Funny Story

The Goodbye Bird

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Domestic cat owners: Why my cat is pregnant? My kittens were ten weeks old! They mated?! How???
Information: Kittens can and will mate. Get your kittens spayed and neutered as soon as possible.

Show cat owners: Why my cat is not pregnant? They're both mature aren't they?
Information: By the way it takes up to 18 months for a male cat to mature enough to produce babies.

The moral of this story is that the point of a cat is to intentionally not do what you want.
 

lutece

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I guess I don't see the humor here... is there a reason for posting in this forum?

Pedigreed males and females can start reproducing just as early as random bred cats. You are exaggerating with ten week old kittens, as these are not going to successfully mate. However, our male sired his first litter at 7 months, and his father sired his first litter at 5 months. We have to be careful to avoid unwanted pregnancies in our pedigreed cats, too.

Random bred cats also have variation in the age of sexual maturity and level of fertility. But if you have a random bred cat and you are not actively trying to breed her, you are not going to notice the times when she doesn't get pregnant... you will only notice when she does get pregnant. While on the other hand, if you are intentionally trying to breed your cat, you will notice every time it doesn't work.
 

lutece

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Young kittens can have a "kitten heat" but they are not going to successfully mate at that age. Some are capable of getting pregnant at four months, though.
 
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The Goodbye Bird

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Young kittens can have a "kitten heat" but they are not going to successfully mate at that age.
I really hope no one knows this for sure. I certainly wouldn't test it and I hope nobody else would either.
 

lutece

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I really hope no one knows this for sure. I certainly wouldn't test it and I hope nobody else would either.
I'm not sure what you are getting at here. The point is that ten week old kittens do not need to be separated from their litter mates. It's best for kittens to remain with mom and littermates until at least 12 weeks. Young kittens may pretend to mount each other, but they are still too immature to mate. It's fine for them to remain together until they are about 14-16 weeks, which is an ideal time for neutering and spaying (if not done earlier) and for them to go to their new homes.
 
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The Goodbye Bird

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If it's just a matter of keeping litters together the males may be the limiting factor. My point is nobody would intentionally try to get a 10-week-old kitten pregnant.
 

Norachan

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My point is nobody would intentionally try to get a 10-week-old kitten pregnant.
Well, no, but I think lutece lutece is correct about a kitten not being able to produce kittens at that age. I've been working with feral colonies and doing TNR for over a decade now and the absolute youngest kittens I've seen pregnant were 5 months, almost 6 months old. So there's no real need to separate male and female litter mates before 12 weeks old. Even left to their own devices they won't get pregnant before that.

Cats are very independent, do-as-you-please creatures though. That's what I love about them.

:)
 
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The Goodbye Bird

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Cats are very independent, do-as-you-please creatures though. That's what I love about them.
I think that's at least part of what we all love about them.

I also love them because they don't poop on the floor.
 
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