Bonded Pair After Spaying & Neutering?

[war&wisdom]

Good morning,

My two kittens, a male and a female from the same litter, are closely bonded. Their appointments for spaying and neutering are at the end of this month. I'm wondering if there is a possibility that they will not be as closely bonded after their surgeries as a result of hormonal changes or the surgical experience itself. What has been your experience?

Obviously, I will get them spayed and neutered regardless, but this has been on my mind.

Thank you!

 

[Daisy6]

Awww, your kitties are adorable. What are their names?

I never thought about.this, but I do know they will not suddenly become enemies.

 

[silkenpaw]

I agree with Daisy6 , your cats are beautiful! I particularly like the first photo where they are so intertwined, from far away it looks like just one cat. I hope they love each other after they get fixed. My two girls (not littermates, nor exactly the same age) did.

 

[DreamerRose]

My son has two bonded cats, and they were just as close after the neutering as before.

 

[Esther Mechler]

My own experience has been that spaying/neutering does not change the bond that two littermates have. But I reached out to a friend whose group takes on about 600 litters a year in the New Orleans area and her statement was that unequivocally this will not affect that bond. What the surgery does is diminish the hormone-driven behaviors but the bonding is not that - the bonding manifests almost right from the start of their little feline lives. So from here the answer is very clearly that this should not impact that. Please let us know once the surgery is done.

 

[Dr. Phil Bushby]

Good morning,

My two kittens, a male and a female from the same litter, are closely bonded. Their appointments for spaying and neutering are at the end of this month. I'm wondering if there is a possibility that they will not be as closely bonded after their surgeries as a result of hormonal changes or the surgical experience itself. What has been your experience?

Obviously, I will get them spayed and neutered regardless, but this has been on my mind.

Thank you!

There is no way to predict absolutely, but it is highly unlikely that their bonding will change. You don't mention how old the kittens are, but the bonding that occurs when they are under 4 months of age would have nothing to do with sexual attraction. There would be no reason that spay/neuter would change that bonding.

 

[war&wisdom]

There is no way to predict absolutely, but it is highly unlikely that their bonding will change. You don't mention how old the kittens are, but the bonding that occurs when they are under 4 months of age would have nothing to do with sexual attraction. There would be no reason that spay/neuter would change that bonding.

No, I never thought it was a sexual attraction. They're 17 weeks old. I was mainly wondering if the experience of the surgery would affect their temperaments and/or relationship -- but now I've gotten my answer! Thank you.

 

[war&wisdom]

My own experience has been that spaying/neutering does not change the bond that two littermates have. But I reached out to a friend whose group takes on about 600 litters a year in the New Orleans area and her statement was that unequivocally this will not affect that bond. What the surgery does is diminish the hormone-driven behaviors but the bonding is not that - the bonding manifests almost right from the start of their little feline lives. So from here the answer is very clearly that this should not impact that. Please let us know once the surgery is done.

Thank you for your response and for taking the time to get your friend's input! I will certainly update everyone post-surgery. I'm fairly jittery about it, despite my awareness that it's a routine procedure, so I'm ready to get it over with!

 

[war&wisdom]

Awww, your kitties are adorable. What are their names?

I never thought about.this, but I do know they will not suddenly become enemies.

Their names are Ares and Athena!

 

[Norachan]

They are so sweet!

I've had lots of pairs, litters of 4 etc fixed around the same time and they always went back to being good friends. The only thing you might notice is that right after surgery, when they still have all the strange "vet" smells over them, they don't recognise each other.

Keep something that smells very strongly of "home", a t-shirt you've worn or a towel you've used, and pet them all over with this, to get them smelling the way they did before.

Cats go by their sense of smell much more than their eyes when identifying each other.

 

[Daisy6]

Their names are Ares and Athena!

That looks familiar. Daisy's first name was Aspen. Her brother's name was Ace.

 

[Alicia88]

I have a bonded pair. Connor and Murphy were littermates. My aunt gave them to me when they were ready to leave mama and said they'd been inseparable since birth. They were both neutered at 5 months and are now over 2 years old and still completely inseparable. They cuddle, play, and groom each other all the time. Neutering didn't change anything.

 

[Alicia88]

 

[nansiludie]

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If I just saw them, I wouldn't have thought they were brothers. They look nothing alike but are absolutely adorable.

 

[Alicia88]

Nope, they don't look similar at all. Connor is even twice as big as Murphy. Murphy was the only orange baby in a litter of black kittens.

 

[Father of furbabies]

It never affected my two kits as they are still together as they were before the spaying/neutering.

Pre surgery

Post surgery

The pictures are only a month or so apart when taken but they are still like this almost a 6 months later.

 

[catlover73]

I had two brothers that had been in my life since birth and they were very bonded. Neutering did not change the bond at all. They stayed bonded their entire lives for 15 years. I also adopted a young adult female when they were kittens and both of them were very bonded with her. She was a 2nd mom to them when they were babies. Their relationship stayed exactly the same after she was spayed.

 

[lavishsqualor]

The only thing you might notice is that right after surgery, when they still have all the strange "vet" smells over them, they don't recognise each other. Keep something that smells very strongly of "home", a t-shirt you've worn or a towel you've used, and pet them all over with this, to get them smelling the way they did before.

This is absolutely my experience too. Don't panic if they hiss at one another for a day or two after surgery. Once the odd smells of the vet and surgery have dissipated they'll be right back to normal.