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As other small mammals (rabbit, ferret, mink…), the female cat has induced ovulation, that is to say that she can only ovulate after a male has stimulated her by means of the sexual intercourse. This ovulation type may give rise to anyone of the following reproductive peculiarities:
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- Pseudo pregnancy, that is to say, not fertile mating. The female cat ovulates but fecundation of these ovums doesn't take place. Even this way, the female cat shows false symptoms of pregnancy during about 35-45 days, after which she restarts her normal heat cycle again.
- Super fecundation. A female cat can give birth, in a same litter, different parents' kittens if she has mated with more than a male in the same heat cycle. This aspect is important in the case of programmed breeding of breed cats.
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The diagnosis of the pregnancy can be made by abdominal palpation since the 20 day of pregnancy or better still, by means of a fetus scan since the 15 day of pregnancy. The gestation usually lasts about 64-67 days of average and, during that time, it is important to pay special attention to the cares of the pregnant female cat:
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- Provide to your female cat a specific feeding for pregnant cat and in more abundant quantities that used to. She needs to increase the ingestion a 25% more than used to.
- Maintain a quiet and calm atmosphere, without frights (noises, strange visits, undue manipulations of the cat, intrusion of strange cats…), during the whole period of gestation of your cat.
- Avoid unnecessary removals of your cat to another environment (house changes…).
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Some days before the “big day”, prepare a sufficiently wide box or basket, comfortable and conditioned with some towel, rug or blanket (preferably already used by your female, for the scent) as if it was a "nest ". Locate this box in a calm, dark place and little converged of the house (both for human and other cats) and show it to your female so that she assumes as its own.
The last days previous to the birth, the female is shown more inactive and heavier than used to and, as the critical moment come closer, she appears very restless and reserved. When the female is just in labour, is very probable that she will go to in search of her owner's and demand his support and supervision.
On the contractions beginning, the female spreads on a side and after, she goes expelling the puppies with very variable intervals: from the first one to the second and successive she can spend from some minutes until one hour. For this reason, it is very usefully to know in advanced, thanks to the pregnancy diagnostic scan, how many kittens does she are expecting. Normally, the size of the litters is usually from 1 to 5 kittens, although the beginner moms usually have less extensive litters (one or two kittens).
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| As the kittens go being born, their mom retires them the placenta, she eats up it, short the umbilical cord and clean perfectly each little kitten. It is possible that beginner females need some help in these tasks, so is not of more the help of their owners if it is the case. Immediately afterwards, instinctively the kittens begin to look for her mummy teats to suckle the beestings (or first milk), very important to secure their immunological system and, therefore, their later life expectancy.
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| Kittens are born, deaf and blind, with an approximate weight of 70-100 gr. (that are daily increased by 10-15 gr.) and about 10 cm. long. Until the first week of life they don’t open their eyes, which are of blue colour until the two or three months-old that begin to become green. The breeder feeding period is prolonged during the following 8 later weeks from the birth. During this time, It is habitual that the female cat doesn't have the heat cycles.
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