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 | Foster Homes Needed |
| TOO MANY KITTENS! |
| Declawing: the TRUTH |
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| Commandments of Pet Ownership |
| VIDEO - Population Control |
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NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES Winter 2005 NOTE NEW: PO Box 6182 NewsFlash 12/05 PressRelease 12/05 CNYCC Flyer Spring 2006 |
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BOARD MEMBERS
Links
President:
Darrell Marcy
VicePresident:
Sandra Karl
Treasurer:
Oliver Brown
Secretary:
Maria Poulson
Members:
Holly Hall
Melinda Whelan
Kay Seibert
Carol Barrreiro
Susan Gordon
David Kriesel
Kate Moore
TOO MANY KITTENS!
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Each day an average of 70,000 puppies and kittens are born, only about 10,000 humans are born on the same day! At this rate there will never be enough homes for all the animals. Pet overpopulation is a tremendous problem. One female cat can produce 3 litters in one year, with an average of 4-6 kittens per litter. A female cat can go into heat and get pregnant while still nursing a litter of kittens and can mate with multiple partners. Great care should be taken to prevent your pet from unplanned breeding.
The best solution is to spay your female kitten and neuter your male kitten before they reach sexual maturity. But it's never too late - especially if your cat has already had a litter or two.
Female cats begin coming into heat as early as 4 months old. Once they begin their heat cycles, they can go in and out of heat every 3 to 4 weeks until you either have them spayed or they become pregnant. During this time they may engage in behaviors such as frequent yowling and urination in unacceptable places.
It is best to have your kitten spayed at about 4 months old before they ever start their heat cycle. An unspayed female can have as many as three litters a year and you could have a lot of homeless kitties on your hand.
The first sign that your cat is going into heat is that she will be more affectionate. This part may be more difficult to determine if you have an already loving pet.
When you’re petting her, she may raise her hind end in the air. You might notice that she gets low to the ground, raises her back end, and purrs like crazy. and she may begin to roll around on the floor. Within a couple of days, she will begin calling, move her tail to the side and start marching with her back legs. At this point, she is in full-blown heat and will begin accepting males.
All your cat is interested in at this time is breeding, and she is serious about it, even the most docile indoor cat will try to escape to find a male to breed with.
Neutering a male cat does more than prevent your cat from producing unwanted kittens, it is an excellent step in helping your young man grow into a loving well-adapted household pet. A good reason to neuter a male kitten at a young age is to reduce objectionable behavior normal in the feline world, spraying, roaming and fighting, but undesirable in the house of humans.
Male cats are known to spray and there are several reasons they do it. They spray when they’re interested in mating, but many unaltered cats spray to mark their territory, if in a new or unfamiliar place to claim their ground. No cat owner likes it, especially since it is quite foul in odor and persists through just about any cleaning substance. If your cat was sprayed prior to being neutered, he may continue doing so--but at a reduced level.
Neutering a male kitten before he reaches sexual maturity will greatly reduce or may even prevent these behavior patterns from emerging.
