At what age do cats go into heat? Some info

2023 Author: Alex Livingston | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 11:39

We have an adult cat and we don't know when to let him have a litter? Well, monitoring everything will be an important first step: let's see at what age do cats go into heat and some useful tips on how to handle the situation.

At what age do cats go into heat?

The heat period for a cat is certainly not relaxing, on the contrary: it is a fundamental moment for its growth, but also very difficult to manage because he himself does not know how to behave. Let's now see the heat of the kittens.

Generally, within the first year and a half of life, each cat develops and enters her own period of fertility and fecundityto. Specifically, within i 6 months each should already have the first heat, but then there are variables that can go from 4 to 18 months, based on race, health conditions etc.

There's a precise period of the year where is it possible to go into heat? Well yes, at least for the kittens: it would seem that time begins with the birth of spring and grow up to October forwarded.

What is the main feature of the heat of the kittens? The fact that, if they don't give birth, it continues for months until the fertility cycle is closed.

How does it work? It can last several consecutive days, have a short break 2/3 days and resume: so on until either you get pregnant or the period ends.

This is not a trivial factor, because during the heat period the cat is really unmanageable and complains constantly. It is an uncomfortable situation both for her that she does not manage, and for the owner who will have to be very close to her.

One way to end the heat period early, then, is to stay pregnant. At that point, the ovulation, called induced, it will stop: fertilization has taken place. The next step will then be delivery, with 60 days of gestation.

The other way to avoid all this is instead sterilization. This can be taken into consideration in some cases: for example, if we owners do not want or can keep / manage a litter of who knows how many kittens, or simply to let our kitten escape from all this continuous and incessant suffering.

For the male kittens instead, the thing is a bit simpler. They can go into heat at around age 6 months: from that point on, every moment of their life or period of the year will be good for being able to mate and reproduce.

How do we notice the first heat? A few symptoms

For both sexes, there are particular attitudes which lead us to think about the beginning of the fertility period. If around 6 months we notice some symptoms similar to those proposed below, we are sure that it is the first heat.

The male cat will always want go out home to go in search of a kitten available at coupling: it is a natural instinct that it will not control. We will feel it meow very very often: this is due to the fact that you will probably hear the smell of some cat in heat nearby.

It is above all in this period that the male cat will have to make his cat heard presence in the territory: will urinate everywhere, even at home, even in areas where we would never expect or don't usually do it. It will definitely hire a more aggressive attitude, especially with other male cats, because, in fact, he has to prove his virility.

For the female cat, things are a bit different. Cats don't menstruate like women or dogs, so it's important to know how to pick up right signals to understand when the first heat starts.

The meow it is always an alarm not to be underestimated. The cats are able to make incredible vocalizations, real chants (sometimes even very annoying), almost comparable to the screams of a newborn.

In addition to this, we will notice a great need for snuggles and of attentions, much larger than usual. The kitten will therefore become much more affectionate even with owners and we, consequently, will have to be good at giving her what she is looking for.

In short: if we want to have beautiful litters, we can give free rein to our kittens in the heat phase. Seeing as this comes very early for both genders, it is important to monitor the behavior of our friends from the first year of age.

All that needs to be done at this stage is to take great care of our kittens, more than they require on a daily basis. If we do not want to have litters perpetually, it will be appropriate to think about castration or sterilization: in this case, we contact the veterinarian who will be able to advise us when and how to do it.