Females in heat

Hi There,
Im new here and hope i am in the right forum, I have a question that i am struggling to find an answer for.
One of my neighbours cats visits our garden almost daily and recently she showed signs of being in definate heat, roliing, calling and sticking hear rear end up in the air and not to mention the male cats hanging around my house at night after she'd gone. I know that heat cycles can last up to 21 days at most but within a couple of days she went back to normal and the males dissapeared.
my question is does the heat stop right away if she is mated and would this mean she is pregnant as it seemed to go from the height of the heat cycle to nothing within a day or two.

My females that i have owned past and present have always been spayed so this is not something i have experienced first hand.

Thankyou for taking time to read this.

Baby Neo

In my experience, all girls are different, but the majority of them will go out of heat shortly after being bred. this doesn't mean that she is definatly pregnant, but odds are that she probably is.


On a side note, it might be a good idea to inform the owner of the cat what the deal is with the cat. Perhaps they will keep it inside until the kittens are born and find homes for them.

Let us know what happens please.

Hi, Thanks for the reply,

I hadn't seen the cat for a day or two so i went round this morning to the house where i knew that cat lived , i didn't know the owner but as it turns out it was an elderly Couple who had taken the cat in when a friend of Theirs died as there wasn't anybody else who could take it.
They thought that the cat was a male as it had been named Mack and didn't think to check. Thats why they had been letting it out. I informed them of the situation and they have now promised to keep her in and have made an appointment with the vet to get her checked over and get an approximate guess on her age.

If she is pregnant they said they would let her have the kittens and get her spayed once the kittens were found new homes and if not were prepared to get her spayed straight away. i offered to help them find homes for the kittens if indeed there are any. They seemed like a nice couple and genuinly care for the cat in fact the lady of the house felt guilty that she had let this happen but i explained to her we all make mistakes and i know she will do her best for Mack.

Thanks again.

AWESOME JOB!!!!

Thank you, and we hope to see you around!

Just so you know, if she is not very far along in the pregnancy you could have her spayed and then they basically abort the babies. I know it sounds horrible but if the mother cat is too young to properly care for the babies (just because she is in heat doesn't mean she is mature enough to be a mother) or if you just don't want to contribute to the overpopulation problem. It could be better off this way especially if the owner doesn't know how to handle a cat giving birth. She may need emergency vet care or something may go wrong and the woman wouldn't know what to look for etc...

Not to sound harsh or like you should assume something would go wrong, I am just saying that that is an option. When my one of my boyfriends cats was still very young, before her spay appointment came along, she got outside and got pregnant in one night. She was extremely young and shouldn't be having babies in the first place so we had her spayed and the babies aborted. Now she is fine and I am glad we did that.

Sorry if anyone is against this idea, but cats are not people and sometimes it is just necessary when it could be bad for the mother and unhealthy for the kittens. I am not saying it is no big deal and it should be done all the time but ya so anyway sorry if this offends anyone...

Hi Jen
Thanks for your input, This option was discussed, but its not my decision to make. Personally if it were me and if i thought the cat was too young or there were health risks then i would have the babies aborted during the spay operation.

The couple have an appointment at the vet in two weeks, (on the advice of the vet) that way they might have more of an idea if she is pregnant or not.and they were not sure how old the cat is so they will get more of an idea once they have had a chat with the vet, I guess he/she will discuss all the options with them

Like i said it is totally thier decision and i am sure they will do what they think is best for the cat and them.

Thanks again