Breeding cats
“And today our cat gave birth to kittens yesterday. Kittens have grown a little bit, but they don’t want to eat from a saucer. ” Remember these children’s poems? Yes, cats are very prolific. They are able to reproduce from 6-10 months of age, and bring 6 or more kittens at the same time three times a year.
Sexual arousal usually occurs 2 times a year. At this time, a calm animal abruptly changes its behavior — it rubs against various objects, swings along the floor on its back, flips from side to side, walks with its tail held high, loudly, “with passion” meows, actively marks the apartment, including furniture, walls, shoes and other items, acrid by smell smell.
As a rule, this moment comes in February-March, then in May-June. It was during this period that “cat concerts” sounded under the windows of the houses, when the males gathered from all the environs found out the relationship and made a claim to the heart of the chosen one.
Usually these competitions consist in demonstration of a voice and fighting enthusiasm, but sometimes there are fights between the boyfriends. The final choice of a partner among the applicants belongs to the “lady”, and most often he becomes her “knight” for life.
Pregnancy lasts from 58 to 69 days. At this time, the cat behaves calmly, climbs to the owner, moves little, eats a lot, searches for the most comfortable, secluded place. By the end of the term the owner must take care of the creation of a “delivery room”.
The best way to do this is to adapt a box (50 X 50 X 45 cm) with an entrance width of 15–20 cm. Light-washable material (foam rubber, porous rubber) is suitable for bedding; rags and rags are put on top of it. Usually, the cat copes with the responsible act on its own, but if the contractions are long and fruitless, or the interval between the appearance of the next kitten reaches 4 hours, you need to call the veterinarian.
Now some owners resort to sterilization of animals to avoid pre-and postnatal troubles.
Without attempting to assess this (it is difficult to objectively evaluate the pros and cons of this operation), the authors provide the reader with a solution to the issue of their choice.
