What do you do when your cats in heat

Originally Posted by stampit3d

Please do let us know if you get to the point of trying to have her spade. there are a lot of us on here that would like to be praying for her.
I`m praying about her little heart already and I hope that you are able to find a solution for her.
By the way...what is her name????
Linda

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Thank you, I really appriciate that. Her name's mama She originally started as pepper but I had to rename her as a 'rebirth' from horrible owner.

I'm sorry to hear about all the bad luck with pets The hardest one for me was with my first cat, cause he was pretty special from the beginning - he died of cancer at age 13. Was a 14 lb. cat when healthy and when I took him in he only weighed 6/7 lbs - a walking skeleton. The vet said "I can give you medicine to keep him alive for a few months or even years, but one day you will come home and he will have died".

I knew Mitten would not want to suffer any more. He's waiting at Rainbow Bridge for me.


I don't know if I could tolerate a cat in heat every 2 weeks and not being bred. Maybe during the winter she will not come in for awhile.

It does seem like, with pets comes the heartache, but usually it is worth it. The worst is when you feel like you could have done something about it. :-/

I was hoping with it being winter here in michigan she wouldn't come into heat as often. I haven't noticed a change yet but she has been out of heat for about 4 days now so that's a pretty good stretch for her

If you have her inside, yes she will probably cycle all year because of the light inside the house. If you can keep her in a room where she has less then 12 hours of light she probably will not cycle. That might work even during kittening season. Maybe you can just keep her on a schedule where you put her in a dark room after a certain time of day.

BTW I think it's called photoperiod anesterus

Thanks for the info, i'm going to look it up right now.
This is the post that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friends...

Originally Posted by lizch6699

Thanks for the info, i'm going to look it up right now.

This is the post that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friends...

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But it is such a ~good~ post from the way I see it - it is informative, educational, at times it is amusing.

We all have so much to learn from each other from sharing our personal experiences. As a breeder, it helps me to be prepared for things I may not have anticipated if I had not learned of them during my visits here. And it helps all of us to have a much better understanding of our cats - which leads us to be better care givers. I am proud of this site and what it does for cat people the world over. And I am proud of the people who are always there with a response.

Originally Posted by lizch6699

Thanks for the info, i'm going to look it up right now.

This is the post that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friends...

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let me know what you find. I hope I spelled it right.

Yes I very much agree, there's tons of stuff that I've learned from being here only a few days and I like being able to contribute the things that I've learned too. I think this is a active post because it's a little uncommon and people keep on a comin back

Bengalbabe, I basically found the same information you said, if I keep her in less than 12 hours of light I may be able to lessen her amount of heat cycles. It's all about trial and error I suppose. It's going to be a fun journey lol

Bengal,

That doesn't always apply (12 hrs of light). My rexes were inside all the time yet they had certain times of the year they did not come in - usually October to the following March. I've had more then one female and they were all like that. I know my house has more then 12 hrs of light between the normal sunshine and regular lights in the house.

I would not count on that to stop a cat from cycling.

Yes but did you use natural daylight bulbs in your house?

My cats live in the sunniest room in the house and hardly ever call. They are Persians and Exotics.

No, they were regular light bulbs - what is the difference and how would that affect whether the cat was in heat or not?

i've been told that natural daylight bulbs will work and that regular lights will not. I think it's working too because I brought my cats in about a week ago and they are both showing lordosis and my male is trying to mate with one of them (although she won't let him yet)
Also, photoperiod anestrus (the opposite effect) is scientific so it is worth a try.

The thing to remember when trying to employ photoperiod anestrus is that light is important, but you will also need to simulate a cooler temperature as well.

With Lexus, I use my bedroom as her confinement area. I move her litter box, food and water dishes and her favorite blankets, toys, scratching post/condo in there and I close off the drapes so that it is dim but not totally dark during the day. At night, I do have a small nightlight on my bedside table, but it is only a small bulb and not much light. I close and cover the heating vent so that the room isn't heated. (It never gets actually ~cold~ in there, but it does stay about 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the house.) Since my desk/home office is in there, I am in with her frequently. I guess I've been lucky as I have had some small success with it.

im not sure if it's so much the amount of light (dim or very bright) as it is the amount of time the cat is exposed to light. Have you tried keeping her in the dark (no nightlight) after 8 hours of light? Im interested to know if that would make any difference at all.

Lol we should conduct a kitty experiment to see what type of light is effective/not effective

yeah each of us can report on how much light/temp and howe many hours of light and what sort of light.

From what I know of photoperiod anestrus, cats must have at least 8 to 12 hours of bright daylight per 24 hour period in order to cycle normally and the temperature needs to be in the mid- to high 60's F. The idea is to simulate Spring as the light is changing.

So what happens if you change things up? Do they not cycle or they just cycle differently?