When To Have Your Cat Neutered
Most cats , can be neutered from 4 months old. Neutering at this age has many benefits, especially for female cats, however, its always important to discuss the decision with your vet because exact timings should be based on a number of different factors, including:
- Weight: The risk of anaesthetic can be slightly higher in small kittens, so your vet may recommend waiting until your cat is a certain weight before they are neutered. Its also important they are healthy shape because overweight cats have a higher anaesthetic risk and more chance of complications during surgery.
- Other health conditions: if your cat is suffering from another health condition it may change their ideal neutering time.
Can 2 Male Cats Live Together
Will two male cats get along? But male cats that have lived previously with other male cats should be more inclined to accept a new male companion. Two males who are raised together will be attached at the hip. If you currently have an adult male, you should be able to bring in a male kitten without any trouble.
Getting Your Female Cat Spayed
To stop your female cat from having kittens, she’ll need to have a simple operation known as ‘spaying’ before she turns four months old. This is also known as ‘fixing’, ‘neutering’ or ‘being done’.
When your cat is about four months old, she’ll start to attract the attention of tomcats, who’ll want to mate with her. This is why it’s important to have her spayed before she reaches four months, so she doesn’t get pregnant while she’s still a kitten herself.
You may have heard that it’s good for female cats to have a litter of kittens before they are spayed, but this isn’t true. Once she’s been spayed, your kitten will be able to do all the things cats enjoy doing, like going outdoors, climbing trees and playing.
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How Are Spaying And Neutering Different
When we talk about getting a cat ‘fixed’ what does that actually mean?
Spay
When we fix female cats it’s called spaying. Spaying means that the vet surgically removes the cat’s uterus and ovaries, or sometimes just the ovaries, so that your cat is unable to have kittens.
Neuter
Male cats are neutered or castrated when we get them fixed. This means that the vet surgically removes the cat’s testes so that your cat is no longer able to father kittens.
Are 2 Cats Better Than 1
They are not very tolerant of outsiders and are less likely to cohabit harmoniously with a cat that they are not related to. For this reason, the best combination of cats is actually littermates and if you are taking on more than one kitten it is certainly better to consider taking on two from the same litter.
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Should You Worry About This
As an owner, it can be quite problematic to see your pet having balls even after you got it neutered,
Still, it is likely due to how the vet performed the surgery. In general, its nothing but empty sacs, and the testes have been removed from the inside.
As a general rule of thumb, the testicles got removed, and its just the sac that remains. Most veterinarians do it this way to avoid accidentally damaging the anus or urethra.
Determining The Cause Of The Spraying
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Here Are The Top 5 Reasons You Should Have Your Pet Neutered:
Cats are typically neutered around 5-6 months of age, though some shelters will do it much earlier as an effort to help control overpopulation.
Why Do My 2 Male Cats Keep Fighting
Territory: Cats are territorial animals and they will often fight to defend what they believe is their territory. This is most common with cat fights that happen outside the house, where your cat believes another cat has encroached on their land. Male cats are especially aggressive and these cats keep fighting.
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See To It That Cats Have All The Resources They Need
Cats tend to spray urine when there are insufficient resources this usually happens in a multi-cat household. To resolve this, see to it that each cat has its own food and drink bowls, toys, bedding and litter box. Provide cat trees and hiding places where they can escape in the event of confrontations with other cats.
Should You Get Your Cat Fixed
About 3.2 million cats arrive at US animal shelters annually, according to the ASPCA .
Spaying or neutering your cat is the absolute best way to help reduce the number of unwanted cats in the Baltimore area.
That said, the benefits of spaying and neutering your pet don’t stop at controlling the population. Having your kitten fixed can help to curb many undesirable cat behaviors and help to reduce the risk of your cat developing numerous serious health issues.
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Dr Jennifer Coates Dvm
Dr. Jennifer Coates, DVM, serves on the advisory board for Cat Life Today. Dr. Coates believes neutering is best.
Heres what she said, Kitten neuters are simple surgeries. Kittens only need to be anesthetized for a few minutes and recover quickly.
Veterinarians may perform vasectomies as part of the management of feral cat colonies, but for pet cats neutering is best.
Dr. Jennifer Coates, DVM
According to Dr. Coates, Post-operative complications are rare. For owned cats, the benefits of neutering include not only stopping reproduction but also problematic reproductive behaviors like spraying, yowling, aggression, and roaming. Alternatives to neutering, like vasectomies, will prevent unwanted litters but not these problematic behaviors. Veterinarians may perform vasectomies as part of the management of feral cat colonies, but for pet cats neutering is best. For interested owners, testicular implants are available that maintain the look of an intact male cats scrotum.
Whats the Best Age to Adopt a Puppy?
What Is The Right Age For Neutering
Traditionally, male cats were neutered between the ages of six to eight months old, and it was not considered appropriate for them to be neutered before this time, due to concerns that they were potentially too small, or not fully developed.
However, the six month of age figure for neutering did not come about for any particular reason, as unlike dogs, male cats do not need to reach this age in order to begin the necessary hormone production to enable growth and development.
As soon as your cats testes have both descended and are palpable, usually around the size of two peas, male cats can be neutered, and today, the vast majority of veterinary clinics will perform neutering on male cats from the age of four months old, or to put it another way, within a couple of weeks of the cat having had the second of their two-stage initial vaccinations.
This has proven to be a good thing in particular for kittens in rehoming shelters, as it means that the shelter can guarantee that the kitten is neutered without having to rely upon the new owners doing this later on, and that the kittens can go to their new homes already neutered whilst still at the small, cute stage of development!
Male cats can of course be castrated as adults, assuming that they are in good health and that there are no problems, and if you own or adopt an unneutered adult male cat, there is no time that is generally considered too late to have them castrated.
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Sexual Activity In Cats After Spay Or Neuter
A cat’s reproductive organs are removed during a spay or neuter. This means the cat’s body should no longer produce sexual hormones. If the cat reached reproductive age prior to sterilization, there may be residual hormones right after surgery. These hormones may cause the cat to temporarily continue some sexual behaviors. Sex hormone levels should fade over the weeks following surgery, eliminating the cat’s sex drive.
If a female cat continues to show signs of heat several weeks after she was spayed, there is a possibility that some active ovarian tissue is present in her abdomen. This is called Ovarian Remnant Syndrome. It does not mean that a mistake was made during surgery it often occurs because of additional ovarian tissue or cells in the abdomen that became activated after the ovaries were removed. If a vet determines that a cat has Ovarian Remnant Syndrome, the treatment is to perform another surgery to remove the remaining ovarian tissue.
A spayed cat may show signs of sexual activity or heat if she was exposed to hormone creams or medications. If you have hormones like estrogen or progesterone in your home, keep them out of your cat’s reach. If you use a topical hormone cream, make sure your cat does not lick the area you applied.
Contact your vet’s office for advice if your spayed female is showing signs of estrus.
Spaying And Neutering: The Bottom Line
Spaying and neutering can help keep your cat healthier and safer and you dont end up with more kittens than you can count. To be on the safe side, get your cat spayed or neutered before theyre six months old. If youre wondering when to spay a cat or when to neuter a cat, speak to your local veterinarian.
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Check For The Testicles
If your male cat gets neutered, you should feel the genital region to see it yourself.
To do this, you need to look for the testicle sac. Its below the tail and anus and above the penis. The testicle sac should look like a small bag.
As soon as you located it, you can pick it up and gently feel whats inside. If there are hard balls inside, your cat still has the testicles, and it is not neutered.
However, if its soft, he most likely got neutered recently. This case is usually accompanied by a shaved scrotum as well.
If there is no sac to get held, he may have got neutered more than a month, and the sac has gone flat.
Are Boy Cats More Loving
Myth: Male cats are more affectionate towards humans and bond really well with their owners. Female cats are aloof and, because of their mothering instincts, prefer other cats to humans. Reality: This usually comes down to your cat’s individual personality. … Just like wild cats, our feline friends tend to be loners.
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What Age Can Cats Be Neutered
Cats become sexually mature from the age of around five months. In order to prevent unwanted pregnancies, its recommended that cats are neutered at around four months old, after they have completed their primary vaccinations. Some vets still recommend spaying at five or six months and its quite safe to neuter older cats.
Benefits Of Spaying Your Female Cat
Population Control
Your tiny little kitten may actually be mature enough to have kittens of her own before she is even six months old. By spaying your female cat before she is mature enough to have kittens, you help to reduce the population of unwanted cats in your neighborhood.
Not only that, female cats can have as many as four litters a year. When we consider that the average litter can range in size from two kittens to as many as ten kittens, that is a staggering number of unwanted cats.
Animal Health
Spaying your kitten before she has her first heat can help to reduce her risk of pyometra as well as mammary tumors. It’s also important to note that female cats carrying infectious diseases can pass serious conditions on to their kittens who go on to spread the disease even further. Pregnancy and the birth process can be risky for young cats, and costly to their owners.
Save Wildlife
It is estimated that cats in the USA kill between 1.4 billion and 3.7 billion birds each year. Keeping the numbers of homeless cats to a minimum can help to save the lives of countless birds and other wildlife.
Deter Nuisance Behaviors
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Benefits Of Neutering Your Male Cat
Population Control
While male cats don’t actually have kittens themselves, one unneutered male cat in your neighborhood can make many female cats pregnant. That’s why neutering male cats is as important as spaying females when it comes to population control!
Health Issues
Neutering your male cat may help slow the spread of serious cat diseases such as Feline immunodeficiency virus and Feline leukemia virus that are often spread between cats during fights. Neutering can help to reduce cat aggression and may mean fewer injuries from fighting. Neutered males also tend to stay closer to home which helps to reduce their risk of being injured by vehicles.
Deter Undesirable Behaviors
Unneutered male cats typically spray inside the home more than neutered males and may be aggressive towards their owners. Having your male kitten neutered while young can help to prevent these behaviors from starting. Also, male cats who are not neutered, frequently roam over large areas in search of unspayed females to mate with. These males will spray to mark their territory and often fight with other male cats which can be bothersome, noisy, and smelly.
Spay Or Neuter Your Cats
None of these numbers so far has touched on the population of feral or homeless cats, of which there might be as many as 30 million to 40 million. Fewer than 2 percent of these cats have been fixed. Beyond all doubt, spaying your female cats and neutering your male cats are two of the most important and responsible things you can do as cat owners. Not only does getting your cats fixed contribute to minimizing shelter populations, but it can also prevent spraying in male cats and reproductive cancers in females.
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Do You Want To Adopt A Male Kitten
If you have an un-neutered male cat at home and you want to adopt another male kitten, it’s advisable to get the adult castrated as soon as possible.
Besides the jealousy that it may feel for the new arrival, the older male will feel impelled to profusely mark its territory all over your home so that the newcomer is left with a very clear understanding of the hierarchy.
I Have Unneutered Female And Male Cats In My Household What Should I Do To Avoid Unwanted Pregnancies
If you have an unneutered male and female in the same household, have them neutered as soon as they reach 4 months old. If this isnt possible, and your female cat comes on heat, its essential to keep your cats apart at all times to stop them from mating. Please remember that related cats will mate, including brothers, sisters, fathers and daughters.
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Henry The Humping Cat
I’ve had two male cats that were fixed and yet they continued to mount and hump. At first, it seemed funny, but then it became annoying.
My late cat, Santapaws, was a stray. He was a very gentle and mild-mannered cat. Santapaws didn’t want to hump humans his preference was stuffed animals or mounds of blankets and other comfy items. Usually, I left him alone and just let him do his thing.
It wasn’t until we adopted Henry that this activity really started to bother me. Henry is roughly three years old and about 15 lbs. He’s a larger boy. I don’t have dates or paperwork on when he was fixed, but I assume it was when he was just a little kitty. About four months after we got Henry, he starting trying to mount up. I was his favorite target! Henry is not by nature an alpha male. He gets skittish around new people and sounds. He is afraid of ceiling fans . I’ve had “play dates” with him and other cats, and he is not dominant at all. Neither was Santapaws.
Instead of having a nice, warm lap kitty, I had a maniac that wouldn’t stop! He was climbing at me and mounting any limb he could get his paws on, every chance he could get. When I pulled away or shooed him, he’d get upset and make mad mewing sounds and evil faces at me. Within minutes, he’d be back to try it again! He followed me from chair to couch. At night when I tried to sleep, he’d go after my feet. Something had to change!