At What Age Can You Neuter a Cat

What is the best historic period to get your kitten spayed or neutered? For most pet owners, is recommended to spay/neuter kittens by 5 months of age in order to prevent unwanted litters, co-ordinate to the American Animate being Hospitals Clan.

This page contains chapter links which means I may earn a committee on qualifying purchases at no price to you.

There are and then many cats without homes that some shelters neuter kittens early on, at 8 – 12 weeks old, then they are neutered prior to adoption. This is the but way they can guarantee that a kitten will be neutered. These days, the early neutering of kittens from six - 14 weeks old is supported past organizations such as the American Association of Feline Practitioners (many vets set a weight limit of at to the lowest degree 1kg).

In the past, cats were normally neutered at half dozen – 8 months old. But even kittens tin can have kittens, so this does not prevent unwanted litters. Information technology comes as a surprise to many people that even a four-month old kitten tin take kittens.

Kittens, like puppies, take a sensitive menstruum that is an of import socialization opportunity; if not properly socialized during this time, they volition be more fearful equally adults. Therefore some people worry that early on neutering could cause behaviour problems considering information technology happens during the socialization window.

To find out, Natalie Porters et al (2014) of Ghent University in Belgium studied a sample of 800 shelter kittens. Half of the kittens were assigned to an early neutering group, and half to be spayed/neutered at the traditional age. At that place were approximately equal numbers of male person and female kittens in each grouping.

The people who adopted the kittens were asked to take part in the study. They completed a daily diary for the starting time xxx days as a short-term follow-up, and were surveyed on several subsequent occasions upwardly til 24 months later. 480 cats were included in the final assay, which is a very high charge per unit of participation from the owners.

The questionnaires asked about potentially undesirable behaviours such as inappropriate emptying, fearful behaviour, assailment, destruction, sucking on fabric, and vocalizing too much. Whether or non these behaviours are actually problematic depends on the owner's viewpoint, so if the true cat did any of these things, the owner was besides asked to say if it was a problem. (Unsurprisingly, inappropriate elimination was always considered a problem).

The results are adept news for shelters that want to spay/neuter kittens early: behaviour issues were not more common in cats where this was done at an early historic period compared to those who had the op at a more traditional historic period.

The curt-term follow-up found that if owners reported employ of physical punishment, their cats were 12 times more than probable to show inappropriate elimination. In the first 30 days after adoption, if owners used verbal or concrete penalisation, they were also more likely to report play-related aggression, destructive behaviour and a fearful response to noises or movement.

This is in line with studies in dogs that find positive punishment is linked to behaviour issues (east.g. Herron et al 2009). However, because the data is correlational, it doesn't tell us what the cause is. For example, information technology'south possible that the new kitten pees on the carpet and and then gets punished; or that the kitten is punished, becomes stressed or fearful and then pees on the carpet. Perhaps people who use punishment for misdemeanours don't know how to business firm-train a true cat, and then learning to utilize the litter box proceeds at a slower footstep.

"if owners reported use of concrete penalization, their cats were 12 times more likely to evidence inappropriate emptying."

Incidentally if your new kitten needs aid with house-training, put them in the litter box just after eating and scratch in the litter with your finger to requite them the correct idea. They may need to be restricted to one room until they've got the hang of things. At that place's an excellent chapter on litter problems in kittens and cats in Pam Johnson-Bennett's book Think Like a Cat: How to Raise a Well-Adjusted Cat--Not a Sour Puss.

The short-term follow-upward also found that cats in multi-cat households were less likely to be fearful or to exist aggressive in play, and cats whose owners spent more than time with them were less probable to be fearful or eliminate inappropriately. Kittens who were friendly to a stranger prior to adoption were less likely to be fearful or aggressive to family members after on.

This suggests that it's a good idea to choose a kitten that is friendly to you, instead of shy or fearful, when y'all meet it for the outset time.

Over the long-term, physical and verbal penalisation were linked to increased destruction and more non-play-related aggression to people. Even so these cats were also less fearful, which may exist that owners of fearful cats sensibly did not punish them. Existence in a multi-cat household was linked to less destruction.

But at that place is a puzzling finding that when cats had ii or 3 positive interactions with the possessor during the twenty-four hour period, they were rated as more likely to show destruction, fear or play-related aggression (east.g. attacking easily whilst playing). Is it that the owner was around more to notice these behaviours, or that from the true cat's perspective the interactions were not quite so positive? In one study, cats whose owners played with them for at least 5 minutes a solar day were less likely to have behaviour issues (Strickler and Shull 2014).

This is an excellent study because it involved a large number of cats and followed them up over both the brusque and long-term. The authors say, "from a behavioural point of view, pre-pubertal gonadectomy tin exist recommended for shelter cats." An update to the study in 2022 also institute no boosted behaviour problems in cats that had had an early on spay/neuter (Moon et al 2018).

The findings about punishment, multiple cats in the household, and time spent with the owner are all worthy of follow-up. I would love to know more about how aspects of daily life with the owner affect feline behaviour.

For tips on how to treat your kitten, check out my book Purr: The Scientific discipline of Making Your Cat Happy.

Is your cat spayed/neutered, and if and then what age was it done?

Useful links:

You might also like:

• 5 things to do for your true cat today
• Enrichment tips for cats (that many people miss)
• How to pet cats and dogs

References American Association of Feline Practitioners (2011) Position statement on early spay and neuter.
Herron, M., Shofer, F., & Reisner, I. (2009). Survey of the use and outcome of confrontational and non-confrontational grooming methods in client-owned dogs showing undesired behaviors Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 117 (1-2), 47-54 DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2008.12.011

Moons, C. P., Valcke, A., Verschueren, Thousand., Porters, N., Polis, I., & de Rooster, H. (2018). Effect of early-age gonadectomy on behavior in adopted shelter kittens—The sequel. Journal of veterinary beliefs, 26, 43-47.

Porters, Due north., de Rooster, H., Verschueren, Thou., Polis, I., & Moons, C. (2014). Development of behavior in adopted shelter kittens after gonadectomy performed at an early age or at a traditional age Journal of Veterinarian Behavior: Clinical Applications and Enquiry, 9 (5), 196-206 DOI: ten.1016/j.jveb.2014.05.003
Strickler, B., & Shull, East. (2014). An owner survey of toys, activities, and behavior problems in indoor cats Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research, 9 (v), 207-214 DOI: ten.1016/j.jveb.2014.06.005

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Equally an Etsy affiliate, PopArtYou affilliate, Doggy Geeks University affiliate and Marks and Spencer affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

yarbrotinshe.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2015/01/does-it-matter-what-age-you-neuter-your.html

Share this post