Well my kitten is now 7 months old and in the last week her behaviour has changed. I think she's developing into a "woman" so to speak. ;)   As soon as you stroke her she rolls on her back, legs open, and if you play fight her rubbing her belly she growls as if shes not enjoying it but then when you move the hand away she doesnt run off. She's also become very vocal in that she will start meowing at 8.30am every morning but she has biscuits down all the time so its not hunger.

Im wondering if she's lonely or cold at night? She's on her own animal wise (apart from a hamster) so we have been talking about getting another female cat for her. Would having her spayed help with these problems? She will always be a house cat because she is small for her age and we live by a really busy road so spaying her has never been an option before.

As long as she weighs 2 kgs it will be safe to spay her, my vets will not spay kittens until they weigh 2 kgs(the same with Toms but they do need to be entire)My Reg was done quite early as he was a big boned kitten & hit 2 kgs before he was 4 months old. Jaq wasn't spayed until she was nearer 6 months as she is smaller & lighter. If your queen is over 6 months she could start calling & be at risk if she should get out(as she might try to do being in season)

Sounds like she is in call actually. :)

I would always recommend getting cats spayed. I've seen so many young cats get pregnant and are far too young to have that strain on their body. Cats because of their nature and being "out and about" get caught pregnant really quickly.
I'm not sure if it would solve the behaviour issues. It is not something i have have ever experienced with cats. Maybe speak to the vet when you go in for a consultation and book in for the spaying?

>I'm not sure if it would solve the behaviour issues.

As Marianne says, that behaviour is pretty typical of being 'in call' - in season to us doggy people! So spaying would be the appropriate cure ...

:( I was hoping there would be another suggestion rather than having her speyed as I dont want my baby to have an operation! :(

My cat is 2 years, old, she is strictly a house cat & doesn't go outside. She was spayed yesterday - we couldn't cope with watcher her 'calling', each time she was more frustrated and trying to mate with everything in sight, the poor thing would even reverse up to the dogs & rub her bum in thier faces :(
It's not nice putting them through an op, but the benefits for the cat are very big - she wont feel frustrated by not being able to mate and there is no chance of her getting pregnant :)

Apart from the obvious risks of unwanted kittens, cats are not like dogs with their seasons. Obviously, as with all creatures, it will vary from cat to cat, but they come in every two weeks or so and some will be barely noticeable, others can get very distressed to the point of making themselves sick. For the more vocal ones, it is also very unpleasant for the owner and their neighbours.

Neutering is definitely the best option for non-breeding cats.

M.

I was hoping there would be another suggestion rather than having her speyed as I dont want my baby to have an operation! 


Don't worry about the spaying, I remember my female was jumping on chairs etc the moment we brought her home completely unaffected. The female spay just looks bad due to the shaven hair which does take a while to grow back, if you don't have her spayed your cat will become an escape artist wishing to mate or you will have Toms surrounding your home and fighting over her.

A few weeks after the op, you'll forget she ever had it, she will be safe and secure. :-)

> Sounds like she is in call actually. :-)

LOLOL I've always had my kittens spayed as soon as possible so I've never had one that called ;-)

Me niether moonmaiden. From he sounds of it i am glad too!!
Nobody wants to put their animal through an unneccesary op but if your cat goes outside it is only a matter of time before she gets pregnant. With cats it's not if but when. Also, many dont know that they are able toget pregnant straight after they've had a litter. Cats breed like rabbits. You could literally have litter after litter if you dont do something about it.
Spaying sounds like what is definatly needed. It is a simple straightforward op. She will not even b under for very long but will be tired for a few days after while the anaesthetic gets out her system.

> if you don't have her spayed your cat will become an escape artist wishing to mate

very true. as I said my cat is a house cat,(she does occasionally sit in the patio soaking up the sun if I'm in the garden), she doesn't try to get out through open windows/doors unless she is in season - then she is constantly looking to get out :(

She was spayed yesterday and is still very quiet, but I think this is due to her being very shy of strangers (probably due to her being a house cat), I think she is traumatized by being forced to meet the vet :( I know she'll be fine, and she will be much happyier & helthier as when ever she was in season she would barely eat, quite worrying considering she is a tiny skinny cat anyway :(

I don't want to barge in on somebody elses thread, but does anybody know if spaying a cat will have a positive effect on temperment, because my tiny, very cute little cat is a raging bundle of fury :( My son is sporting a nice scar on his face just because he stroked her. She allows me to pick her up and she will sit on my lap, sometimes she wil let me stroke her and sometimes she will bite. (unless she is in season & then she can't get enough fuss)

Thanks guys. I'll ring the vets tomorrow and enquire. I had her feral mum spayed a few months back (cost me 90 quid because of complications!) so I know the process etc. I just dont fancy leaving my baby there in a cage.....maybe Ill get the OH to take her instead!! :)

Mastifflover, We do have a few cat breeders on here, so hopefully MarianneB or someone will come along to say whether I am right or wrong, but over the years I have had 2 female cats and the rest male, I can honestly say the males are the lovely cuddly fluffy cats who would sit on anyone and were overly friendly and both my females were aloof and would only ever come to me and my mum funnily enough, and like yours would happily give other people a good swipe with their claws if they attempted to stroke them.

I just took it to be a female thing. :-)

Yes very often male cats are friendlier as a rule. :)

The thing is, a female cat left unspayed will get ovarian cysts after as soon as 3 years or so, and eventually will almost be guaranteed to get pyometra. It isn't like a dog, you CANNOT leave a queen unspayed without her being bred from -the health risks are much too high. Your average cat breeder will have anything from 3 to 6 or 7 litters from each queen and then spay her. Having one or two litters and not spaying is not an option. Having litters with 2-3 years apart is not an option. (And I do have personal experience of queens getting ill, from cats I desperately WANTED to be mated, but that for one reason or another refused to mate.) I recently attended a seminar for cat breeders/vets etc, speakers all top vets, and controlling oestrus in queens was one of the subjects, and the long and the short of it was, unless you control the calls by some means, the queen must be spayed sooner rather than later. The various way of oestrus control are not very good either. You can inject the queen like you can a dog -lots of possible side effects and the effects lasts 6 months so if there is a problem, it will be 6 months before the effects are gone. Hence this is not recommended. The pill -again risk of pyometra for instance with long term use. Or the only two options left,  simulate mating the queen yourself with a cotton top (yes really), but this will only stop her for 9 weeks at a time, or have a neutered male that will still mate (=quite rare to find) and let him do the deed. None of this is good for long term use, and in the end you still have to spay just like you would a breeding queen.

The HUGE difference with female cats to female dogs is that the more they are allowed to call, the longer each call will last and the more frequently they will occur (it certainly isn't just once every 6 months!), so that you will be going from the normal of one call every 3-4 weeks (lasting 5 days), to a call every fortnight, until eventually you have a queen that goes into one continuous call and NEVER finishes. And as most queens go off their food when in call (and many will also start to spray of they have too many calls), you can imagine how much body condition they lose, on top of all other problems. (Again I do have personal experience of this happening. My very first show cat had 2 CCs and I was chasing the third, and she was of a breed that would become unshowable the older she got due t the colour changing, so I was really hoping for that third CC before she had another litter. Didn't work. She went into continuous call and HAD to be mated by the time she had been calling for 12 weeks, never got her third CC but stayed healthy instead.

So in summary, the risks of NOT spaying are far greater than the risks of the op.

Thanks for that Marianne, I for one have learnt a lot there. :-)

Thanks MarianneB & Carrington :)

Mitzi was spayed yesterday :) as soon as she has stopped calling I booked her in (easy to tell she had stopped, because she bit my mum when she stroked her!! - the day before she sat on mums shoulder rubbing her head all over mums face!!)

I have had cats all my life, but all the others have been spayed as soon as they were old enough, I had no idea how cats behaved when in season before. The first time Mitzi was calling, I thought she had a spinal injury!!!!! I woke up to find her walking with her belly on the floor, her bum stuck out and doing this horrible meow. I had the phone in my hand to ring the vets, then she started to rub her bum on my foot & then the penny dropped - she was after a bit of loving!!!....

> And as most queens go off their food when in call

Mitzi should start to put on some weight then even if she still keeps her evil attitude!! Her coat is in lovely condition, (she's got quite long, fluffy fur), but underneath she's a bag of bones :(

When I was 15 I had a kitten that someone on my friend's street didnt want. I took her home and called her Tinkerbell! Tinkerbell turned out to be a boy! He then started with this funny cough so we took him to the vets thinking it was a fur ball and it turned out to be some sort of cancer. I was devastated. He was 7 months. I think maybe this is why I dont want to leave Phantom at the vets now! I will ring them today and get something sorted with them.

Poor Tinkerbell :(

Phantom will be fine at the vets :) .

It's definately the right thing to do for Phantom, but I do know what you're going through, it is very worrying putting a healthy animal through surgery :(

:( She's booked in for Friday 18th April.