At what age...

What is the best age at which a female cat should be spayed?

As soon as you can... The cat can and might go into heat as early as four months.

Soon as you can after weighing 2lbs, my girl and boys were done at 10 weeks before I got them.

prior to 4 months is best no later than 6 months

Just for interest's sake....who makes these rules/suggestions. Our local spay/neuter clinic won't spay a female under 5 pounds, and won't neuter a male before 6 months of age.

The Humane Society does the 'fixing' before the cat leaves their shelter, regardless of age. My Cameo was fixed prior to my bringing him home at about between 5-6 weeks old.
I've read that males may suffer a bit from such an early neutering....small head, undeveloped penis and proneness to urinary tract infections. I don't think these medical conditions have been proven....just something that has arisen, I guess.

It's interesting how different areas have different 'rules' about the same circumstances.

The traditional 'speuter' age was six months, and that remains 'tradition' in many places.

However, cats are hitting sexual maturity earlier (or people mind more) and vets have gotten better at surgeries on the tiny systems, I guess.

Originally Posted by MAXCAT08

I've read that males may suffer a bit from such an early neutering....small head, undeveloped penis and proneness to urinary tract infections.

Click to expand...

From the Winn Feline Foundation report of early altering
http://www.cfa.org/articles/health/early-neuter.html

Concerns that development of the urinary tract might be arrested or impaired by early spaying and neutering proved unsupported

Click to expand...

I think head size is genetic, Demetri's father is smaller than Farleys father, thus Farley has a bigger head than D. Early alters can still get jowls too, as was shown to me when I said they didn't

Thank you Missymotus for that link. It was an interesting read. It's an old study, but I suppose things can't get worse, right?? I just worry that my 6 month old may suffer consequences down the road due to his early neutering. I waited until Samson was 6 months old to have him done...and Phoebe was 5 months old. She's going to be 13 yrs in March and so far, not a thing wrong with her (except for peeing outside the litter box , sometimes)

I certainly agree with spaying and neutering and is factored into the cost of owning a pet.

Forensic, I just was wondering why the different policies, especially within the same city. I understand the Humane Society's point of view. I just hope it's a safe one!!

People are telling me I had Yoshi fixed to young but Coco could not be fixed be cause it would have killed her.
I was not taking any chances so Yoshi was fixed at 3 months.
When Yoshi was 4.5 I was told he had kidney stones and they could not be removed.
People blamed me saying his urethers were small because he was fixed early.
He had stones in there also.
They also think he had dry fip which I know does not come from being fixed young.
The vet never said anything like that.
I lost Yoshi Jan 11 2008 almost a year ago.

Hundreds of kittens get spayed/neutered very young, younger than Yoshi, in this country all the time...

I don't think getting him done early had any effect on his health.

Either do I.
He was also done at the vets.

My vet likes to wait until 6 months for spay/neuter if possible. However she is more of a holistic type vet...
My Maine Coon's breeder advised to spay between 7-9 months old.

My vet was surprised Cleo was already fixed at 3.5.
They like to wait longer.