Of course, we all know that kittens come from cat mothers. But where do mother cats get them? That is the mystery I am about to solve for you.
Yes, my mother explained “birds and bees” to me, so I know all about procreation. Possibly the fact that I have six children has also helped shed some light on the process, but I’ve never done a study of what goes into making a litter of kittens.
And yes, I am a big believer in spaying and neutering our dogs and cats as there are too many unwanted kittens and puppies out there living in an uncaring world.
However, for those of you who are as curious as I am, let’s venture into the exciting and romantic world of “kitty love”.
A “tom cat” is always looking for love (sounds familiar) and for those of you who don’t know; a “tom cat” is a male cat that has not been neutered.
Female cats are known as “queens” and if not spayed they will come into “season” at six months of age and continue until they are around eight or nine years old. A female cat may go into heat during the spring; summer and early fall with the pregnancy process taking between 60 to 65 days to give birth. During the spring and summer, a cat will go through “heat” cycles continuously until she breeds, has a false pregnancy, or winter approaches. Breeders can keep a queen in breeding condition by housing the female in an area with about 14 hours of light, 10 hours of darkness, and consistent temperatures.
There is no exact time for the heat cycle to last, for some queens it can be five to eight days or as short as 3 days and as long as 20 days. If the queen has not mated during that period, she will go into a “rest period” for a short period (2 to 14 days or more) and then resume the cycle once more.
Nature, knowing that procreation does not always occur at the same time (at the first mating), made it necessary for Miss Kitty to mate several times during her season. This can be with the same male or with many males. Many parents can produce a litter of kittens, but each kitten is the product of its own father and not several.
When it comes to mating, our Miss Kitty is in charge, giving plenty of hints of things to come. In what is known as pre-heat, she will make really horrible scratchy sounds, rub against anything she can and/or crawl slightly dragging her hindquarters as if she is in pain. It’s not a good time to be around your cat when this happens.
If a man isn’t standing around the corner, Miss Kitty will spread her scent around the neighborhood announcing her availability, this coupled with her meowing and break dance routine will definitely attract some male visitors.
Once this is accomplished, Miss Kitty will make her choice of suitor. The male does not approach her, she chooses him and only then will she make any attempt at courtship. The noisy courtship routine can last for hours, but the actual mating will take only a few minutes.
The mating routine is more like a free-for-all, with Miss Kitty being extremely vocal and obnoxious. She will roll over and try to bite her suitor and so he will grab her neck to prevent her from scratching or biting him.
Once the action is done, the tom will run away as fast as possible. Leaving Miss Kitty to continue her act of being a wild woman. She will then calm down and clean up and be ready again in 10 minutes to try again with a new suitor. During a heat cycle, this could happen up to 25 to 30 times.
Once Miss Kitty is pregnant, she will do her best to be a good mother and take care of her kittens until they are ready to live on their own.
Kittens will never know daddy, as male cats don’t need kittens, theirs or not.
And now you know the mystery of where the kittens came from.