“Fixing,” “spaying,” “neutering”

A female pet is spayed, which means her ovaries and uterus are removed. (Interestingly, it comes from the old French word espeer, meaning “to cut with a sword.”) A male is neutered, or castrated. Either operation can be done as early as six months of age, and some vets will do it even earlier. The word fix (not a technical term, and not one vets use) applies to either males or females. Cat owners seem much happier once a cat is fixed.

“Whole” cats

A male cat who has never been neutered is called “whole.” While we might debate the subject of whether an adult male human can be happy and psychologically sound while living a celibate life, there is no question that a “whole” tomcat faces a lot more challenges and hazards than a neutered tom. The simple fact is that an unneutered tomcat feels compelled to mate regularly, which usually involves a lot of rambling and fighting with other tomcats. Most cat owners solve this in the obvious way: they neuter the cat.

Oh, those unneutered toms

The slang word tomcat that describes certain actions of human males is rooted in the real behavior of unneutered (“whole”) male cats. Tomcats really do roam around in search of a female in heat, and in doing so they sometimes stray far from home. The quest for a receptive female can lead to fights with other whole toms (besides which, whole toms are much more likely to fight over territory or just fight in general). In short, a whole tomcat is more likely to lose some of its nine lives in fighting—just another reason to have the cat neutered.

The infamous “spraying”

Some people use the word spraying to refer to urinating in general, but in fact only unneutered tomcats spray urine. All cats’ urine has a powerful smell, but a whole tomcat’s urine has a rank odor all its own. A whole tom will leave its urine not only in the litter box but also on walls, drapes and darn near anything. They are either sexually aroused or marking their territory, or both, and the sprayed urine can make a home uninhabitable. The solution: have the cat neutered.

Neutering: the younger the better

You can have your male cat neutered any age past six months, and the general rule is, the earlier the better. Once a tomcat has reached sexual maturity and started roaming and fighting with other males, there is no assurance that neutering will completely eliminate those behaviors. A tom who is neutered before he is eight months old never has the opportunity to roam, spray or fight viciously with other males, so he makes a thoroughly desirable pet.

Vasectomy

It isn’t the same as neutering, since neutering essentially desexes a tomcat, especially if done before he reaches puberty. The neutered tom is castrated, whereas a vasectomy only makes the tom sterile. A neutered tom won’t usually roam, fight or spray urine, but a tom with a vasectomy will continue to do all those things.

The obvious question: Why would a cat owner opt for a vasectomy instead of neutering? Some would reply that a vasectomy is more “natural,” since the tom remains more fully male in his behavior. The happy owners of neutered toms would reply that “natural” isn’t always a good thing, especially for a house pet.

Tomcat “on hold”

Tomcats have a reputation for being promiscuous, but in fact an adult tom, unneutered, never has sex on his mind (unlike male humans). His entire reproductive system stays “on hold”—until, that is, he hears the inimitable caterwaul of a female cat in heat or picks up her scent (usually from her urine somewhere nearby). Either via the ear or nose, or both, suddenly Placid Tom turns into Randy Tom, and he won’t rest until he locates the source of the “heat signal.”

Oh, lecherous males!

Feel free to blush as we ask an embarrassing question: do cats masturbate? Well, male cats do—not with their paws, but by mounting an object like a fuzzy toy or anything roughly the size and texture of another cat. It occurs most often with unneutered tomcats, but occasionally neutered toms will do it as well.

Feline puberty

In animal terms, reaching “puberty” means a creature is able to reproduce. Female cats hit puberty between seven and twelve months of age, while toms usually reach puberty around nine months. There are some interesting variations: indoor cats hit puberty later than outdoor cats, purebreds are later than mixed-breeds and Persians and Himalayans are later than most of the other breeds.

“Long day” breeders

We note elsewhere that the estrus (heat) of the female cat is unpredictable, and that there is no “regularity” involved in cats. Let’s qualify that observation with this bit of information: as a general rule, the female cat is more likely to be in heat when the days are lengthening—that is, after late December, when the amount of daylight increases with every passing day. (This is true in the northern hemisphere.

In the southern hemisphere, days begin to lengthen in late June.) Veterinarians speak of cats as “long day” breeders, since the females (and the females of several other species) are more likely to be in heat from (roughly) January through September.

Heat, phase I

Before the female cat is fully in heat, she is in a stage called proestrus, or “preheat” you might say. During this time her owners might notice that she is more affectionate than usual, wanting to be petted more.

On the other hand, she may be more aggressive than usual, more inclined to bite or pounce. If there is a tomcat about, the female isn’t quite yet ready for mating, but she is willing to seriously flirt, rolling on the floor in front of the tom. Proestrus is brief, usually no more than a couple of days.

Heat, phase II

Some of the signs of heat—estrus. One sign—probably the most irksome to humans—is the loud and distinctive howling, which the female can maintain for up to three minutes without stopping.

Bothersome as it is to us, it serves the obvious purpose of letting the tomcats know she is available. (And remember that the tomcats’ ears are much more sensitive than ours, which explains why toms sometimes travel a long distance to locate the amorous female.) While the howling is going on, the female is likely to roll on the floor, which, if a tom is in sight, is another sign that she is sexually receptive. In short, she is making a perfect spectacle of herself—and the tomcats love it.

Unpredictable heat

Cats are considered to be unpredictable, which some people find attractive but others find maddening. One thing that is unpredictable is the female’s estrus, or heat. Dogs predictably go into heat every six months, with the estrus lasting for twenty-one days, but there is no such predictability with cats. A cat who just went out of heat might be in heat again in days—or weeks—or months. No one knows, and no one can predict.

Love bites

Cats, like most animals, have sex strictly for reproduction, and so it only takes place when the female is fully fertile. Part of the brief ritual of mating (calling it “lovemaking” would not be appropriate) involves the male biting the nape of the female’s neck before the sex actually takes place. This love bite is actually a kind of fertility test, because the female would not submit to this bite unless she was in full heat. That is, if she submits to the bite, the male can proceed knowing the female is as fertile as she can be.

No fang, no mate

During mating, the tomcat always sinks his canine teeth—the fangs—into the neck skin of the female. This isn’t optional, and if for some reason the tom is missing one or more of his canines, he won’t be able to breed, even though he and the female are otherwise willing and able.

Short and businesslike mating

The actual sex act between a tom and a female is over with very quickly, and if the tom enjoys it (he undoubtedly does), the female certainly does not seem to. When the penetration is over, it isn’t unusual for the female to hiss at the male and claw at him. She needn’t bother, since the male cat (like males of certain other species) seems eager and willing to depart.

Stud males and brood queens

As in horse breeding, a male kept for purposes of breeding is called a stud. His female counterpart, the female kept for producing kittens, is a brood queen. As is true of humans, horses and other mammals, a stud cat can father a lot more kittens in his lifetime than any brood queen can give birth to. (He can mate almost constantly, while the female can’t give birth constantly.)

Both studs and brood queens are chosen for their overall health, appearance and temperament. Neither is, of course, an ideal pet, as the female’s caterwauling while in heat is very unpleasant, as is the unneutered tom’s knack for spraying urine and fighting. Breeders construct “stud homes,” pens situated outdoors or in an indoor area away from the human living area, as the home of stud cats is going to take a lot of wear (and stench) from tomcat urine.

Who ruled Versailles?

France’s King Louis XV (he ruled from 1715 to 1774) enjoyed life at the royal palace of Versailles, and part of the luxury was the many cats there, in particular his favorite white Persian, whom he would not allow anyone to tease. Gray angora cats lounged around the gambling tables, playing with the tokens. Sadly, the next king, poor Louis XVI, who went to the guillotine, was not at all fond of cats, though his wife, the ill-fated Marie Antoinette, definitely was.

Ritualized mating

Cat breeders have, over time, developed techniques for ensuring that the breeding of pedigreed cats is not left to chance. Typically the process goes like this: the queen (who is in heat, naturally) is delivered in a carrier to a special queen pen in the stud house. This separates her, via wire or bars, from the male, though they can sniff each other and the queen can size up her potential partner.

Usually the first nose-to-nose encounter involves a lot of hissing and growling on her part, and the wire that separates them is for the male’s protection. Eventually she shows she is ready for the male by ceasing the growling and by rolling on the floor and producing a more welcoming sound. At that point she is allowed into the stud’s area, but not before a coarse “mating rug” is laid down for the two.

The stud recognizes this as “his” rug, one on which he has mated before. It provides the female a warm surface to grip for stability during the brief mating procedure. When the deed is done, the queen is put back in her own pen—but the two are later allowed to repeat the process, on the assumption that pregnancy is more likely to occur with more than one mating session.

What’s all the fuss about?

The typical owner of a mixed-breed house cat usually has no desire to breed his pet, and a wise owner will have the cat spayed or neutered. It may surprise such owners that there is a whole branch of veterinary science devoted to reproduction—specifically, devoted to getting animals to mate and produce new litters.

Breeding is serious business to the obvious people: breeders, who can’t sell their purebred cats if the toms and females aren’t mating properly. So, just as human infertility clinics do a thriving business, veterinarians involved in animal reproduction manage to stay busy.