 You have to keep an eye on your female cats from a very early age to avoid an unwanted pregnancy. During this stage, your feline will display the prominent signs of going into heat.
2. Early Pregnancy: This is the part of the pregnancy where a cat will experience morning sickness and begin developing an increased appetite as nausea wanes. The bodies of the kittens become more pronounced and can be felt through the stomach.
3. Mid-Pregnancy: At this point, your cat is growing ever larger as she accommodates an entire litter of kittens in her womb. The veterinarian should be able to do perform an x-ray to see the kittens and tell you how many there are.
4. Pre-labor: Roughly one to two weeks before the kittens are born, your cat will start to develop milk and create a nest for herself. This is where she plans to go into labor. She may also stop eating a couple days before labor.
5. Labor and Delivery: Your cat will start to let you know she is in labor by pacing anxiously and yowling in discomfort. She might lick her genitals as the process is beginning. One hour in, you should see one kitten born with others coming every fifteen minutes after. She will clean the kittens afterward. They will go eight to twelve weeks with the mom before being weaned.
How Long are Cat Pregnancies?
After seeing how few stages of cat pregnancy there are, you might wonder how long the whole pregnancy lasts. The entire thing is a relatively short process. The gestation period for a cat is typically between sixty and seventy days.
Keep in mind that most people won’t notice the pregnancy until the thirty-day mark. This means that you only have a few weeks left until you need to prepare for a litter of kittens!
How to Prevent Cat Pregnancy
The best way to prevent cat pregnancy is to have your female cat spayed. This will keep your cat from becoming pregnant at any point during her life.
Your cat may even benefit from having this procedure done because it can help to limit their hormones and calm them down. A lifetime of going into heat without ever mating can be uncomfortable and tiresome for a female cat.
However, you might choose to allow your cat to live without spaying her (though we recommend getting her spayed). In this situation, you really need to ensure that you only have female cats and they stay indoors altogether. This prevents them from having run-ins with male cats while they are in heat and creating unwanted pregnancies and litter. Sometimes, you may not notice that your cat is in heat until it’s too late.
PLEASE SPAY/NEUTER YOUR PETS to help with overpopulation! 🙂
Vets can also help you to induce ovulation in your cat and stop them from going into heat for a month or two at a time. This gives you a temporary respite from worrying about pregnancy, but it may not be a great long-term solution. Hormonal therapy can also be used to manipulate your cat’s reproductive ability.
Final Thoughts: Ultimate Guide to Cat Pregnancy
Navigating the waters of pregnancy with your cat can be both exciting and scary depending on whether your kittens were planned or not. This should give you all of the information you need to know to help your cat handle motherhood gracefully. Start preparing to help your cat take care of kittens or take the steps to prevent a pregnancy today!