My new kittens - advice needed

[sazzy69]

Me and the other half decided to adopt a young cat/kitten as a companion for our older cat. After doing some searches I found two free to good home sooo we've ended up acquiring both..

Theyre 16weeks & were advertised as boys.. But on closer inspection they're a boy and lil girl.. Which is lovely too <3 they're settling in brilliantly, we love the different little personalities & they love my curtains haha

 

Sooo I just need abit of advice please..

1)This may seem a silly question but at what age can females get pregnant? (we do not want accidents)

 

2)recommendations on vets for neutering or of any offers for neutering?

 

3) how long do u keep them inside for? as I'm scared of them escaping!

 

Thanx muchly

[bogwoppit]

I think neuter at around five months, but if they're particularly small it may be a month or so later - then let them recover and let them out. Boy shouldn't mature enough by then to be able to impregnate her.

Good luck

[medusa]

Firstly, congratulations on your new family members You're going to have an interesting few months in your home, aren't you? :D

 

To answer your questions:

 

1) Girlies can get pregnant any time from around 20 weeks, but if your other cat isn't an entire tom it's not a problem as long as you don't let her out, because toms aren't fertile until at least 7 months (often 9 months or later) so you have a few weeks to sort them out. Toms often can't be neutered until after 6 months because they can't be done until their testicles are properly developed and dropped, so my advice would be to organise for the girly to be spayed at 5-6 months which takes babies out of the equation and then get him done a little later.

 

2) Virtually all vets are competent with neutering, so you'll end up choosing on price, location and things like out of hours cover, rather than competence. It's always worth asking the Cats Protection people if they have any vouchers available, but if you're not on a low income that may be the only place that offers vouchers or offers.

 

3) The easy advice for letting them out is to wait until they're neutered and even then introduce them carefully and with supervision to the outside world. At 6 months they would still be 6 months away from true independence in the cat world, and a kitten having babies of her own would be doing so within the matriarchal society of a cat colony and she would still be learning from her own mum. People forget that we need to take the place of their parents when it comes to being young and stupid