What's the absolute youngest a cat can get pregnant?

[Tobias Reiper]

I read somewhere it was six months, but my kitten is only four and I suspect she's in the early stages of pregnancy.

[gharfish]

I've always heard six months too. But just as people sexually mature "ahead of schedule," I suppose so also could a cat. Did you see (and hear !) any signs of her being in heat ? Maybe she's an always outdoors cat and it could have escaped your attention.

[Tobias Reiper]

I've always heard six months too. But just as people sexually mature "ahead of schedule," I suppose so also could a cat. Did you see (and hear !) any signs of her being in heat ? Maybe she's an always outdoors cat and it could have escaped your attention.

She was an outdoor cat until last week and there had been toms coming around here, but I assumed they were ignoring her because she wasn't old enough for breeding and going after her mother.

[gharfish]

I've only witnessed one female cat in her first heat. She was mine, and had always (still does) lived inside. She squalled so loudly and layed her head down with her back end up in the air constantly. (I'm sure you know these signs; sorry.)

I can see how it could be understood that attentive males were "after" her mother instead...and only. Two females in heat (outdoors) can sound like just one, pretty easily, I imagine.

So, have you adopted this kitten ?

[Tobias Reiper]

I've only witnessed one female cat in her first heat. She was mine, and had always (still does) lived inside. She squalled so loudly and layed her head down with her back end up in the air constantly. (I'm sure you know these signs; sorry.)

I can see how it could be understood that attentive males were "after" her mother instead...and only. Two females in heat (outdoors) can sound like just one, pretty easily, I imagine.

So, have you adopted this kitten ?

I've never seen her exhibit those behaviors. I didn't adopt her. My uncle wanted me to keep looters out of his place when he went back to the nursing home and he already had cats. This one is the granddaughter of the one that was already here.

I brought her in after a lot of lecturing from a friend and hearing coyotes yapping around the front porch one night.

[gharfish]

Coyotes will definitely kill cats. (Again, some more stuff I'm telling you that you know.)

If she is just now pregnant, she will have the kittens well within two months, I think. To the best of my knowledge, cats go into heat (usually) in the Spring and again in the Fall.

I made the very hard decision once to have a very pregnant cat sterilized; the kittens were therefore aborted. I still feel really bad about that. There were a number of actively breeding females that I should have also had sterilized (it doesn't cost a whole lot), but I was rather heartless--selfish, bottom line. I only had three sterilized, total. Back then I lived in a place where people allowed the (many) cats to breed, completely unchecked. Many of them had become semi-feral...and actually feral, living in some nearby woods. I fed them all and provided lots of fresh water. I adopted--made housecats, two while I lived there. So many kittens were being born, only to suffer badly and many die when still very young. I buried too too many of them. Terribly sad; they still haunt my memory.

[Tobias Reiper]

I'm probably going to have Cosette spayed after her first litter. I know a girl that adopts cats and that's usually the first thing she does, so I have a safe place for the ones I won't be able to keep without worrying about them breeding generations of feral cats and I'll probably end up keeping a male, so I won't have to worry about this in the future.

[Crow]

I made the very hard decision once to have a very pregnant cat sterilized; the kittens were therefore aborted. I still feel really bad about that. There were a number of actively breeding females that I should have also had sterilized (it doesn't cost a whole lot), but I was rather heartless--selfish, bottom line. I only had three sterilized, total. Back then I lived in a place where people allowed the (many) cats to breed, completely unchecked. Many of them had become semi-feral...and actually feral, living in some nearby woods. I fed them all and provided lots of fresh water. I adopted--made housecats, two while I lived there. So many kittens were being born, only to suffer badly and many die when still very young. I buried too too many of them. Terribly sad; they still haunt my memory.

I had a pregnant cat spayed too. She was an "anonymously donated" cat, not quite six months old according to the vet, and visibly pregnant. With the surgery, shots, deworming, and vitamins, the "free" scraggly cat ran me around 400 bucks the first month.

I don't feel at all bad about spaying a pregnant cat. The majority of cats that are born end up run over, euthanized, feral, torn to bits by dogs, or dead of starvation and exposure. One less litter is only a drop in the bucket, but still that was eight (yup, she was loaded with kittens) fewer cats born, which equals eight fewer animals competing for the inadequate number of homes that want one.

[Teallaura]

Four months is very unlikely - why do you think she might be pregnant?

[DesertBerean]

Like Teal said....why do you think she's pregnant? Has she been to a vet?? Four months is a tad early.

[Tobias Reiper]

Four months is very unlikely - why do you think she might be pregnant?

I'll admit that I won't be able to verify for another few weeks, but she has some abdominal swelling and her teats are starting to become prominent, which I have never in a cat prior to pregnancy.

[Teallaura]

Take her to the vet. The teats descend naturally even in spayed queens. Abdominal swelling is not normal, however. Could be pregnancy, but could easily be something else.

[Tobias Reiper]

Take her to the vet. The teats descend naturally even in spayed queens. Abdominal swelling is not normal, however. Could be pregnancy, but could easily be something else.

The swelling is going down. Normally that would have been a concern for me in a kitten that young, but the teats threw me off. I've had many generations of cats, but other than a tom (which I found odd at the time and still has me wondering) I have never seen the teats descend prior to their first pregnancy.

I'm going to keep an eye on her while I try to get an appointment scheduled with a vet. So far I haven't found any in the region open on Saturdays and they all close before I would have time to get home, pick her up, and get back to the office. I can't take her to work, either, to run her by at the end of the day.

[Teallaura]

Cool - glad it's going down. You might try asking if they can let you drop her off and keep her during the day assuming you can make it in time to pick her up. I have to do this from time to time and my vet is very reasonable about it.

[Tobias Reiper]

Cool - glad it's going down. You might try asking if they can let you drop her off and keep her during the day assuming you can make it in time to pick her up. I have to do this from time to time and my vet is very reasonable about it.

I don't think I could do that. Most of them open around 8:00 or 9:00 AM and I have to be at work by 7:00, 6:00 when we have a tournament.

I was starting to worry because while she's still affectionate, she isn't as playful as normal, but after having to chase her through the house to get her to drop a nickel that fell out of my shirt pocket I just found out she's tired of playing by herself.