Kitten Season is here! Learn about the cat breeding cycle
Kitten season is here with us. And for cat lovers, it may be both an exciting or challenging phase especially if there is a mother cat around. But before we get to learn on what cat lovers get to experience, let’s get to understand what the term ‘Kitten Season’ entails.
What is the Kitten Season?
Kitten Season is the period that would see unaltered cats primarily goes into heat and mate. The warmer months from Match to October would have the ‘tomcat’ looking for love from around its area of dominance.
On the other hand, the female cats (Queens) would come into the Kitten Season as soon as they are just six months of age. This would continue until the queen is about nine years old. Coming into the Kitten Season, a female cat would enhance the seasonal polyestrous capabilities to allow it to have multiple pregnancies with different males.
The mating and pregnancy
The Queen is usually in charge of the coupling, and would often portray signs of being on heat. These signs would have our Miss Kitty make annoying shrill sounds, awful rubbing against anything or drag the hindquarters like in pain. This unfortunate behavior can go on for five days, to last more than a week. At times, the heat cycle can go to over 15 days, if the Queen has not found a mate. A ‘rest period’ of 2 to 14 days known as anestrus would take place before the female cat can resume the heat cycle and start mating once again.
Once successful in attracting a suitor, the Queen would approach the tomcat and make only then would the male cat make courting attempts. The courtship routine would take several hours while the actual mating is just done in a few minutes. The result would see the Queen give birth to about 18 kittens, which is usually a litter of 4-8 produced after every 60 days.
Dealing with a cat on heat
Whatever the case, we still have to consider that the cycle can bring a challenge of kitten overpopulation. The most effective measure to prevent this would be to undertake a spay/neuter program when they are young to make a strong case of birth control. If the cat is already on heat, it would be wise to keep the cat in exercise, away from male cats and use sedative remedies to calm the heat.
Sources: SLU, Wisconsin University, AVMA, NIH
