Neuter/Spay = bad?

Also when cats are spayed or neutered when young, i.e under 6 months. You won't see behavioural changes is, or well you'll the animal will stay like you've known and loved them (free from mad sex hormones).

I remember about your post about wanting a Bengal, all cats bought from good breeders either come already spayed and neutered or with a signed spay/neuter contract where as a part of buying the animal you promise to neuter/spay. You won't have a choice.

You said your fiance hasn't been around unneutered or unspayed cats. Really that explains a lot. Like I said earlier the thought of cutting stuff off animals isn't very nice but really spaying and neutering is good for everyone involved, the animals and the humans.

I have not seen a creature on this planet more sexually frustrated than a female cat in heat. The embarassing mating displays, meows, pacing and more meowing for a full week every few weeks which doesn't ever stop is hard to live with. It's easier though than a spraying, unneutered tom whose mind is overrun with just the thought of wanting to find a female to mate with. Tomcat spray is way up there with skunk as stink produced by animals and you really really don't want it inside your house.

Nikita was spayed at 6 months and I was really nervous when she was in for surgery. She was done with a side spay which was great though and I got her home the same day, no collar needed and she was back jumping like mad and completely back to herself two days later. She was slightly subdued for one day afterwards. I.e she did her big jumps in two steps (from cabinet to chair to floor) rather than one big one (cabinet to floor)

I'm neutral on the whole idea. Though, I do have experience with the matter. My dog was never neutered, and...He had puppies with the neighboor's lemon beagle.... My dog is extremely mild and friendly, though, so to me, it doesn;t make a difference behavior-wise. x3 ~

I'm getting Renji neutered, of course, though. ~ Kiba

I can't add to what everyone else has said about why it's important to neuter our pets, but I was just wondering whether your husband has thought through logically what will happen if they aren't neutered? You say he wouldn't mind if your cat got pregnant, but does he actually want kittens? Does he understand the health risks involved when a female cat goes through heat after heat, esp if unmated? And if you have a male cat does he expect that cat to have free access to the outdoors and therefore to be able to mate as and when he chooses? Or does he expect an unneutered, testosterone fueled cat to stay indoors and never have the opportunity to mate? Because personally I feel the latter is much more cruel than a neuter. Imagine how frustrated the poor thing would be with all that testosterone and no females!

I agree that if you can't get him to realise that he's imposing his own human thought processes upon cats, it would be best to get a cat that is already neutered. Alternatively it might be a good idea to go for a female cat as he may relate less to a female cat than a male cat. Another thing worth thinking about is that, depending on where you get the cats from, you may have to sign a contract stating you will get kittens neutered by a certain age. Rescues over here do insist that kittens are neutered when they're old enough (paediatric spay and neuter is very rare over here).

Trust me, the day he comes home and smells what my house smelled like a few days ago after having an intact male in it for just ONE day, he'll change his mind! That smell just literally smacks you in the face, its so awful! Its in the litterbox, in the carpets, walls, furniture, wherever that male goes. (Thankfully, my little visitor was just in one room )

And even if its an intact girl you have, you'll get male callers who will come and spray the outside of your house instead.

I know the article you posted said there will still be risks of cancers, but those risks will be much less than if the kitty remained intact. My breeder told me when I picked up my boys that one of her mom's breeding girls got very very sick with pyometra, which is an infection in the uterus. The only sign she gave of being sick was to switch who's feet she slept on, and fortunately they took her to the vet. I think it was the uterine horns that were the problem...anyhow, whatever was infected was supposed to be width of a pencil or your finger, and was as big as a fist with infection! It would have killed her had they not taken her to the vet when they did - and all she did was change her sleeping spot!


If spaying and neutering changes a cat's behavior, its only so much as removing the hormones and allowing their natural personality to shine through past the urges to mate and fight. Think of it as accelerating them beyond the bratty, hormonal "teenage years" and letting them be the way they would be without the raging hormones!

Originally Posted by Roimata

Thats a good idea, too get one thats already fixed...its foolish of me to not have already thought of that. Perhaps that would work, i'd have to ask him.

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Yes, please! Adopting a pet knowing it would not get spayed or neutered is irresponsible. People with the best intentions often try to keep their unspayed girl inside or their unneutered boy, but they get out and sometimes through places you never knew they even could... skylights, ripping out window screens, etc.

If you are not a breeder with an established program, forcing your cat to go through the stress of heat cycles and tomcattery is inhumane. In 'nature' female cats would mainly be pregnant, not going through heat cycle after heat cycle. There's nothing natural about indoor cats any more than there is anything natural about the way humans live.

Thank you all, you've all made excellent points and have been a huge help. Im sure after showing him this I will change his mind, he'd be a fool not too! LOL

Originally Posted by Roimata

My husband doesnt understand why its best to neuter/spay cats.
He says its just "convinience at the expense of a lost part of their maturing experience", is that true? do they mature oddly from being desexed?

I really need to know some pro's and con's to this.

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Every single cat we've had and have, have been desexed. And considering they weren't sitting on our loo reading the morning paper, i think they grew up like normal cats! Tell your SO it is a convenience for all when there are no unwanted births. Cats LOOOVE to mate if they have the chance, and there are so many kittens born and dumped out of lack of education

AUGH! I can't wait to wade through all the responses above me, so let me just say: if your husband is concerned about the cat's happiness and well-being, ask him to try to imagine this...

Your husband grows up a perfectly normal, happy little boy, living in his happy little household, until one day the testosterone kicks in, and he starts having... d e s i r e s.

To act upon those d e s i r e s, he needs to leave the house and find himself a girl. He wants this very badly. And as he grows older, he wants it more, and more, and more. By the age of 18, he's flinging himself bodily against the walls to try to get outside and find a girl.

But he's not allowed outside. Ever. Because it's irresponsible, and there are too many diseases and too many dangers and far, far too many kittens born into this cruel world.

So all his life, he will have to live with these unfulfilled d e s i r e s. And as any red-blooded man will tell you, that's nothing less than torture.

And that's a pretty good analogy to how it is for an unneutered male or unspayed female cat. Their "d e s i r e s" are perhaps even more desperate than ours, because theirs are purely instinctual -- cats are not able to reason or rationalize or take up chess instead.

Y'know, breeders have to keep intact kitties, of course, and they have to keep them apart except for selected mates at selected times. Maybe it would be helpful to your husband if someone in the Breeder's Corner forum would talk about what that's like...

Originally Posted by CarolPetunia

until one day the testosterone kicks in, and he starts having... d e s i r e s.

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Oo that gave me shivers

Don't mind me, i'm in a funny mood

Originally Posted by twstychik

The bit about neutered pets getting fat IMO has nothing to do with t e surgery and everything to do w/ lazy ownership. If you feed your cat all the time and don't keep it active of course it's going to get fat.

I've also alwasy thought that male cats in general (neutered or not) are prone to UTI's and FLUTD.

Does your husband have any resources to back his ideas about de-sexing cats? Or is he just projecting his own feeling onto the cats?

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I agree with the weight thing..Trout is svelt She is a dainty little thing. And of course, she is spayed.

Originally Posted by twstychik

You can find information to back just about any opinion but that doesn't mean it true or accurate!

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Boy, is that ever the truth! In regard to this question, and in regard to virtually every other subject under the sun...

all i have to say to this is sex is over rated, so do kitty a favor and fix them

I've read through all these replies and I can't agree more. The good news is most places are making it harder and harder to adopt an unneutered animal. The shelters here won't even let you take them home until theyve been fixed and neither will the foster homes. So chances are if you adopt, it'll be a fixed baby.

But Tryon wasn't fixed when I first brought her home because she was on the street. I was fully planning on spaying her, but had hoped I could hold off until January because I was a little cash poor from the holidays. Well, of course she went into heat before I had a chance to spay her The noise... oh the NOISE! And that wasn't even the worst of it... the poor kid was SO frustrated from not being able to mate that I just felt so bad for her. Every tom in the neighborhood was at my windows trying to get to her... I couldn't even get out my front door without one of them trying to get inside. Once I witnessed this in her, I knew exactly how humane it was to get her spayed. My poor girl was just so frustrated and angry that she couldn't get outside to mate. There was just no way I could see putting her through that for the rest of her life.

And of course she doesn't need to mate.... not when I go into the shelter to donate food and not only see the poor babies who have no homes, but also see the numbers posted of the amount of animals who have been destroyed because they had no homes and the shelter was out of room. I didn't need her babies to be one more of THOUSANDS! (Thousands in JUST MY NEIGHBORHOOD!)

And then there's always the "well.. I'll find them good homes"... and sure, you might... but you also might lose friends in the process. There is a guy I grew up with in my old neighborhood and as it happens, we now both live in FL. Well his wife decided in her infinite wisdom that they were not going to spay/neuter any of their dogs because it wasn't natural and, in his words, she was getting the "baby urge". So instead she just let them breed like mad and now every time I talk to him he's trying to get me to adopt some of his puppies that he can't find homes for. I won't even talk to him anymore because I'm sick of hearing about it... I'm sick of having our conversations revolve around nothing more than having puppies pushed on me. I'm sick of thinking about how amazingly irresponsible he has been - especially since his puppies are all inbred because the parents are from the same litter. I'm sick of getting frustrated with him because I KNOW he knows better as all of the dogs he grew up with were fixed. So yeah... I lost a friend of almost 15 years because he wouldn't neuter his dogs. Is that rude of me? Could be... but there's only so many times you can be begged about these things before you just don't care anymore... and really I wasn't put on this earth to clean up his mess. He needs to take the responsibility.

Originally Posted by Roimata

He says its bad to take away a cats hormones because it would make the cat act differently :\\

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Many people are pleased when the cat in heat stops throwing a fit and acting all crazy.
Also, they are happy that male cats don't spray.
So that is acting differently, but in a good way.
My cat was spayed after a year old and I didn't notice once difference in her other than she is no longer in heat and no longer doing the loud heat yells (which is much healthier IMO for her and the household’s sanity!).

Ok, first off...of course it's inhumane, especially if you look at the literal definition of that word: not human! Our cats are NOT human, no matter how much we'd love them to be (or not, lol). So, you can always win that argument right off the bat.

Second, both my cats are neutered, but growing up we always had unfixed dogs. Boy, life would have been easier (and with less puppies) had my family been educated. Now my parents have two beautiful female cats that are desexed and they are thankful that I've given them a LOT of information, especially before they decided to adopt.

And last, do you know anyone who has unfixed male cats? Just take your fiance over to their place to get a first-hand view (or smell, heehee) of unfixed male cats. If you don't know anyone, maybe if you gave the shelter a call, they could help you out with that.

Hmmm, that gives me a great idea....maybe shelters could create a room with a sound system that plays nothing but "cat in heat" and it smells like male spray...that should ensure that everyone neuters their cats, lol.

Originally Posted by laureen227

well, Java's not dainty, but she is long & lean - i call her my 'supermodel' cat. she's also spayed, of course.

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Yeah, Zissou was spayed just on the edge of her first heat, and she weighs like 7 pounds soaking wet. She fits in things that I bought for her as a kitten and thought she would grow out of.

I just asked her if she was sad not to have any kittens and she says no, they would have ruined her figure.

I really suggest that your hubby/fiance volunteers at a shelter. There are too many kitties and not enough homes.

Also, the smell of Tom Cat pee is AWFUL. And you do not want it in your house. At our last apartment, the door got sprayed by a stray tom and it came in because the door didn't seal right. That was awful. Truly awful. I can't even imagine the smell if that tom lived as an inside cat. It would be so bad!

A female in heat is equally awful, because she will call and call and call. And they are loud.

You can't guarantee that if you have an unspayed girl, she won't get outside. When she's in heat, her mission will be to get outside and mate. If she does, now you have 1-6 kittens (maybe more) to take care of. If you don't fix them, the problem gets larger exponentially.

Unspayed and unneutered cats are also prone to reproductive cancers.

Please spay/neuter. There are already plenty of kittens.

Originally Posted by Roimata

and yes, we are both looking up things, but its only making his opinion stronger about it.

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Not to be contrary or offensive here, because honestly, I'm not trying to be... um... but what are you guys going to do when the male cat starts spraying everywhere on a regular basis and you can't live with the smell? It's a horrible stink. Is the cat going to get locked away... given away...tossed outside because it sprays where the dangers of cars, other cats, diseases from other cats, predators, poisons... etc.. are added to the mix? If he hasn't experienced living with a pet that isn't fixed.. he really shouldn't be making the decision to not alter it.

Female cats start a horrid wailing when they come into heat, often claw screens, claw at doors, do damage trying to get outside... scoot outside and don't come back for days, putting themselves in danger.. where are the kittens going to go? Are you guys going to keep them all? Are you willing to take on the expense of giving them all vaccines/wormings? What happens when the cat, who will get pregnant repeatedly, because she *will* get outside, ends up needing medical care because something's wrong with her pregnancy, which I'm fairly certain will happen because having litter after litter of kittens is hard on them.

Male cats spray. Spray stinks. Would you keep a cat that doesn't use the litter box? Effectively, that's what keeping a male cat that isn't neutered is doing. They also cry, try to scoot out the door, become aggressive... get into cat fights with other male cats (often resulting in having to take them to the vets because of infections from their wounds).. are you willing to spend that kind of money to *repair* the damage done to your cat by not having him fixed?

Some of the things that your fiance/husband is pointing out or things that only have a small chance of happening. It's almost a guarantee that the things above are going to happen. When you have children are you going to NOT vaccinate them because 1 in 10,000 children *might* develop symptoms or a reaction to the vaccine? Does he walk everywhere because he has a 1 in 75 chance of being in a car accident if he gets into a vehicle?

Anyway, those are some things that you might use to win your argument.