realise their cat is pregnant then they dump [the kittens]".

"Most of our kittens are dumped. We do get them where people don't get their cats desexed, then we convince them to get them desexed and stop this cycle because a cat is only pregnant for about 64 days," Ms Johnston told the Leader.

"They can be literally feeding one litter and then be pregnant with another."

The league member urged anyone with cats to have them desexed so the cycle of dumping and re-homing could stop.

She said any donations were also very much appreciated.

"As you can imagine, it's not just the vet bills, it's worm and flea treatment, and food because we want them on really good quality food, so it's a never ending cost I'm afraid," Ms Johnston said.

"Our adoption fee doesn't actually cover the full cost of their vet fees - we run a lot on fundraising and because of COVID we lost a lot of that."

For anyone wanting a cuddly kitten to join their family, or to donate, visit the Animal Welfare League NSW - Tamworth Facebook page.