When should you breed your cat?

If you are a cat breeder, and new to cat breeding, here is some information I’ve picked up on when to breed your cat:

1.  If your queen is a maiden queen (i.e. never been bred before), then the rule of thumb seems to be wait until she is a year old, or has called at least 3 times. However, some breeds of cats come into call earlier than 12 months.  For e.g. the Orientals have been known to go on heat at 4 months old! 

In the end, you have to play it by ear – a calling cat can lose condition if she calls repeatedly – and take the advice of the breeder who sold you your queen.  She owns the mother cat to your cat, and in most instances what applies to the mother cat applies to the daughter too.

2.  You don’t want to have your queen calling repeatedly because of the possibility of her developing pyometra which is an infection of the uterus.  It is a condition that all breeders fear and dread because undetected it can be fatal.  A holistic cat breeder in the US told me that a healthy cat (raw-fed, unvaccinated from a line of unvaccinated cats) should not pyo, but of course the reality is that breeders are not all able to have such cats, and in any event, genetics plays a part too.

3.  The GCCF guidelines on how often to breed your cat is that she may have 3 litters in two years.  Again, and maybe I’m rocking the boat, but it depends on how old your cat is, and how large the litters are. 

Some breeders prefer to breed a cat more when she is younger and has more strength and resources in her body to nurture kittens, and then neuter her early. 

Some breeders say wait at least 9 months so that the queen has enough time to build up her iron stores for the next pregnancy.

4.  If your queen has had a very small litter, e.g. 2 or fewer kittens, she may come into heat fairly shortly after kittening.  This happened last year.  My girl had a litter of 3 (1 died) and started calling 3.5 weeks after giving birth.  

A breeder wrote into me and said that that was nature’s way of telling me that this litter/birth was “a walk in the park for her system” and that she bred her cats more frequently when young and then neutered them.  However, I took the advice from other breeders and didn’t breed her that time. 

I’ve since heard another school of thought:  if a girl has a very small litter and comes into call soon after, and hasn’t lost much condition, if you breed her as soon as she comes into call, this next litter will be a large-ish one.  Apparently, and I don’t know if it’s true, I’ve heard that this is the practice that some US breeders have adopted. 

The explanation given to me was something along the lines of:  each time a cat calls and not bred, the eggs in her ovaries that are ready for insemination get old and are discarded by her body.  Each time she calls, fewer and fewer eggs are therefore available for insemination.  So it’s best to breed as soon as she starts calling after giving birth to a small litter.

There are lots more articles on the web about when to breed your cat – please consult them and don’t take this one as gospel truth.  At the end of the day, you (with the advice of your vet) know your cat best and will know when to breed her.