Poor baby is in heat.

So I have a feeling I'm going to get a little bit flamed for this...actually I feel a little like flaming myself. Sorry for the long post!

We have two 5 month old kittens,Reilly and Lila, a male and a female that we got at the same time. The Humane Society we got them from does not like to do early spay/neuter, but they're very thorough with their adoption services and we had to sign a lot of paperwork saying we'd get it done at the 6 month mark. (In fact the woman in charge was going to contact us this month and schedule it with one of their vets since they are paying for it, it was included in our adoption fee).
The Humane Society woman assured me that we might catch them "experimenting", but that he could not get her pregnant before 6 months, so as long as she didn't get out around older unaltered males it would be fine.

So I noticed yesterday Lila started acting strange. She is wallowing on the floor, rubbing against the carpet, licking her private areas more, being a lot more vocal (no yowling, but she's normally pretty silent and she's been meowing and making those gurgly meow noises a lot), and when I pet her that hiney shoots in the air.

Last night my husband caught him mounted on her, no idea if he penetrated or not but he said she was moaning.

Are we screwed already? I emailed the HS woman this morning and asked her if we could please go ahead and schedule the surgeries. Poor Lila seems miserable and I'd like for her to not have to go through another cycle of this. Not to mention, I'd love to avoid any spraying, an I'm terrified that he's somehow already reached sexual maturity and will get her pregnant.

Anything I should do? (obviously aside from getting them fixed, which I'll do ASAP) Do I need to keep them apart? Anything that will make her more comfortable? I just generally need advice...these are my first cats and I feel like I've already missed the boat by not getting this done a little earlier.

No flaming here. You are a new cat owner that was told by someone that you assumed knew to get them fixed and 6 months. Any flaming deserves to be towards the person that told you that. Depending on where you live, some vets do spay/neuters at 2 pounds. Not all vets do this however.

I'll let others chime on on the rest, but yes, please separate them.

The same thing happened to me I took a litter of kittens in with their mother and decided to keep them. My Vet also said six months, I made the appointment when they where 5 1/2 months. One of my girl kitties was already pregnant when they did the spay. So he got to her sooner then 5 1/2 months. Keep them separated just in case she is still okay. Its not your fault believe me. Good luck with your kitties.

Do keep them separated and get that surgery booked asap. They can breed at this age, the boys can figure it out that young and she's willing to let him.

We do spay/neuter a lot younger than that at our rescue, in part, because we DO NOT ADOPT OUT UNFIXED ANIMALS! Our founder learned a long time ago that many people don't uphold their spay/neuter contracts. SO good for you for keeping to it.

That said, yes to everything everyone else here has said. If she's come into heat and if he figures it out, yes, they can create babies. Six months used to be the bench mark for a lot of vets. But ask people on here and they will tell you that females are going into heat as young as four months!

Keep them apart. Kittens as young as 4 months have been known to breed and get pregnant. I'd fire the lady who says "oh don't worry - he can't breed...."

Personally, I would find a vet to spay her NOW and then let the shelter neuter him at 6 months (unless you just go get both of them done now).

And I would report it to the shelter manager. Maybe get another vet to spay her and if pregnant, then have them verify she WAS pregnant by her brother at 5 months old!

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

Keep them apart. Kittens as young as 4 months have been known to breed and get pregnant. I'd fire the lady who says "oh don't worry - he can't breed...."

Personally, I would find a vet to spay her NOW and then let the shelter neuter him at 6 months (unless you just go get both of them done now).

And I would report it to the shelter manager. Maybe get another vet to spay her and if pregnant, then have them verify she WAS pregnant by her brother at 5 months old!

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Well said!