Preparing Your Cat for Breeding

Proper Care Begins When They’re Kittens

Dec 30, 2007

Immediately after purchasing your breeders, your job begins, from raising and socializing them to health screening and DNA testing.

Raising a Breeding Kitten

There is nothing more important in raising purebred cats than making sure that they have the perfect temperament for their breed. Most families prefer a certain type of personality, whether it be playful or docile, super loving or independent. Remember rule number one of breeding ethics: Always think of the cats first. So your goal in producing kittens should be to find them the perfect forever home where they’ll be safe and happy and loved. Poor personality matches put kitties in shelters.

How do you make sure your cats have the perfect temperament? You spend time with them! Play fetch with your Maine Coon, pamper your Persian, talk to your Siamese! Your happy queen will raise happy kittens. Anxious, nervous, or bad tempered cats should never be bred!

Feline Health Screening

When you buy your kitten, she will come with a health guarantee (never buy a kitten without a health contract). Most breeders require a signed contract agreeing to a specific time period (normally 3 days) in which you must have your kitten screened by your own vet. Your vet will give your kitten their vaccinations, check for general health and wellbeing, internal and external parasites, Feline AIDS and FeLV (Feline Leukemia Virus). You should also have them tested for FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis). Make sure you are aware of all breed specific health problems and have your cat tested for any problems that are common to your breed.

Breed Specific DNA Testing

Before you ever breed your cat, regardless of the health guarantees provided by the breeder where you purchased your kitten, you must perform your own DNA testing for any breed specific genetic illnesses that your cat might carry and pass on to their offspring. Some Persian lines, for example, carry PKD (Polycystic Kidney Disease), and there is a DNA test that can tell you if your cat has PKD. They can’t pass it on to their young if they do not have it, so only PKD negative Persians are bred. It is every breeder’s responsibility to help correct any genetic problems related to their breed, and any reputable breeder will take every precaution they can to make sure that every kitten they produce is perfectly healthy.

Proper Age to Begin Breeding Your Cats

A cat is considered an adult at eight months of age, but this is not when you should begin breeding your cats. You should wait until your cat is at least a year old so that they are mature enough, both physically and emotionally, to raise their kittens. If you intend to have a cageless cattery, this means that you will have to take special precautions to keep your male and female cats separated. Female cats can come into heat as early as four months old, and males can become sexually active by six or seven months old. Allowing them to breed too young can kill your queen and leave you with a litter of orphaned kittens that may not survive.

Care and Grooming for Breeding and Kittening Time

Most breeds don’t need anything more than a good healthy diet when they are carrying their kittens, and some breeders feed their queens kitten food during their last two weeks of pregnancy. Some breeds, however, will require special care for their coat. Persians, for example, need to have their tummy hair trimmed so that kittens can feed easily. A hygiene clip is also a good idea for longhaired breeds so that your queen can stay clean. Some breeders prefer keeping their breeding cats in a lion cut.

Before breeding, it is a good idea to get your cat’s vaccinations updated, have them wormed, and make sure they have no ear mites or fleas. Your cat should be the picture of perfect health before they carry, deliver, and raise a litter of kittens!

How Often Can Cats Be Bred?

Cats in the wild can deliver three litters a year, but this means that they are becoming pregnant while still nursing a litter of kittens. This is very hard on a cat's health and shouldn't be done with breeding cats. Breeding cats can safely have a couple of litters a year. Some breeders recommend breeding consecutive litters and then allowing the queen to rest for the rest of the year, while others let the mother rest for four to six months before breeding the second time. If a queen has a difficult delivery her first time, do not breed her again that year, and if she does have a difficult delivery, make sure to ask your vet’s advice on whether she can be bred again or if she should be spayed.

Remember, before you breed a litter of kittens, make sure you are breeding to improve your breed and that you always put the needs of your cats first.

The copyright of the article Preparing Your Cat for Breeding in Cats is owned by Darlene Cheek. Permission to republish Preparing Your Cat for Breeding in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.