pregnant cat not pinking?

[ragdolls4life]

Hello to all! My name is Kyla and I am new to TCS. Please forgive my incorrect grammar as my phone is being slow and has to catch up to my typing!

So,on to my question. I am breeding Ragdolls and my queen is possibly pregnant with her first litter. This is my first litter as well. She is showing all signs and symptoms except for pinking. She would only be 4 weeks along. Her nipples were not at all noticeable pre-pregnancy. Now I can barely feel them when petting her stomach. They are about as long as a grain of rice, cut in half. They were white, and are now a VERY pale pink. I just dont think of this as pinking. Do first time mommies tend to pink up later in pregnancy? I have talked to both my mentors about this, but I still would like the opinions of other experienced breeders as well. Plus I wanted to introduce myself to TCS!

Another concern I have is if she, by chance is not pregnant, it would probably be due to both my stud and queen being inexperienced. I just dont feel comfortable allowing my queen to mate with another breeder's stud. Nor am I comfortable allowing my stud to breed an unknown queen. So the only way they can gain experience is with each other. So my question is, can I help them 'figure it out' somehow? I do want my queen to have a successful mating soon because she is 19 months old and I dont want her at risk of any health issues because I let her go into heat too many times without mating. I just wanted to be sure she was physically and mentally ready for pregnancy. I do have another future queen that I would try with my stud, but she is only 11 months old so I do not want to breed her just yet. I honestly think my queen (Bella) is pregnant. She hasnt been back in heat since they mated. Maybe as a first time breeder, im just being a worry wart amd I may just need to let nature take its course. But ill post some photos and may e some experienced breeders can share some insight on if she looks preg or not.

update:Im not able to upload photos. possibly because im new to the site. Hopefully ill be able to soon!

Thanks in advance,
Kyla

 

[handsome kitty]

The nipples change on day 21.

 

[biancavd]

Nipples change color around 3 weeks. However, some start at 2 weeks already while others start at 4 weeks. So your girl may be later. It also rarelt happens that nipples don't pink up obviously, but they should slowly start to grow bigger.

Can you picture her nipples for me? I can take a look for you to see whether it has started to change or not.

For experience there isn't really anything you can do. To cats it's nature and it all happens on instinct. How old is your male?

Does your girl have any more signs of pregnancy? It's also possible she's experiencing a phantom pregnancy and therefor missed her next heats.

 

[Sarthur2]

It sounds like she may be pregnant. If so, her belly will begin to show roundness on either side at around 5 weeks along. You're really in a wait and see situation.

 

[ragdolls4life]

Can you picture her nipples for me? I can take a look for you to see whether it has started to change or not.

**Unfortunately im unable to upload photos. Im also not able to send photos in a PM yet. I sent abby a message and im awaiting her response so hopefully soon I can upload some photos for you to see. Im also workinh on having this thread moved over to the breeders fourm since I was givin early access to it.


How old is your male?

** My male is 2 years and 4 months. He has never sprayed (except for inside his litter box) so I allow him free range of the house. So I didnt actually witness the presumed mating. Thsts the price I have to pay for not caging him. But I just dont want him to have to be caged if hes not hurting anything or anyone. So anyway, I just went by when I knew my Bella was in heat, and when I saw them trying to mate. and when she stopped her heat a few days later, I figured they had been successful sometime at night when I was asleep. My male has started trying to mount her over the past 2 weeks. But Bella dosent even give it the time of day. She will litterly just sleep through it. But he never actually gets to her. When she was in heat she was receptive of him. Now she isnt. I just chalked his behavior up to him only having 1 queen who I allow him to breed. So he is juse mounting whoever he has access to, Heat or no heat, due to hormones. He will have access to my second queen in a few more months though. And ill be getting a third future queen for him in a couple of weeks. I plan on having 4 or 5 for him in all. so he will be happy.



Does your girl have any more signs of pregnancy? It's also possible she's experiencing a phantom pregnancy and therefor missed her next heats.


** She is showing other signs of pregnancy. She is eating more than twice the amount of food she use to eat. I have her of royal canin Ragdoll dry food (always out) and I switch between wellness, royal canin, and blue buffalo wet kitten food. She eats 4 cans a day and a small bag of dry food every 2 weeks. She use to never really eat the dry. And the other cats dont care for it either unless im out all day and am not there to feed them on time :-\ and they hold a grudge when that happens! Lol

Anither sign she is showing is her being more clingy. Shes always been a mommas baby so in some ways its hard to notice a difference. But one thing is, she has always slept between my feet. And the past 3 weeks or so, she has been on my pillow until she gets hot, then moves to my nightstand right beside my head.

She has been sleeping almost constantly for 3 weeks. Id day at least 18 to 20 hours a day.

Her belly is firm and is bigger on the sides. Her "fatty pendant" on her belly now has little hard places in it which I assume are her mammary glands.

She is still playful in the few hours that she is awake. But she has always been an extremely playful cat.

I hope this information helps some. I wish i could get the pics to you somehow! It dosent look like pinking to me. But this is my first litter amd it may just be happening slowly. I have noticed very small changes in them. If I dont see her pink up in 2 weeks max, im going to take her in for an ultrasound. Im putting it off because when she is pregnant and I know for sure, I wl be taking her in for ultrasound regardless so I will knkw how many kittens to expect and to be sure they are developing like they should be. So I dont want to have to do the ultrasound anymore than absolutely necessary.

I REALLY appreciate your help! I hope your still able to follow my thread once it gets moved to the breeders fourm. And as soon as im able to upload photos, I will get them posted.

 

[biancavd]

The signs sound good, it does sound like she is pregnant to me. However, all the signs mentioned above can also point to a phantom pregnancy and it could be that that is the reason her nipples aren't lighting up. If she really is pregnant for 4 weeks now, she will start to show a bigger belly very soon. If you feel the belly (just softly will do) it should kind of feel like a balloon by now. So no longer soft and squizzy but more like round and balloonlike. If it doesn't feel like such yet, it will come this week if she really is pregnant. Keep in mind that if it's only a small litter she won't get really big and you might not even be able to tell.

I'll await the pictures, and I'll make sure to keep this topic in my subscriptions so I can follow. I'm a breeder myself, so I should probably go to the breeder section more often anyway haha. One of my girls is nearly 6 weeks pregnant. If yours is pregnant too, we can play the waiting game together =^^= Makes time go by a little faster

 

[ragdolls4life]

The signs sound good, it does sound like she is pregnant to me. However, all the signs mentioned above can also point to a phantom pregnancy and it could be that that is the reason her nipples aren't lighting up. If she really is pregnant for 4 weeks now, she will start to show a bigger belly very soon. If you feel the belly (just softly will do) it should kind of feel like a balloon by now. So no longer soft and squizzy but more like round and balloonlike. If it doesn't feel like such yet, it will come this week if she really is pregnant. Keep in mind that if it's only a small litter she won't get really big and you might not even be able to tell.

I'll await the pictures, and I'll make sure to keep this topic in my subscriptions so I can follow. I'm a breeder myself, so I should probably go to the breeder section more often anyway haha. One of my girls is nearly 6 weeks pregnant. If yours is pregnant too, we can play the waiting game together =^^= Makes time go by a little faster

Thank you! Ill keep close watch on her belly for the next week or so. Ill do some research on phantom pregnancies to see what I can do to show her that sjes not actually preg. My grandmother had a dog who experienced a false pregnancy. She got milk and everything! Then her little stuffed animal toys became her babies! When we would throw one to play fetch with her, she would look at us like we were insane and take the baby to her bed and lick it! It was so adorable but sad at the same time. She was spayed so it was really strange!

But anyhow, I would love to keep in touch so that we can make time pass faster! The waiting is killing me!
What breed of cats do you have? (It didnt look right to ask what breed do you breed lol) but im asking what breed your working with! :-)

 

[ragdolls4life]

[quote name="Biancavd" url="/t/305304/pregnant-cat-not-pinking#post_3827832" Keep in mind that if it's only a small litter she won't get really big and you might not even be able to tell.
[/quote]

I was thinking the same thing. I know someone who's cat had a litter of 2 and she NEVER even looked preg. Just a tad bit chubby. And this being bellas first litter, I thought maybe it could be a small one. Plus she is still very young, and I know that can sometimes play a role in litter size.
So i guess its still a waiting game! Man I wish my cats could talk to me! Haha