How To Tell If A Cat Is Pregnant
Pets may run away from home and you don’t know what they’re doing until they’ve returned. To avoid problems, and to ensure that your cat is very well taken care of, you should learn how you can tell if your cat is pregnant.
How heat works among cats
A lot of people don’t know that heat is one of the most difficult times of a cat‘s life. As with many species, this is the only time that the cat will be ready to mate with a male. However, male cats are ready and willing all year long.
Females are usually fertile from 8 to 10 months of age. You’ll know that they’ve reached sexual maturity when they’ve attained an ideal weight for adulthood. However, other breeds of cats may experience heat at different ages.
Cats are solitary animals and they usually don’t like to be in groups. So, part of the feline’s mating ritual is to locate a mate using a persistent, high-picked meow. Cats are especially affectionate during this time, and their owners may even see it as annoying. When you pet them, they may even put themselves in a mating position.
Cats usually go through heat every two or three weeks. A cat will go into heat once they start to emit a shrill meow. This lasts from four to six days if it finds a male to mate with. At the end of the process, the ovaries will stop producing hormones.
As for the males, they tend to be more active between September and March. But they can mate at any time during the year. During these months, they tend to be more aggressive and territorial, and they’ll mark the entire house with their pheromone filled urine.
How to detect if your cat is pregnant
Pregnancy for cats usually lasts between 60 and 70 days. In general, it’s very difficult to know if a cat is pregnant during the first week of gestation unless you’re a very experienced breeder. However, a cat may experience nausea and mood swings during the early stages of pregnancy, just as women do.
At 15 to 18 days, the cat’s breasts will begin to swell and become rosier. They will gain weight by one or two kilos throughout the pregnancy. Also, their belly will naturally increase in size and she approaches her due date.
Veterinarians usually detect pregnancy from the fifteenth day of gestation. They will use an ultrasound to check if the kittens are healthy. As the pregnancy progresses, the vet will run more tests to see how many kittens will be in the litter, and if your cat will need any kind of nutritional supplement.
You can tell when a cat is going to give birth by their meowing. They will have a lot of vaginal secretion and experience a loss of appetite. Try to set up a place that’s peaceful and quiet for the cat to give birth. Also, be sure to always have a phone nearby to call the vet in case there are any serious complications.