Neuter and microchip you cats
/A note to our cat loving community
Kitten season is upon us. Already, charities and rescues are having multiple births to add to the strains of everyday rehoming.
If you have a cat or kitten, please, PLEASE get them neutered and microchipped.
Young cats should be neutered by 5-6 months. There is no need for a female to have a ‘first heat cycle’; in fact it will be detrimental to their behaviour – female cats, when in season will do everything they can to follow their biological need. Intact male cats will want to wander and sow their seed; they will scrap and fight, claw and tooth for access to a female, and for territory, and are at greater risk of disease and infection which they can pass on to a female mate and she to her kittens.
They will take any opportunity to slip out of the door past your feet, they will take any opportunity to escape an open window, they will cross busy roads to follow their biological needs increasing the risk of a traffic accident.
An intact female will look for a mate; an intact male will mate with any female in heat. This is biology, not opinion.
Neutered cats who escape will generally stay closer and those unneutered will wander further. At best your little female will come across a willing donor soon and be pregnant before you get her back.
https://www.catcuddles.org.uk/why-neuter
https://www.petmd.com/cat/conditions/reproductive/signs-pyometra-cats
https://spayneuter.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Cats-breeding-chart-diagram.jpg
Microchipping your cat will not prevent this behaviour, but neutering almost certainly will.
Microchipping your cat and correctly registering the microchip will increase your chances of getting your beloved cat back should it go a-wandering.
Please ask your vet to microchip at the same time as neutering – it is far kinder to have the chip implanted whilst under anaesthetic. AND REGISTER THE MICROCHIP.
https://www.cats.org.uk/c4/home.asp
https://felinefriendslondon.uk/lostcats
Thank you for reading.
