Cat specialist checking in here! I had written a nice long post earlier, but when I tried to submit it the board was shut down and my post disappeared into cyberland.
Okay, here goes - an intact male cat is called a tom, an intact female cat is called a queen. The technical term for a neutered male cat is ‘gib’, but I don’t think I’ve ever actually heard anyone use that - most vets and cat people just call them a ‘spay’ or a ‘neuter’.
An intact, breeding age tom does have barbs on his penis. Kittens and neutered males do not - the barbs are apparently present due to hormonal influence. When an intact adult tom is neutered, the barbs will disappear as the hormone levels in the bloodstream drop. This is one way of determining both the sexual maturity of a young male and the hormonal condition of a neutered male. The barbs are not really sharp stickers like hairs but are a sort of erectile tissue.
At one time, it was thought that feline copulation was painful, for several reasons - the presence of the barbs, the growling of a female being penetrated, her famous ‘postcoital scream’ upon withdrawal, and the vicious swat she will bestow upon her mate when he dismounts if he doesn’t move fast enough. However, that theory has pretty much been discredited - if it were all that painful, I doubt there would be such a kitty overpopulation problem.
Cat’s are induced ovulators - they only release eggs after the stimulation of copulation. Current thought is that the barbs are present to provide sufficient stimulation to ensure ovulation, and this is not necessarily painful, just - stimulating (sort of a French tickler for cats).
Receptive queens don’t usually fight off a male - actually, they’re real little sluts. I’ve seen one of my experienced females literally crawl underneath a confused virgin male and impale herself (the boy got the hang of it after the first time!). However, a queen that is not quite receptive, a frightened virgin queen, a queen that doesn’t approve of the tom’s foreplay (some males are very aggressive breeders, which isn’t appreciated by all of the girls), or is uncomfortable for some reason will sure bust his chops. One problem is that the male is ‘flying blind’ - he’s trying to hit a hole that he can’t see, that is wiggling around in anticipation, and he doesn’t have any hands to help him along. Most of the ‘humping’ going on is not actual intercourse, but blind stabs in search of just the right spot. This means that jabs in the WRONG hole also occur, and are seldom appreciated by the queen, especially if it is an inexperienced tom who doesn’t realize he’s invading forbidden territory and tries to force the issue! E. coli infections of the uterus occur pretty often in queens because of this.
What many people interpret as the queen’s violent rejection of the male is actually the culmination of copulation. Once the tom makes the proper connection, the whole thing lasts about 3 seconds, maybe. The queen emits what is called a ‘postcoital scream’ when the male withdraws, and most will immediately turn and slap at the male. (Experienced males combine their dismount with a substantial backwards leap to get out of the queen’s reach.) Previously, this was assumed to be because the withdrawal was painful and the queen was striking back at the male. However, it is more likely that the postcoital scream is actually in indication of what passes for an orgasm in the queen. Immediately after a successful copulation, queens perform a behavior generally described as ‘flipping and rolling’. This behavior continues for about 3 - 5 minutes, and the queen will reject any advances made my the male during this time. The post-copulatory slap is probably used to inform the male that he was successful and should keep his distance until she is finished.
No one knows why queens do the ‘flip and roll’, but I suspect it has to do with assisting the penetration of the sperm into the inner regions of the female’s reproductive tract. Since they are induced ovulators, fertile eggs will not actually be present for 12 - 36 hours, and the sperm must remain healthy and alive within the reproductive tract until the eggs are available.
I don’t believe that a tom’s penis becomes flaccid immediately following copulation - experienced males frequently spend the queen’s ‘flip and roll’ time in a neutral corner carefully cleaning their erection. Cats copulate frequently during the first frenzied hour or so of mating - the record I’ve observed at my house is 6 times in one hour. Only after they have exhausted themselves will they take a break and rest for a few hours. Further copulation is a little less frenzied, but still occurs in bursts of intense sexual activity followed by long rest periods.
Oh, and Irishman, what you are referring to with the q-tip is called Artificially Induced Ovulation. Quite a few cat breeders use this to deal with queens in heat when they don’t want to breed them right then. Queens that cycle continuously without being bred have a tendency to develop ovarian cysts and other reproductive problems, so AIO is useful for maintaining the health of breeding queens when they are being ‘rested’ for a long period of time. There is an acupressure technique for AIO that I prefer because it is non-invasive, so less likely to cause infection or possible injury to the queen (as well as being a little easier for the squeamish to do).
BTW, you will see the same sexual behavior in pretty much all feline species - lions and tigers act just like little domestic cats.
Did I miss anything? Please forgive me for being long winded - I’ve been breeding cats for years and of course do a lot of research into feline reproduction and genetics. I probably know more about the sexual lives of cats than anyone except a cat breeder would want to know!
Some days you’re the dog, some days you’re the hydrant.
