Allentown, PA. Stud cat needed.  

Oh My!
I am not sure about the misconception that you have that if she breeds she will live longer? Is that it? This is so wrong, in so many levels, I would be interested in hearing who gave you this information?
You don't have money for a stud, but what if she has an emergency, and needs a c-cession? What happens then? Do you have enough money to vet, vaccinate, spay and neuter all the kittens?
I am sure you are aware that around 6 million cats per year are euthanized in the US alone because of thinking like this? Because of overpopulation?
There is absolutely nothing good that can come out of her giving birth...
You will be putting her through a lot of pain, health risks, and will be taking kittens lives that could be adopted from the shelter, by adding to the overpopulation issue...
Please please please please... The best thing you will do to your girl, for her to live a happy and healthy life, is to spay her...

Welcome to TCS!

There is no reason to breed her to ensure a long/healthy life. That is an (unfortunately) common misconception - I've even had vets tell me that! If you have any questions on why there is no reason to breed your cat, we are here to help and can offer articles & threads to help you make an informed decision.

Just a reminder of the TCS rules:

You got to be kidding me Nat... VETS give out this information??? Oh my goodness gracious!

This thread shouldn't even be in the Breeders Corner.

The rules saying professional breeder should really mention registered pedigree cats since anyone with any cat could say they are prof breeders. I don't know anyone who would refer to themselves as a professional breeder apart from byb mills.

As already said there is no reason to breed your moggie, do you know her genetic history? And what tests has she had or do you plan for the "stud"?

You'd be best to get her spayed. Also 9 months is generally considered too young.

Just wanted to point this out in case there is any confusion on the above statement, I had to do a double take when I read it.... 9 months is too young for a female cat to get pregnant and have kittens. She is well old enough to be spayed at 9 months though.

Edit: She can still get pregnant at 9 months old.

It would be great to get things clear. It seems that you believe if your cat has a litter of kittens before she is fixed, she will live a longer, healthier life. First of all. let me say how wonderful it is that you are thinking long term and that you want to do everything you can to help your cat be healthy and happy. She sounds very beautiful and I am sure you love her very much. That is all good.

There did used to be a belief that it was good to let a female cat have one litter - I did it myself once, many years ago. But this is not now considered necessary or even desirable. In fact, quite the opposite. Even one pregnancy can put a cat at risk, especially a young cat like yours. Breeding her, particularly to an unknown male, can expose her to all kinds of disease, and the birth can lead to many complications. Many people here have lost their cats and kittens to problems of pregnancy and birth. If a cat is not bred and allowed to remain intact through a number of oestrus cycles, she runs a much greater risk of cancer and pyometra later in life.

There have also been great developments in veterinary technology over the last thirty years or so. It is now safe to do spays on much younger animals, though many vets still prefer to wait till 6 months of age, or the first oestrus.

The other reason to spay your cat is of course the undesirability of bringing even more kittens into a world of overcrowded cats. We here love cats and love kittens, but all of us deplore the number that are unwanted, unhomed and doomed to die just because they were born. Even if you as loving owners can find homes for your kittens, you are thereby denying the chance of a loving family to some kitten somewhere who may be euthanised just because it is there. Thousands of kittens die every day in shelters.

So what I am saying is, the best chance of a long, happy life for your cat is to spay her as soon as possible. She will reward you by being a loved and loving companion for years to come. Please talk to your vet about all this and I am sure you receive the same advice. And do stay members of TCS. We all came here through our love of cats, many of us, including me, because of problems we were having, and stayed to find a warm supportive community. Good luck with your cat, and do post a photo of her soon. I want to see her beautiful long hair.

and just to clarify this statement because it sounds like she can't get pregnant at 9 months:

9 months is old enough for them to get pregnant, in the same way a 13 year old child could get pregnant - it is still advisable for a breeder to wait until they are full grown before breeding them.

Regardless, she doesn't need to have a litter, you don't want to have to deal with potential medical issues and the expense of vaccinating kittens not to mention adding to the cat population when there are so many cats and kittens out there needing homes already

This is more a health issue than a breeders issue, so I have moved the thread. Please, friends, be gentle with the poster, who seems to have nothing but the best interests of her kitty at heart, even if she is misinformed where the matter of having a litter before spaying is concerned.

To the OP, you won't find any support here for breeding a moggie, for all of the reasons already given. Please reconsider that and have your girl spayed as soon as possible -- and forgive us if we come on a little strong, where kitten overpopulation comes into the picture. We try not to bite, but overpopulation is kind of a hot button issue, so we can get carried away.

I hope you'll find lots of useful information here, introduce us to your girl, and stick around to find some friends.

Spay her. For all the reasons already mentioned, and your own sanity's sake. Let her never worry about breeding or kittens, and remain an unencumbered kitten herself. If you want more cats, look into adopting another one after she is spay. There's lots of orange kitties that need homes and shelters are always overrun.

Any and all health risks? Would you like to talk to WellingtonCats about how she recently lost one her cats after her first litter?

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=211820

You're not going to find support elsewhere. Most of us with cats take in the unwanted and/or sick, several others work at shelters. We all see what overpopulation has caused.

Actually, spaying before the first heat cycle in cats greatly reduces the risk of uterine, ovarian and mammary cancers, and obviously pyometra as well as potential STDs (yes cats can get STDs) from an untested stud cat

Really? Please feel free to let us know how a cat will be healthier by giving birth... Enlighten us... I am sure some of us would love to hear... I would, because for me that doesn't make much sense...

From your first post: That is a contradiction...

A medical emergency, for instance an emergency c-cession can cost a lot of money, let alone the life of your kitten (yes, she is still a kitten).

Plus vetting all the kittens is NOT cheap......

Nobody is insulting you here, and there is no need for this attitude.

About $300 per kitten after all is said and done. And that's with a cheaper vet.


Maybe, this thread would be better off locked? I can only forsee more insults and people repeating the same thing over and over again. If the OP hasn't reconsidered yet, they probably won't after several more pages and possibly more hurt feelings.

Should this post even be on this board?

Someone else might have similar misconceptions that could be cleared up by seeing it.

OK, let's talk about health benefits related to birthing/raising young. Researchers have found a link between breastfeeding and reduced breast cancer rates in humans. I don't know if the same thing would work for cats, but it's a reasonable hypothesis. However, the probable cause of this link is hormonal, hormones being one of the causative factors in breast cancer (and other cancers). Since spaying a cat removes the main sources of hormones, a spayed cat's reproductive-related cancer risk is already extremely low (the earlier the cat is spayed, the lower their risk, although if done properly the ovarian cancer risk will always be lowered to 0% for the same reason males of any species don't get ovarian cancer), so their additional gain from having nursed kittens beforehand, if any, is going to be very low. Their risks in birthing are higher than these benefits.

If you want her to have the social benefit of being a mom to kittens, you could foster a pregnant stray or some orphaned kittens, so that she could help raise them. Bottle-fed kittens in particular benefit from having a grown cat around to help socialize them.

And that's if everything goes normally. One of my parents' cats once ran up a bill of $900 just to get two kittens born.

Ericagal,

I think your post is appalling and very misinformed, and your arrogant, snide response is even worse. You claim to have had cats all of your life. Well if that is true, you should know more about cat health and well-being than you obviously do.

1. 9 months is way too young for a cat to have kittens.

2. You can't afford the stud fee but then you contradict yourself and claim you would be able to afford health costs? Lady, if your cat has any problems during the delivery of her kittens and has to be rushed to an emerg vet for assistance, you will need a heckuva lot more $$ than the cost of a stud fee.

3. You would be willing to have your cat mate with any old tom cat; obviously, because you're going around the internet pretty much willing to find the 'services' of any male cat. What if the cat has sexuall transmitted diseases? Is unknowingly FIV or FeLV+? Are you going to be paying for proper testing? Doesn't sound like you care. Just as long as it's an "orange male."

4. It is ignorant to think that a litter of kittens will prolong your young female's life. There are real and medically proven health risks to not spaying a female in time, as have been mentioned here.

Given a previous post of yours here recently, in which you think it's no biggie to let cats roam outside (oh well, cat fell through the ice on the pond), I feel very, very sorry for any pets in your care.

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...62#post2840362

I agree this post should be locked but kept on the site.

To Ericagal - wow, just wow. Making assumptions about people on this site. Now who is being judgmental?

As someone who rescues cats and kittens as a passion, I have to say - please do not breed her. If you want kittens, go to the local rescue or to the ASPCA in Philadelphia or something and get one or two. You are not doing her or the unborns any favors.

Yes this litter is "wanted". But for every supposedly wanted litter, giving the cat a chance at motherhood, which is over rated and full of risks for the cat -another dumped or unwanted litter is killed at a pound or shelter. In other words, unless you plan on keeping all of those kittens, someone will take one of those kits instead of a kit on death row. And believe me,thousands of cats and kittens are killed around this country every day.

You sound like a guy I had contact with ... just helped rescue a beautiful Ragdoll from him. Cat peeing everywhere. I said maybe he has a urinary tract infection, etc. gave him all kinds of useful advice and got the NASTIEST response that HE knew ALL ABOUT CATS, ANIMALS AND TO off. Well, the cat got rescued and guess what? UTI. He is in a much better sitch now.

If this is your attitude, you should have never agreed to the Rules (which you did on signing up for a membership), which includes as the second rule:
This forum is here for the health and welfare of cats around the world. Period. You are grossly misinformed about the "need" of a cat (or any other animal, humans included) to reproduce, for whatever notion you wish to put forth. You NEED to do real research on this issue before putting your cat through this, and adding to the already overwhelming feline overpopulation problem around the world.

You will not find this forum to support your backyard breeding plans in any way, shape or form. As such, this thread is hereby closed.