My kitten Rupert is about 6 months old now and I am trying to decide the best time to send him in for the chop he doesnt really go out much yet, and doesnt go further than my garden when he does, although im sure this will change as he grows bolder.  He didnt have a great start in life nutritionally and is still quite small and scrawny, now im wondering whether to postpone his neutering until he has filled out a bit more, does anyone know if this will make a difference on his development ?

Contrary to the generally expressed views about dogs, about leaving them to mature and then having them neutered, it is better to have cats - especially males - neutered early rather than late (although by early, I'm not advocating 3 months, as I have seen suggested in some places) - but 6-7 months.   Males start to spray as the testosterone kicks in - and once they start, there is no stopping them - and you can have a very smelly "tide mark" around your home if you are not careful :D

yeuw gross :(

I think I will book him in after pay day then :)

Whilst on the subject, do you have any tips for weaning him off the litter tray and getting him to go outside ? I completely messed it up with the others (I just took away their tray and they piddled where it used to be :rolleyes: ) I need to leave a tray down at night for when they are shut in but just wondered if you had any tips for getting him to go outside ?

Simple!!  Put a litter tray outside - where you really would like him to go (I know - it looks a bit stupid) and then take it away after 2 or 3 weeks, it seems to work!

yes, thats what I did with the others in the end and mixed a bit of mud in with their litter, I will give it a go :)

I too have the litter tray for night time but when weaning them off, I just made sure I was putting them outside regularly to encourage them-much like a pup- and removed the litter tray.  Apart from the odd neurotic-rescue-cat-peeing-on-my-stairs episode, it worked fine, they soon got the hint!  In fact one cat now refuses to use the litter tray at all!

My kitten Rupert is about 6 months old now and I am trying to decide the best time to send him in for the chop eek he doesnt really go out much yet

Be careful, I would not let him out at ALL -I took in a scrawny rescued male mog once, didn't think much of him not being neutered by 6 months as my pedigrees don't even know what mating is until a year old or more, but he mated one of my Exotics -and funnily enough we ended up calling the kitten we kept Rupert.

The earliest I've had a mog try to mate is 4 months.

I had Archie and Daisy done just before Christmas and they were 6 months old. He WAS a scrawny little thing then and was a bit too woosey for the vets liking afterwards.  But got him home that night and he was up the curtains, in the Christmas tree and all sorts of other naughty kitten things straight away, he'd been lulling us into a false sense of security.  He's now getting taller, longer and leggier and certainly can stand his ground with the big old Eric Cat.  And since his op he's not used the litter tray, he always goes outside, as for Daisy, well outside certainly is not good enough for her toilet!!!!
Fi xxx