queen is pacing - 5 weeks pregnant with her first litter

Hello! Im hoping to get some insight from some experienced breeders here.
I am a new Ragdoll breeder, and my Queen, Bella, is just short of being 5 weeks pregnant. We have been through the pinking stage, and she started showing at around 3 weeks. She is a petite girl, so i guess thats why she started showing a bit early.

So, my concern is this..... starting only a couple hours ago, Bella started pacing and meowing. She will come to me and meow, then get into her litter box, immediately get back out, come to me again, pace some more, go to her food dish, and you catch my drift. She is constantly meowing while doing all of this. I know that queens will sometimes confuse labor with needing to use the litter box. So that particularly grabbed my attention.

She is still eating. And im pretty confident that I got the date of conception right, as I heard the mating. i didnt witness it though, so there is a VERY small part of me that thinks she could be further along than what I think. But if that were the case, if she got pregnant while she was in her prior heat cycle, then she wouldnt have gone back into heat again (which is when I heard them mating).

So I guess my qjestion is, do first time mothers normally do the things I described above, even weeks before they are due? Iz she just uncomfortable and unsure of what is going kn with her body? Today is Saturday, my vet isnt open. So my only alternative is the animal hospital, which is incredibly expensive. I will pay their ridiculous rates IF I must, but I want to avoid it if possible.

If she is in labor this early, can be he vet give her medication to stop labor like doctors do humans?

Im VERY concerned, so all advice is welcomed, and appreciated more than I can express.

Thanks in advance, and have a blessed weekend!

ragdolls4life said:

Hello! Im hoping to get some insight from some experienced breeders here.
I am a new Ragdoll breeder, and my Queen, Bella, is just short of being 5 weeks pregnant. We have been through the pinking stage, and she started showing at around 3 weeks. She is a petite girl, so i guess thats why she started showing a bit early.

So, my concern is this..... starting only a couple hours ago, Bella started pacing and meowing. She will come to me and meow, then get into her litter box, immediately get back out, come to me again, pace some more, go to her food dish, and you catch my drift. She is constantly meowing while doing all of this. I know that queens will sometimes confuse labor with needing to use the litter box. So that particularly grabbed my attention.

She is still eating. And im pretty confident that I got the date of conception right, as I heard the mating. i didnt witness it though, so there is a VERY small part of me that thinks she could be further along than what I think. But if that were the case, if she got pregnant while she was in her prior heat cycle, then she wouldnt have gone back into heat again (which is when I heard them mating).

So I guess my qjestion is, do first time mothers normally do the things I described above, even weeks before they are due? Iz she just uncomfortable and unsure of what is going kn with her body? Today is Saturday, my vet isnt open. So my only alternative is the animal hospital, which is incredibly expensive. I will pay their ridiculous rates IF I must, but I want to avoid it if possible.

If she is in labor this early, can be he vet give her medication to stop labor like doctors do humans?

Im VERY concerned, so all advice is welcomed, and appreciated more than I can express.

Thanks in advance, and have a blessed weekend!

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oh yeah, she could.  Its not common but does happens, they do carry two different litters simultaneously, usually thhree weeks apart.  So they being in heat / mated, although already preg, is not that unique   - we KNOW it does happens, even if theroetically they arent supposed to.

But, if she got preg earlier, she would also get pinked up earlier,  and I suppose you would notice that.   So, we can rule that out.

What is left.  Symptoms as in distress of some sort. Pregnancy or something else.   I mean, she MAY get sick although preg.

Normally I would recommend here asap contact with your vet.  If this is full emergency, I dont know, but some sort of vet contact is wise. Dont you have alternative vets around? Or perhaps your own vet accepts phone calls to home from his paying patients?

Continuing. It could be some precontractions, they are common enough, but these comes usually somewhat later in the pregnancy.

I suggest you speak to a vet. She may have a UTI with the litter box behavior. It's best to get her checked out.

I agree that you should speak to a vet. I also wonder if it's wise for your male cat to have constant access to your females? I can't imagine it's good for them to constantly have him trying to mate, and you are also making it more likely that you'll have pre-term kittens if some were conceived on different days.

Thank you all for your responses. Bellas "labor like" behavior stopped last night. She seems to be back to normal so far today as well. I am still going to take her to the vet tomorrow though, just to be sure.

I have tried keeping Bella and my stud separated. But ot seems to cause a LOT of stress for both of them. They have been inseparable for basically their whole lives. Even when one of them ends up in a room when we close the door, they both constantly meow until we open the door. I really didn't see a problem with my stud having free range of my house, because he dosent ever try to mount bella unless she is in heat. When Bella went into heat for the first time, and the second time, I didnt want bella to beeed yet because she wasn't 18 months old yet. So I kept a very close watch on them. My stud had no experience, so he was pretty much just mounting her side and leg, and bella would just flop over onto her back and swat at him playfully. When her cycle got strong, for 2 days or so, I sent my stud to my father in laws house until bellas cycle ended. I did that with her first 2 cycles. After that, she hit 18 months old, so I let my stud stay through the whole cycle. She had 2 cycles with my stud around, where my stud just couldn't get the hang of things. He was still aiming everywhere except for where he was supposed to. Even when bella was showing strong signs of heat. Then the 3rd cycle, Taz figured it out. They mated with bella being extremely willing, for almost 2 days. Then Bella stopped getting into position when he would mount her. A day after that, my stud stopped mounting her all together. Now its been almost 5 weeks, and my stud hasnt bothered her at all. The most he has done is get on her nerves because he wamts to play and shes sleepy.

If he were more aggressive and he were trying to mount her, I would absolutely seperate them. I just feel that it would he cruel to cage my stud, or keep them apart when they clearly both want to be around one another. If things change, I will do what is necessary, absolutely. The health of my cats and the kittens are the most important things to me. So if things get out of hand, my stud will be taking a vacation at my father in laws house.

She will probably not want him around when she's at the end of her pregnancy and once the kittens are born. And she can go back into heat very quickly after giving birth, so you will not want him to have access to her that soon. She needs a good six months off at least before having another litter.

I would also worry about silent heats.

Yes, I only plan to breed her 1 time this year, due to her just coming of age. Next year I will start twice a year, with 6 minths between each mating. And I plan to breed her only once a year, every other year. So one year I breed her once, the next year, I breed her twice, then back to once, and so on.

Does that sound like an acceptable rate for her? Any less than that, I worry about health issues.

My mentor has educated me on all things breeding for the past 4 years. I have a great relationship with him, and hes normally there to answer my questions with no delay. But yesterday I got a bit impatient because I was worried. So I decided to post my concern here. He actually wamted me to start letting Bella breed at 15 months. But said that of I were more comfortable waiting until 18 months, It would be ok. So thats what I did, waited.

If at ANY time, Bella seems to want to be left alone, I have arrangements made for my stud. But for now, it would just cause more stress on her if I separated them. I also have a "nursery/queen room" to put Bella in towards the end, so she can have her kittens in peace. Its a spare bedroom so its plenry big enough. And I dont have to cage anyone. I can also alternate who stays in the cat room once the kittens get old enough to run around. If it starts making either of them unhappy, I can let my stud go to my father in laws for a few months. Im prepared for most things.

What would you all recommend I do? I honestly didnt think about silent heats. It would tear them both up if they had to stay seperate except for mating.

I like your plan. At some point you will want to keep a female kitten, because this queen will need to retire and be spayed and enjoy the rest of her life in peace. They are usually retired by age 6. And you may want another male stud from a non-related litter, to avoid mating a queen with her brother or father. No need to worry about this right now though.

I think your plan sounds like a good one.  I would still worry about things not going according to plan, like her getting pregnant when you didn't expect.  You seem very thoughtful and I'm sure will do what is best for your cats.