think my feral cat is pregnant?

well it is a bit of a long story so will keep it short. I acquired a kitten who had been found and was totally ferrel, has taken along time to tame her etc but still isn't your average lap cat... Now I believe her to be just over a year old (not totally sure as she was ferrel) but this is what the vet thought at the time. anyway she has started to swell around her tummy area and has enlarged nipples. so my question is do cats have phantom pregnancies like dogs (I know alot about dog breeding having researched for a long time and having a couple of litters from my bitch) but cats I haven't got a clue She is generally an indoor cat so not sure when this would have happened (before she came to us or since being here) so basically I am after any advice I can get as i know from breeding dogs that the vets isn't always the best place to get advice. I know that I should have got her spayed but my thought was or experience with dogs is to wait for them to mature before this is done. Any information would be very greatful and please don't judge me for this just want to be ready for the event.

If she's not spayed, there's a 99.9% possibility that she's pregnant. If you can corral her, you should take her to the vet for a check up.

No, it isnt necessary for them to mature. In the old standard there was an recommendation of maturing about 1 year, but since these days you can neuter happily at 6 months, and in USA very common they are taken early, 8 weeks and 2 pounds (1 kilogramme), with exellent practical results.

False pregnances do occur, not very common but do occur. Although usually they HAD some mating before.

Late spaying being also abortion is possible. Ethically not nice, but for a good surgeon vet its no big deal speaking medically and technically.
For an average vet late spaying is of course difficult.

So my advice is if you visit your vet, and take your decision from there.

Good luck!



ps Welcome to the Forums!

Thanks for the replies... Ok I know it probably is quite common to spey to terminate pregnancy but I personally couldn't do it. I would be more willing to take all the time to bring up a litter of kittens and rehoming or if push comes to shove keeping but getting speyed but I am positive I could find good homes for them as I am used to vetting people when I have to home pups that I have bred. she will get a check up at the vets and she has been vaccinated etc when I first got her so I know that she is worm/flea free. can anyone give me information on acceptable birth weights for kittens and what to look out for when labour is imminent. Or any good books that you use for information when breeding.

If she has been outside unsupervised AT ALL in the last 2 months, then yes, I can guarantee she's pregnant. Cats do not have well-defined heat periods like dogs; they're basically always in heat. And even when they aren't, if bred by force (many tomcats are not gentlemen) they'll ovulate and get pregnant anyway. Cats are extremely efficient reproducers. Which is why there are just too many of them .

Cats are pregnant for 63 days or so. . .do you have any idea when she might have gotten out?

If you're comfortable with doing a spay/abort, that may be the best option if she's not too far along. It's extremely difficult to find good homes for kittens, there is simply an oversupply of them and finding people who will take good care of the kittens and not just dump them when they aren't cute anymore can be nearly impossible. There isn't as much demand for non-purebred kittens as there is for well-bred puppies.

Whether you choose to let her have them or go through with the spay, definitely contact your vet to make sure she gets all the right care. The vet might have an educated guess as to how far along she is.

I do agree that dogs should be allowed to mature before spaying/neutering, but I think cats should be altered as soon as possible (12-16 weeks being ideal). Being that female cats can get pregnant as early as 16 weeks, they're sufficiently sexually mature at that age anyway.

ETA: saw that you would be willing to keep the kittens if you had to. That's good, and you're fortunate in that cats don't usually have large litters like some dogs. A litter size of 4 is average, and more than 6 is rare. If you do end up keeping them, be sure to spay the females before they're 16 weeks old because they can get pregnant at that age. You can wait a bit longer with the males but not past 6-7 months or they'll start spraying--and you definitely don't want that!

How long have you had your cat? How long ago did she have her shots and de-worming?

Hi Willowy,
I have had Missie about 2 months maybe a bit longer. As an educated guess she could have been calling about 5 weeks ago as I was away with a family member for just over a week and my husband was in charge... he said that her behaviour didn't seem any different to usual, but that is his man opinion he never notices anything.... she has been out in the last few weeks, but wasn't calling... Never realised that they could get pregnant even when not calling... Oh my I need to get a bit more clued up on cat ownership, have owned dogs for years and bred 2 litters in the last 5 years. But this is all new to me! Can you recommend any books on queens?

I've only once had a mother with kittens (a pregnant stray, too far along to be spayed), I usually have orphan kittens with no mother. So I don't know of any books on birthing. But usually cats take care of these things on their own. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many strays and ferals. . .cats are worse than rabbits when it comes to reproducing!

But you should still have the vet take a look at her. Later in the pregnancy an x-ray may be a good idea so you know how many kittens are in her (and to call the vet if they don't all come out!). If she's small she may have trouble birthing, so be sure to ask your vet about emergency numbers in case she needs a c-section in the middle of the night.

Well Missie has been to the vets and they are guessing she is about 5 weeks ish, I am guessing that she caught when I was back home visiting family which would have been from 12th - 17th June. They said she is healthy and in proportion, as she is of small build she's not what I would class as average size, unless we just get big cats round here everything about her is healthy and said to just keep feeding her as I have been... she is still on kitten food due to her small structure so no need to swap her over. I feed Royal canin dry kibble which is on offer 24/7 then i feed her fish as and when she will eat it along with kitten milk to make sure she is drinking enough fluids.... I have a couple of boxes upstairs in the 2 rooms she likes to sleep the most, so hopefully she will choose one of those when the time comes. Will keep you updated