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The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Kitten in heat

70 replies

somethingelsethere · 05/03/2021 21:03

Hello!
So I have 2 kittens, bought from the same litter.
They are 10 months old.
I think both are in heat this week, based on a massive change in their behaviour.
They are not spayed. And I wanted them both to have a litter.
But not this young 😩 now I feel awful and scared for them if they have got pregnant, as they're just too young. Now contemplating just getting them spayed and not having any litters as I don't want them getting pregnant too young 😩
When will I be able to tell if they have got pregnant? What are the first signs?
Has anyone had a cat have kittens this young?
I haven't seen any Toms about and don't think there are any that local to us, so they may not have been mated anyway. 🤞😴

OP posts:
Easterbunnygettingready · 05/03/2021 22:23

Our under 2 kg dkitten is currently still on house arrest in 1 room as she isn't 2 kg yet.. Not taking any risks with her health..
And never heard of monthly check ups either... Confused

dementedpixie · 05/03/2021 22:24

@Easterbunnygettingready

Our under 2 kg dkitten is currently still on house arrest in 1 room as she isn't 2 kg yet.. Not taking any risks with her health.. And never heard of monthly check ups either... Confused
Look at the link I posted. There are vets that will neuter at 4 months, no minimum weight mentioned
MissingEsme · 05/03/2021 22:28

What an irresponsible cat owner. Honestly, this infuriates me. If your family want a kitten so much tell them to adopt some of the cats and kittens that are dumped in shelters (if they're lucky). Stop adding to the problem.

Veterinari · 05/03/2021 22:30

@Easterbunnygettingready

Advice will be to neuter at 2 kg... Your vet will not advise you to breed your dkittens at any age op... Fact.
No, it won't necessarily be that Confused
AJTommo · 05/03/2021 22:30

They can get pregnant again within 5 hours of giving birth as well 😞

Veterinari · 05/03/2021 22:31

@sunflowersandbuttercups

Our vets won't neuter or spay until six months old. Both my female and male cats had to wait until then.
Well they didn't. You could have chosen a vet that practices evidence based medicine
activitythree · 05/03/2021 22:33

@sunflowersandbuttercups

Our vets won't neuter or spay until six months old. Both my female and male cats had to wait until then.

There are other vets. In any case it's not relevant here because the cats in question are already 10 months

Bargebill19 · 05/03/2021 22:42

Ours were done during lockdown at 12 weeks.

sunflowersandbuttercups · 05/03/2021 23:30

Well they didn't. You could have chosen a vet that practices evidence based medicine

I didn't post to get a lecture. I was just posting to say that not all practises will neuter at 3/4 months of age 🙈

Anyway, I was more than happy to wait an extra couple of months to have them done.

pilotsprincess · 06/03/2021 00:03

This is disgusting 😫
Truly irresponsible behaviour

Soubriquet · 06/03/2021 03:50

I hate it when people say “it’s nature”

Some girls start their periods at 8. That means they are able to get pregnant

Would you allow an 8 year old to carry a baby?

Course you wouldn’t.

Veterinari · 06/03/2021 08:53

@sunflowersandbuttercups

Well they didn't. You could have chosen a vet that practices evidence based medicine

I didn't post to get a lecture. I was just posting to say that not all practises will neuter at 3/4 months of age 🙈

Anyway, I was more than happy to wait an extra couple of months to have them done.

A two sentence reply is a lecture? Confused I was merely pointing out that your cats didn't have to wait. If you made that choice and are happy with it fair enough. But that's exactly what it is - a choice (and not really relevant to the OP)
Easterbunnygettingready · 06/03/2021 09:13

CPL are paying for mine neutered. The vet there said 2kg. I say again no vet would advocate breeding a dcat.

EachandEveryone · 06/03/2021 10:03

I’ve never heard in my life monthly vet check ups. It makes me feel faint the thought of packing my two off every month.

thecatneuterer · 06/03/2021 12:02

Christ on a bike. Still, in 2021, despite decades of campaigns by animal welfare organisations, despite all of the information now readily available on the internet, we still haven't got the message across that it's not ok to let your cat have a litter. It should by now be as socially unacceptable as drink driving - yet it obviously isn't (well in some circle of course it is, but it's not nearly widespread enough).

It's so very, very depressing.

Firstly, if you let a cat in heat go outside she will be chased and gang raped by hoards of toms. I've seen it. They form a sort of V formation and chase the poor female with no regard for traffic or anything else. Often, if they avoid being run over, the female ends up so far from home she becomes lost, and ends up giving birth as a stray, where her kittens will either be eaten by foxes or will go on to form a feral colony.

Yes that is 'nature', but nature, most of the time, isn't very nice. If humans didn't interfere with nature constantly then our lives would be (to paraphrase a quote) short, unpleasant and brutish.

Then, even if she survives that ordeal (and it really is an ordeal) she may be end up with FIV (like human HIV) as this is carried by most unneutered toms and is passed on during mating.

Then, assuming she has an uneventful birth (which is by no means guaranteed) and she will spend a couple of months raising her kittens, which will then be taken from her. This really does cause distress. If you think a cat will benefit from giving birth you are very wrong.

And then of course there are all the extra kittens in the world. At the moment you could be forgiven for thinking there aren't many kittens around, because there aren't. That's because cats are seasonal breeders. They are starting to give birth now, and this will carry on until end October. As they need to be at least two months old before they can be taken from their mother then most kittens won't be available until mid April at the earliest. Of course there are always some born out of season but not many. By mid May there will be unwanted kittens everywhere. If your family want kittens OP they could adopt some from rescues then. That way your family will be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

Vinorosso74 · 06/03/2021 13:03

thecatneuterer very well put and likely written more politely than what was in your mind!

thecatneuterer · 06/03/2021 13:14

@gettingfedupagain

Cats don't go on heat.

Cats ovulate AFTER sex.

They are probably pregnant.

That is a misunderstanding of what happens. Cats do indeed ovulate after sex, but they do have heat cycles which aren't, as I understand it, brought on by ovulation. So cats, very definitely, do go on heat.
VimFuego101 · 06/03/2021 20:47

If your family wanted kittens that badly, they would have thought hard about it, researched it and adopted from one of the many rescue shelters. Just because they will take a kitten if offered doesn't mean they are really interested enough to make sure they give a cat a good home and neuter/ spay it.

Stellaris22 · 06/03/2021 21:13

If family want a cat why can't they rehome? Get your cats neutered and stop being so irresponsible.

violetbunny · 07/03/2021 04:47

This thread makes me despair Sad Please get your cats spayed before they get pregnant.

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