We haven’t had a kitten for over 30 years and things change a bunch in that amount of time.
When I was volunteering with a rescue group, we liked to have kittens fixed ASAP because people just couldn’t be trusted to fix their pets after they got them. One vet would fix them at 6 weeks or 1 lb and I never saw any of the kittens have a bad reaction.
Our first reaction when getting our hands on a cat is to have it fixed. George (Maine Coon kitten) is 4 1/2 months old and 7 lbs. He is also starting to show signs of sexual maturity. We would like to have him fixed now, but our contract with the breeder says to wait until 7 months.
In your opinions, is there a valid reason to wait until he’s 7 months old? Coons grow manes as adults, will being fixed early mess with his mane? (I ask because Out of Africa doesn’t castrate their male lions because the males will lose their manes, they get vasectomies instead.)
Our vet says she is comfortable fixing him as long as he’s over 6 lbs and didn’t seem to think there would be any difference between now and then, but I still wanted to get more opinions before calling our breeder and begging to be allowed to have him fixed early.
Yes, I know the breeder won’t ever know and really couldn’t do anything if we did, but we promised, yanna?
Depends on your vet. It’s best to get a cat speutered before they are 4 months old, because they can already be sexually mature.
I follow a rescue-cam, and this rescue’s vet will do it when the kitten weighs 1 kilogram, which is usually when they are about 2 months old. Other vets may prefer 2kg or 3 months, because they may be able to tolerate anesthetic better.
My vet usually recommends waiting until 6 months but when one of my kittens started going into heat at 4 months they said to bring her in to be spayed then. They said she weighed enough to go ahead at that time.
You should check the most current science about this. The big reason to spay/neuter early is so they never ever get to produce more cats, not because it is better for their long term health and development.
Particularly in male animals, their bones, urinary tracts, and perhaps other crucial systems, can develop difficulties down the road if neutered before maturity. There have been good studies in dogs, but I am not a cat person.
Your local vet may not have the latest information and in any case might feel there are good reasons for not changing the protocol. Rescue organizations are wholly pro-early de-sexing, you won’t find current medical advice there.
I most frequently hear 1 kg as the weight when kittens can be neutered or spayed. It might be you are confusing kilograms with pounds? One pound seems a bit early to snip-snip; kittens can reach that weight at just 3 or 4 weeks.
I’m sure I’m not mixing up kg with lbs. But I’m pretty certain it was 1 lb. The idea was that the sooner the surgery, the sooner the kittens could go to their forever homes. But I haven’t fostered since about 2008, so the protocol could well have changed by now.
This site says that the age has changed and now is lower.
I looked at 10 or so sites, none recommended older than 4-6 months. Most suggested 4-5 months to prevent unwanted habits being established by the onset of kitty puberty, like spraying.
I would trust a vet over a breeder, the vet is more likely to be up to date and, as you say, how will the breeder know?
I once rescued a kitten that was only 10 to 14 days old. (It’s a long story; that age is far too early to adopt a kitten, but it became necessary.) Our vet recommended neutering at six months, but he did look after her before then, as well as making sure we had what we needed to be “Mama Cat” for a couple of months.
She hit five months of age, and we were awakened one night by yowling coming from another room. We got up to see what the matter was, and found our little one doing what can only be called the feline equivalent of Penthouse-model posing in front of our other cats. They were all neutered males, so while she was saying, “C’mon big boy, wanna get lucky?” they were looking among themselves, seemingly asking, “What the hell does she want?”
A call to the vet the next morning got her into the vet that day. Yes, he said, coming into estrus at five months was not unusual, though not common. He could see her that day for the necessary surgery, and that was the end of her wanting to breed. She got along well with our other cats after that, and she lived to be 18 years old. It was difficult to say goodbye when the time came.
Linden and Poe’s vet flat out refused to neuter them before six months. Poe got a cold and we got sent home the day I brought them in, so they weren’t actually done until 7 months.
Poe was fine, no signs of anything other than being an exceptionally large kitten still at 7 months. Siamese and Balinese unfortunately go through puberty quite young and it would probably have been better if Linden was done at 4-5 months. Besides problematic behavior towards Poe for 2+ months, from the grown up smelling pee that last month I think we only narrowly missed him beginning to spray.
More good info, thanks guys. George ticking VBC off by trying to mount her. We are pretty sure he doesn’t know why he’s doing this or what he wants to achieve but it still ticks her off and we want them to be friends.
Also, @elfkin477 as long as you are here…did Poe start playing in his water? I am constantly mopping water up and drying the lil jerk off. I doubt I’m going to be able to break him of playing in water by spraying him with water, so I’m really hoping he’ll grow out of it soon.
I regret to tell you that the splashing-in-the-water-dish cats I had did this their whole lives; though it slowed down a bit in their mid teens.
They were well worth it though. Miss those cats. (Not Maine coons. Domestic Shorthair, otherwise known as ‘the cats we have around here’, out of a neighbor’s barn.)
– I wound up getting a weird dish with a curled over outer rim, which kept most but not all of the water in, but was really difficult to clean well.
Vets do seem to spay/neuter younger than they used to.
Yes, both Poe and Linden play with water - I find that giving them a big designated bowl with water and “toys” (they have a swimming fish toy meant for kids that requires supervision and lots of bottle caps that float that they can play with on their own) to play with pretty much keeps drinking water in bowls.
And yeah, he’s not going to out grow it. Maine Coons are known for like water. Shamus still played with water when he was 15.