when to fix my kittens?

cc&lelouch

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i have two babies. 8 weeks today. brother and sister. i’ve been told many different answers on when to get them fixed. the most concerning thing to me is someone told me if i get them fixed as kittens they won’t hit puberty and grow to their full sizes. also they are 1000000% indoor only cats. please give me ur thoughts and advice !!
 

LTS3

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TCS has an article: When To Spay Or Neuter A Cat? – TheCatSite Articles

Some vets will spay and neuter when a kitten is at least 2 lbs. Other vets wait until 6 months old. Talk to your vet about the best age to spay and neuter your kittens. Before 6 months is ideal because some females can start showing signs of heat early.

All cats will reach puberty and grow to a normal adult size regardless if they have been spayed / neutered or not.
 

Kieka

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For boys, I like to do it as soon as they can. Typically that's 8 weeks or 2 pounds for most sources and I just do a spay/neuter clinic. My reasoning is that younger kittens bounce back very quickly from surgery and for males the surgery is minimally invasive. I'd rather take care of it before the chance of any negative anything happening. There is a rumor that early neuter impacts future risk of Urinary problems for boys. It is an exaggerated statement, there is a minor impact but nothing that can't be mitigated with a proper diet and water intake.

For girls, I like to do it as young as my vet is comfortable which will vary by vet. Again, I want to take care of it before any problems develop. Girls do have an increased risk of breast cancer once they've had a heat cycle and that risk does increase with more heat cycles. Ideally, I want to spay females before their heat cycle and as young as possible because it decreases their healing time typically. However, I like my personal vet to do females because I've had bad experiences with the clinics when it comes to females. Really it was one bad one with a nasty jagged scar and intestinal issues that started after the spay (and didn't exist before it) but it was bad enough it isnt worth the cost savings for the risk. I've done spay with my vet since and tiny scars plus not problems. Also, not sure if it applies to cats but my rabbit vet mentioned, vet prefer 5 to 6 months for females because the uterus is a little more developed so it is easier to ensure they got everything and find it. My male rabbit was neutered at 7 weeks and my female at 6 months because of the vets preference. Which would be another reason for vets to push back on younger if it is true for cats too and a reason to wait.
 

arr

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Our low cost neuter/spay clinic will do it at 3 pounds or 3 months, which ever comes first. We did our two kittens at 4 months. If you’re worried about them not growing to their full size, don’t be. Our boy grew to almost 17 pounds and our girl close to 14 pounds. They are bigger than their mama, who is 12 pounds. I think it’s more about feeding them well. I credit our cat’s sizes to genetics ( we saw the father, he was a big cat) and the fact that we feed mostly wet, pate style cat food which will give them much more protein to build their bodies than only feeding dry.
 

goingpostal

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Talk to your vet, I would get them done young, it's easiest on recovery and less risk of them starting to spray if allowed to hit maturity intact, you'd also want to be sure to get at least one of them done before 6 months since you have one of each sex. My Bengal was spayed after her first heat at 7 months and she was already spraying then.
 

fionasmom

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My cat vet does spaying and neutering at 4 months. Some of the belief that early surgery will impact growth has spilled over from the dog world where it is common not to fix a male dog until he is 2 years old because of bone growth.

If your kittens eventually go into heat, you will have to make sure that breeding does not occur. It is not that much fun to have sexually mature unfixed cats in the house.
 
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