Rehoming a queen - advice please!

[brogueish]

I've posted before about the difficulty of adopting an adult cat from the rescues. It's now been a year of looking and despite being a fairly experienced cat owner (my beautiful old rescue lady was with me until 19) we've had no luck finding a suitable adoptee.

A 1.5 year old female has just appeared on Gumtree, used to young children so that's OK, but she's already had two litters!!! I didn't realise people didn't automatically spay pet cats! Obviously we would get this sorted asap but my concern is what to expect and how to manage it. Would it be very stressful for the cat to rehome then operate, should I ask the current owner to do it first, what if she comes to us on heat?! I have zero experience with queens so would love some advice.

It doesn't sound as though she's had any booster vaccinations so I'd be starting from scratch with that too, I think. Cost of these is not a problem.

Anything else we should be aware of taking on a young female that's had litters already, physically or temperamentally?

I was going to call our old vet for their thoughts tomorrow, but wanted to know if this might not work at all in the first place.

Thank you.

She'll be fine. Get her spayed straight away. Vaccinate her a month or so later. Poor girl. Just get her away from her irresponsable owners.

You are massively overthinking. Just take her and get her booked in to be spayed asap while making triple sure she can't get out in the meantime. Don't leave any windows even slightly open (unless on draught lock). I would keep her in one, very secure room, until she is done. It doesn't make a difference to spaying if she is in heat or not.

And yes, where I live getting cats routinely neutered is more the exception than the rule. That's why East London has such a horrific stray and feral problem. You're lucky that in your world that is something unusual.

Thank you both for the posts - this is so very helpful. Yes, I realise I'm likely over thinking but after all this time just want to get things right. Thank you for the reassurance!

Their not expecting money for her are they?. It sounds like they’ve already had their pound of flesh out of her.

And yes, where I live getting cats routinely neutered is more the exception than the rule.
Same round here too. The amount of heavily pregnant TINY cats wandering round is heartbreaking.

Agree, get her booked in for a spay ASAP. Once she is spayed she will be no different temperamentally or physically from a cat that was spayed at puberty.

I adopted a cat from rescue who'd had more than a dozen litters she was 14 and came with a 1 year old from her last litter. She was spayed and vaccinated it was fine.

@fluffycloudland777 Well yes - the ad was posted last night and they were asking £150 for her, but I've just looked again to message the owner and it's now £250. Something isn't sitting quite right with me.

Oh shit. You shouldn't pay anything. Irresponsible arseholes shouldn't be rewarded for irresponsible behaviour - not least because it will encourage a repeat of it. But then I worry about her if she is left with them.

Probably hoping to start a bidding war. Shocking behaviour - they've used her as a kitten factory and now they're trying to wring the last bit of profit from her .

£250? Plus £100 for spaying and vaccinations?.

Does she even exist?.

£250!!! I also wonder if it's a scam.....
Rescues ask for a fee say £75 and the cat will have been vaccinated, neutered and chipped. If she does exist the current owners are taking the piss. Have they said the reasons for wanting to rehome? Something isn't quite right....Message them asking if she is still available and see what they say.

I ask for 80 € for a spayed, tested, vaccinated and identified male cat. 120 euros for a female. These people are disgusting.

I had two queens from a kitten farm. They had bit been well treated. They'd never lived in a house before. So it took a long time for them to gain confidence. And had ongoing health issues with them. But they were wonderful. Every little behaviour that is normal cat behaviour is a big thing for Magic. She's learning to play and was mugging my mum for ham the other day. It's taken five years. But worth it.
However mine are Persians, so completely different to normal cats.

Mine were £200 from a specialist breed rescue. But they are beautiful examples of Persians.

Gumtree?

Lots of people rehome Queens who are pregnant with another litter when they don’t want to deal with kittens again.

If you rehome a retired Queen insist on proof of spaying from the vet.

Yes, this is a moggy and honestly that's fairly average price-wise for cats as far as I can see (not from rescues of course). I have been trying with rescues for a long time now - this is definitely not the preferred route. Non pedigree kittens round here are going up to a grand, it's just insane and with the tier restrictions we're a bit limited. Lockdown demand I guess. I think this one probably isn't for us though as lovely as she sounds, and I hadn't even considered she could be pg again! Thank you all.

Don't let the fact that she might be pregnant again put you off (but by all means let the price do it). Even if she is, unless she is massively so, she can just have a spay/abortion. She wouldn't know anything about it.

It all sounds dodgy to me Op. You are obviously a cat lover (as am I!) but please be careful here, you could end up being scammed.

Or someone who wants to use her to have more kittens might buy her 😒