# Yikes! How young can males impregnate females?



## Ricoh

Simple question: At what (minimum) age can a male cat get a female pregnant?

We just had one of our 3 1/2 mo. old male kittens try to mount his mama... :yikes 

So, you're thinking, "why on earth aren't your cats fixed?!" I wish we could.

Mama and kittens adopted us (Mama literally dragged them to our home one night in the rain) when the kittens were about 4 weeks old (by the 1lb per week weight estimation method). Mama was very malnourished and nursing 5 kittens, so we fed her and got her feeling better. A couple weeks later, one of her intestines twisted up requiring emergency surgery. So the vet said we should not spay her for 2 months to give her immune system time to get back to normal. We had the surgery booked, but unfortunately, she had some complications a few weeks post-op, and is still fighting bacteria in her gut that won't seem to go away (and nobody's been able to identify...), so neither vet we deal with is comfortable spaying her until that is cleared up and her poops are solid.

And, the little guys are too young to neuter. We have a vet that specializes in anesthesia (teaches it at the local university as well) who _could_ do it before 4 months, but even she is not very comfortable with that.

Mama doesn't seem to be in heat at the moment, and I never imagined the little guys would develop such "urges" so early. So, is there a real risk of her getting pregnant at this point? I never wanted to have to know this much about feline reproduction.


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## Heidi n Q

First I was: 8O Then I was like: :lol: ...and this is all I've got: :? 

There is always going to be the ones that break the rules and have the ability to breed early, but I had thought in young male cats this didn't really happen until around 5-8mo old. Is he just 'practicing' his grown-up-lady's-man/cat moves? ...maybe trying to establish dominance? Play? I really don't know. Can you keep them seperated until Mamma kitty could get spayed?

_...I remember your story of her bringing the kitties to you and then her surgery._


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## Ricoh

Really, really hoping you're right about the "practice" part!!

Keeping them separated is near impossible in this house. Last time we tried that we tried everything we could think of. The thing that (almost) worked was building a 7' wall of cardboard, and that drove both us and cats absolutely cuh-RAY-zee.

And, thank you for remembering. :luv


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## Heidi n Q

Okay, I did a brief Google search and found 5mo to be the general age... but that is the only one I found. (didn't look that hard, sorry)


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## doodlebug

1 lb per week weight estimation? If the kittens were 4 lbs, they were a lot older than 4 weeks....more like 4 months, which would make the little guy the right age for this kind of behavior. 

Rescues neuter kittens at much younger ages all the time without any consequences. Usually require them to be 2lbs, your vet is really being over cautious.


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## Ricoh

doodlebug said:


> 1 lb per week weight estimation? If the kittens were 4 lbs, they were a lot older than 4 weeks....more like 4 months, which would make the little guy the right age for this kind of behavior.


Sorry, I mistyped that. Should have said 1lb per month, not 1lb per week. They were all almost exactly 1lb when we first weighed them. A week later, they were 1lb 4-5oz.



doodlebug said:


> Rescues neuter kittens at much younger ages all the time without any consequences. Usually require them to be 2lbs, your vet is really being over cautious.


Perhaps.


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## marie73

My twins were spayed at 9 weeks by their rescue organization. That's when they each weighed at least two pounds (had to wait for Cali to catch up).


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## P&R

I always thought the general rule for getting kitties fixed was 2lbs/2mos, I'd talk to a local rescue and see what you can get done. Also I thought that at about 4 months they start to exhibit behavior for mating but can't actually mate till about 5-6 months, not 100% on that, though. Good luck and hopefully it's just practice and you can get them fixed before there's an oops. Also home mama recovers from whatever it is that ails her


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## vabird

At 3 1/2 months, your kitten is no longer considered pediatric and can be treated, anesthetically, as an adult. I'm also surprised at the hesitantcy of your vet but if they're not comfortable with it for some reason, I wouldn't push it.


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## hoofmaiden

My vet WILL do it early, but only in cases like Ricoh's where there is danger of cats getting preggers. There IS slightly more risk from anesthesia with smaller animals -- that's just a fact. The slight risk is worth it for shelters or for people w/ multiple unaltered cats, but may not be worth it for pet owners with indoor cats, the rest of whom are already altered. I won't be neutering Jonah until he's 6 mos old or so. 

So perhaps the vet here just doesn't understand that there is a genuine risk of pregnancy here? Or perhaps look for a spay/neuter clinic--they do 2 month old cats DAILY and probably have more experience w/ doing so than most other vets.


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## librarychick

A lot of this depends on your area.

The ONLY place in my area that will spay/neuter under 5 months is the humane society...and they don't do outside animals, only ones they are going to adopt out. It's just not something that's done here.

The youngest they will do cats is males a 5 months, females at 6. And that's the local spay/neuter clinic.

I don't think the vet is being over cautious. If they don't feel they can safely do this then they shouldn't be telling you they can. Some vets do learn how to do it on young animals, but none of the ones in my area that are available to the public feel comfortable doing it.

(PS. I live in Edmonton, Canada. Not somewhere out in the middle of no where.)

As for what to do. Find a way to keep them apart. Swap him and mum in and out of a room so each gets roaming time. If you have to do it then that's what has to be done. I do understand how tough it is, but if Mum is already ill the alternative could be much worse for her.


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## madpiano

Here in the UK they don't snip them until they are 6 months old. I was going to have mine done earlier as he was so aggressive, but 2 vets refused to do it before then, so I gave up and in the end he was 9 months old.


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## trishool

Thats wild. He may be instinctively trying to mount but I dont think he will be able to impregnate (not sure). There is probably nothing there. In any case, you should probably wait for 4-6 months before you get him fixed. No need to endanger the kitten's health because he is trying to practice for later.


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## mimitabby

actually neutering kittens is considered by some to be safer than neutering older cats. 
http://www.cfa.org/articles/health/early-neuter.html
Groups of cats spayed/neutered at 7 weeks of age, 7 months of age, and after 12 months of age were followed in a large study. The cats were all placed in homes and followed for years. When comparing the groups of cats it was found that: .

*There were no significant differences in the development of the urinary tract among the three age groups.
The investigators reported that the surgical procedures in the Group 1 kittens were straightforward and uncomplicated, and that the kittens recovered even more rapidly than the Group 2 kittens and Group 3 cats*. Dr. Bloomberg notes that although there is very little material on pediatric anesthesia in animals, the pediatric patient in human medicine is generally considered to be a very good surgical candidate and there is no reason why this should not also be true for dogs and cats. The major concerns in pediatric surgery are: preventing hypothermia (maintaining body heat); utilizing proper doses of anesthetic agents (since the respiratory centers are not as well developed in the pediatric patient); and maintaining proper blood glucose. The investigators did not fast the pediatric patients as long as adult patients and administered small amounts of Karo syrup prior to induction of anesthesia as a precaution. It should be noted that due to the rapid recovery of the pediatric patient, the common practice of reducing anesthesia during final stages of the surgery was modified.


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