My cat, Speavy went into heat about 5 to 6 weeks ago. Since then, she's been getting very fat at a fast pace. My dad and I think she's pregnant, but I felt that we needed a second opinion, so, I decided to post this. There is one cat that's been hanging around our house lately, but there used to be many more (we think they were eaten by coyotes). Seavy is about 9 months old if that helps

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Your cat was calling and now she's getting huge - I really am mystified that you think you need a second opinion.

The one most likely to be expressed here is that she should have been spayed before she got pregnant, and that hopefully she will be when the kittens are weaned.

BTW she can get pregnant again very soon after having kittens, so you should keep her in.  You also don't want to end up having to hand-rear tiny kittens if she goes out and doesn't come back.  They are vulnerable and fragile, and it takes a lot of time and effort.

Here's the thing about cats: if they are over 4 months old, not spayed, and have been outdoors or a tomcat has been indoors with them, they're pregnant. Always. That's what cats do. They don't even have to be in heat to get pregnant. And toms will come from miles away to mate with a female in heat so it doesn't matter how few cats are around your house.

And, yeah, she looks pregnant to me. Cats are pregnant for about 9 weeks, so if you're pretty sure she wasn't mated before, she should be having the babies in about 3 weeks.

Yes, I would agree t hat she is definitely pregnant and 65/66 days after she got out and mated you can expect kittens. She is still very young to have a litter, and may not know what to do at first so you will have to keep a close watch that she is feeding and cleaning the kittnes properly. Often young first-time mothers are a bit overwhelmed.

Right now, coming up to delivery, she should be fed some extra food - kitten formula will give her extra nutrients, and be given a choice of nesting places in quiet places away from the main traffic of the house. There is lots of information on htis site on how to help a mother before and immediately after delivery. And do make sure you have your vet's number handy in case something goes wrong - you do not want to be searching for it in the middle of the night if there is a kitten stuck and the mom is in distress.

Be very careful not to let her out in the days immediately before you expect the birth or she may disappear and have the kittens somewhere else. If there are coyotes around,a s you say, this is asking for trouble. And afterwards, she could come back into heat within days, so do ask your vet about spaying her - some vets will spay nursing mothers, it does not usually affect their milk.

Good luck with her.

Oriental, we want her to be pregnant, because if we didn't have cats, our property would be invested with rodents. But, we will eventually get her spayed, we just want her to have a batch or two of kittens so that we'll always have cats around. Believe me, if you lived where I did, you would want as many cats as you can get! And the coyotes aren't super close to my house (same with the wild cats), so whenever Speavy is outside, she isn't in any danger, plus we have our dog to watch out for any coyotes. And Speavy is very well cared for, and she knows it, so she wouldn't run off from the place where she is loved and cared for. Jenny, we have been giving her kitten food and just a little bit of kilk poured over it.  Thanks for all of y'all's advice/ inputs!!! My dad will be happy to hear this!!!!

There are shelters than rehome "mousers" specifically to farms, no need for your poor girl to keep having litters and possibly picking up diseases.

Definitely pregnant, IMO. I'd say she is farther along then that. You said she got out around 6 weeks ago? She looks like my cat did within the last week-week and a half and she just delivered today. Good luck with the kittens and PLEASE if your going to use this :mouser cat" population of a plan  then PLEASE at least have them fixed so they arent interbreeding and adding to the feral cat population

Yes she does look pregnant. If you want lots of cats around you would be better off adopting some from the shelter. That way you would be saving lives instead of adding to the pet over population. There might also be rescues in your area that are looking for a place to relocate tnr feral cats, I know
sereveral groups here who could use a relocation site. That way if the money of fixing the cats is an issue these will already be taken care of and all you have to do is feed them, no worries about breeding, and there will always be plenty of cats around. I agree with liliana you need to make sure you spay your mamma and all of the kittens she has so you don't end up with an inbred cat colony around.

Where we live, there are no animal shelters, except for the SPCA, but it's far too expensive to adopt cats, and we have to sign a contact saying that the cats will be indoor only. The cats we get are working cats (and pets, as well ). We live in the country, where there is feed, and wherever there is feed, there will be mice. And like I said, coyotes have been keeping the cat population down around our property. And missymotus, thanks for telling me about that, but again, there's only the SPCA around our house. But, we are aware that she could pick up diseases, and we've been keeping a VERY close watch on Speavy . And I can promise everyone, Speavy will be spayed after this litter, I can promise you that . Thanks again for all of y'all's advice!!!!!

How will you prevent the coyotes getting the new litter? it does sound rather as if they are being bred to be lunch? I know it is difficult on farms, with foxes and coyotes, but can you do anything to cut down the risk?

I agree with Jennyranson....you want kittens to see the cute "factor" ..after the novelty wears off you will stop paying so much attention to the "cuteness" and you'll have a colony that you dont tend to. And then once thats happened its lunch for the wild. Pls do something now

How close is the nearest major city?  I know even in the country that people take trips to the nearest metro area every so often... so do some research, find some rescue groups, and ask them if they have any ferals or 'barn cats' (cats who may have behavioral problems that prevent them from being indoor only) whom they need to rehome.  Ferals and barn cats don't come with the high adoption cost of regular cats.

If the coyotes are so thick that you're noticing their predation on your cats, have you ever thought about getting all your female cats spayed (as in, spay the females in this litter once they get old enough), and then watching what happens with the rodent population over time?  Coyotes will hunt and eat rodents just as easily as they will hunt and eat the new litter of kittens as soon as they are put outside.

Please, look into other options for keeping 'working' cats around your home - make contact with rescue groups in the city.  Spay the females in this most recent litter, and then see if the coyotes can control your rodent problem.  I've seen unspayed farm cat populations before, and they are nothing but a collection of sad stories and suffering.  And yeah, even if they're fed decent food and get flea control, I consider being eaten by a coyote to be some major suffering.  Cats are not wild animals and they are not native to this half of the world - they are a domesticated species, and we are responsible for their well-being.

Wait, I never said that I wanted them for the 'cuteness factor'. I clearly stated that these were going to be working cats, for taking care of the mice around here. We treat our cats well, and it may not even be coyotes killing the wild cats around our house! (just a guess). Dogs are domesticated, cats are able to make it on their own in the wilderness just fine. I understand each and everyone of you being worried about Speavy, but trust me, she is a happy cat, and we don't want to be spending over $100 for cats from a city that's over 3 hours away from our house. Speavy isn't even an outdoor cat, she's only outside during the day, and then sleeps inside at night. Speavy is well-taken care of at my home, and she knows it. If she wasn't taken care of, she would've taken off a loong time ago.

Usually they don't charge anything (or not very much) for the cats in the barn cat program. They know farmers don't want to pay anything for mousers. There's probably a rescue in your area that has a barn cat program. . .there is here, even though I didn't know about it for a long time.

It's always nice if you can prevent some suffering by giving homes to kitties in need . There are just so many of them .

I know quite a bit about barn cats, grew up with them and understand their usefulness. However, you must make a plan for developing and managing the population. You can't just say, she'll have x number of litters and then we'll get her spayed. By then, you will have more pregnant cats to deal with. And if she is spending all her time indoors, she really isn't doing much of anything to help control your rodent population, nor will she be able to teach the kittens how to be effective mousers.

Allowing for some attrition due to coyotes and aggressive males will help manage the colony but expecting an indoor cat to produce and raise mousers is absurd. The best mousers are born in a barn and raised from kittenhood to understand their role. Growing up, our breeder mousers would kill mice early on and provide it to their kittens. So many times I would pluck up a kitten or two from the momma and find a dead mouse underneath them where the momma killed it and provided it to the kittens so they could begin to smell the prey and get a feel for the it. We also knew which kittens were on the path to being good mousers and which would need to be rehomed as pets. Not all kittens were good mousers and some mousers were killed early on by predators, including other males. Maintaining a good balance takes planning and effort. You can't just throw some cats in a barn and hope for the best.

Good luck to your girl though. Kittens having kittens isn't always easy.

cbrice said:

 Dogs are domesticated, cats are able to make it on their own in the wilderness just fine.

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Cats are also a domesticated species.  Their wild counterparts in northern Africa were twice their size.  The cats we know today don't inhabit "wilderness" - they are almost always associated with a food source, such as a farm, or an urban area, or some development by humans that results, whether from food storage, trash, or what-have-you, in vermin that the cats feed on.  I lived right on the edge of a massive wilderness preserve in the southern US - despite there being stray and feral cats in the small neighborhood I was in, there were NO cats in the wilderness preserve.  I have been hiking in countless state and national parks all over the US - in none of these areas have I ever seen a domestic cat.  Ever.  I've seen ringtails, multiple species of foxes, bobcats, lizards, turkeys, deer, coyotes, you name it - but never cats.

RAF, as I have said, there are most likely coyotes around our house, but when I say mice, I mean mice in the barns at my house, and in our garage. The coyotes (that probably inhabit our the woods surrounding our house) are close, but not that close. And eventually, our cat will be outdoor, she likes it outside, in fact. We've already set up a place for her to have her kittens in our garage (safe from all danger). She killed her first mouse when she was 2 months old, and has killed several since.

Kat, bobcats are cats, and are not that much bigger than the common housecat. My dad and I, we aren't the ones providing the mice for our cat. Yes, we are giving her regular cat food, but not the mice, if something were to happen to my family and I (if we died, for example), Speavy, or any cat could make it into the wilderness. Cats have been a part of my childhood, I've sat down and observed every cat I could remember that has lived under our roof.

It's not the first time we've had a cat have kittens. The last cat that had kittens was much older before we got her spayed (she was about 3 before we got her spayed, it was after her second batch, and she was not spayed until after her own kittens were 1 themselves). We know that Speavy could pick up diesease, we are aware of the possibilty of coyotes around our house. Those kittens that the one cat (Rosie) had, they all grew up to be amazing working cats, and the sweetest cats you'd ever meet. Thank-you to those who gave me the answer I asked for as opposed to accusing me and my dad of torturing my cat for not spaying her sooner.

cbrice said:

RAF, as I have said, there are most likely coyotes around our house, but when I say mice, I mean mice in the barns at my house, and in our garage. The coyotes (that probably inhabit our the woods surrounding our house) are close, but not that close. And eventually, our cat will be outdoor, she likes it outside, in fact. We've already set up a place for her to have her kittens in our garage (safe from all danger). She killed her first mouse when she was 2 months old, and has killed several since.
Kat, bobcats are cats, and are not that much bigger than the common housecat. My dad and I, we aren't the ones providing the mice for our cat. Yes, we are giving her regular cat food, but not the mice, if something were to happen to my family and I (if we died, for example), Speavy, or any cat could make it into the wilderness. Cats have been a part of my childhood, I've sat down and observed every cat I could remember that has lived under our roof.
It's not the first time we've had a cat have kittens. The last cat that had kittens was much older before we got her spayed (she was about 3 before we got her spayed, it was after her second batch, and she was not spayed until after her own kittens were 1 themselves). We know that Speavy could pick up diesease, we are aware of the possibilty of coyotes around our house. Those kittens that the one cat (Rosie) had, they all grew up to be amazing working cats, and the sweetest cats you'd ever meet. Thank-you to those who gave me the answer I asked for as opposed to accusing me and my dad of torturing my cat for not spaying her sooner.

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Yes, bobcats are cats, but they are much meaner and are not domesticated. If you are trying to draw a comparison, this one doesn't work. Two different creatures....a housecat doesn't stand a chance against a bobcat.

And if this isn't the first time you've had kittens, you wouldn't need to go on a message board to ask if she was pregnant.

When Rosie had her first batch of kittens, I was in 2nd grade. You can't expect a 7 year old to remember so much about a cat. And please, if you have a problem with the way I am raising my cat, then don't make any smart-mouth comments (better yet, don't comment at all if you don't have anything nice to say). I raise my cat the way I feel is best, and you raise yours the way you feel is best. If you lived on a farm, in a completely remote area like where we live, you would want cats having kittens. My parents do not want to spend money to hire a rescue squad and provide us cats that we aren't familiar with. Yes, we do have an SPCA in the surrounding county, but it's out of our way, and we would have to sign a contract to keep the cat indoors.

I live on a farm in a rural area, and we have working cats. All are spayed and neutered. Many organizations will give you spayed/neutered ferals ( no cost or like a $10 adoption fee) if you live on a farm and agree to feed them. In fact many animal control organizations are desperate for such farms! You might get luck just by asking. I realize that you choose to raise your cat how you are best, we are just offering alternatives that save lives. I am only 20 and I have seen hundreds of cats and kittens put down because people in my rural area started out with a few cats and it turned into 20 or 30 quickly and their are just not enough homes. Kittens born as mousers often don't make it to adulthood as well, maybe one or two from the litter survive. No one can force spaying on your cat but you, but since so many people here are avidly involved in rescue and have seen first hand what human indifference and irresponsibility causes, don't expect much support in your decisions.