Here I would like to address the controversial topic of early neutering...
My pet kittens are preferably sold already neutered!
I have been having my kittens neutered early since 2006, and so far I have had nothing but good experiences
Here is some information on the topic in general, on early neutering in general and some thoughts on it from a breeder's point of view.
There is no reliable documented study showing that early neutering harms kittens, but there is indeed a study showing that it has no negative effects on their development and life.
Neutering - myths and legends
"With kind permission of CAT-CARE Tierhilfe Kassel e.V., www.cat-care.de".
Hardly any topic is discussed as controversially as neutering. To the detriment of the animals, this discussion is very emotional and often conducted without knowledge of the facts. There is great confusion among pet owners, and unfortunately even many vets are not up to date with the latest research. That is why the following arguments are still common: animals should be allowed to live out their nature, female cats should feel like “a real woman” and have kittens at least once, and male cats should have their fun!
But mating is by no means a romantic affair: the female seduces the male with provocative gestures and lets him mate with her for about 10 seconds, while the male grips her shoulders with his claws and her neck with his teeth...
That is why the female scratches and bites him afterwards. And the female also feels pain during mating. The male's penis is covered with barbs, which cause an intense, cramp-like pain when he withdraws. This pain is what triggers ovulation.
And then there is still the old wives' tale that a female cat must have one litter, and others want to let themselves or their children experience the “miracle of birth”. Unless all the kittens are kept, this teaches children irresponsibility rather than respect for creation, because cat overpopulation is huge and most kittens never get a good home!
Why neuter?
The question says it already: female cats are also neutered (spayed), not sterilised!
The fact is that cats in heat are exposed to a great hormonal strain, which can only be ended by fertilisation or by neutering. If the cat is kept exclusively indoors and not mated, the result is a real “hormonal poisoning”: a permanent heat. If you let your cat be mated, you not only shorten her life expectancy and accept damage to her health through the strain on and deformation of the uterus, you also add to the already existing cat misery. If the cat is allowed outdoors, further dangers threaten: in search of a partner she will roam far from home, cross unfamiliar roads and stay away until she has found a mate. A female cat also runs the risk of catching the deadly FIV virus (= feline AIDS) during mating, which is transmitted through the neck bite.
Unneutered males usually run away once they reach sexual maturity because, following the scent of a female, they often travel many kilometres. Most animals killed on the roads are found during the mating season! When competing for a female, males also face fierce fights with other territorial toms, in which they are often badly injured and infected with deadly diseases such as FeLV (= leukosis) or FIV (= feline AIDS). Since a female is usually mated by several males, her risk of infection is also extremely high.
The advantages of neutering
For the reasons listed above, it should be in the animal's interest to consider neutering.
To those who don't consider it “natural”, let it be said that a “natural” life for a wild cat means
reaching an age of only 1-5 years
and bringing as many kittens as possible into the world during its short life, of which only a third survive. For everyone else, here are the advantages at a glance:
No signs of heat
No foul-smelling marking
Less urge to roam
Less aggression
Stronger bond with people
Hardly any risk of hormonal diseases such as cysts, mammary tumours or uterine infections in females, or prostate cancer in males
Significantly lower risk of infection with FeLV (= leukosis) or FIV (= feline AIDS), since mating bites and tomcat fights no longer occur
Twice the life expectancy
No more unwanted kittens for whom no home can be found
When should I have my cat neutered?
There is no ideal moment, but there is an ideal period. If your cat is going to be allowed outdoors, she must under no circumstances go out unneutered, because in many cases you only notice the onset of sexual maturity when it is already too late, i.e. the cat has run away or is pregnant. Due to increased light intensity, cats have for some years now been coming into heat at an average age of 4 - 5 months! Some vets refuse to neuter animals at 4 or 5 months and claim that cats only become sexually mature at 6-8 months and nothing can happen before then. This claim is simply wrong!!
There is also not a single medical reason to let your cat come into heat once or even become pregnant. Quite the opposite: both harm your cat's health. Contrary to rumours, you do not have to wait until the cat is fully grown before she can be neutered. Size and build are genetically determined. In principle, it is best to have your cat neutered as early as possible, because the younger an animal is, the better it copes with the operation.
Early castration
There is a lot to be said for having a cat neutered at 3 or 4 months, which has been practised without problems in other countries for decades and is becoming increasingly accepted here too. The fact that some vets still refuse is mainly due to a lack of surgical experience with animals of this age, for whom the dose of anaesthetic in particular must be matched very precisely to body weight. When carried out by a competent vet, so-called early neutering has many advantages:
The operation is shorter
The anaesthesia is shorter and less stressful
The operation is easier because the reproductive organs are exposed and not yet covered by fatty tissue, which means...
...fewer complications/less bleeding
The animal recovers faster
Your cat can't surprise you with her first pregnancy at 5 or 6 months, even though someone assured you this wasn't possible before 7 months...
The controversial topic of early neutering -
a breeder's perspective,
plus experiences and a summary of an American study
Breeding cats above all carries a huge responsibility, namely towards the lives of the kittens bred.
As a responsible breeder, you look only for the very best homes for your kittens, with equally responsible cat lovers who care about the animals' wellbeing as much as you do.
It is especially important that the kittens can enjoy a carefree life in safety. Among other things, this means that they are not placed in homes with outdoor access, as the chances that they will really grow old healthy and happy, and that their owners can enjoy them for a whole cat lifetime, are very slim.
Unfortunately, there are also quite a few "black sheep" among breeders who have their cats mated and give birth not out of love but for purely commercial reasons, to top up their household budget or even to live off the income from the animals.
These so-called "breeders" place absolutely no value on health, social upbringing, high-quality food or veterinary care. All that matters is to produce animals in bulk as cheaply as possible and sell them as early as possible (often at just 6-8 weeks of age) at the highest possible profit. Mixed breeds are often offered under the same conditions. To achieve this, the mother cats are usually mated several times a year and abused as breeding machines.
It is no secret that our animal shelters are now more than overflowing, and many cats sooner or later have to be put to sleep because nobody wants them anymore, or because they have become impossible to rehome after several changes of owner and the mental and/or physical damage inflicted on them during their often short lives.
As breeders in particular, we are often accused of being irresponsible, because we supposedly add to so-called "cat misery" and help keep the shelters filled with the "throwaway cats of the affluent society".
To truly make sure that none of the kittens ever ends up in a backyard or basement breeding operation, where they would have to waste away as a profitable breeding machine or stud, the kittens should be spayed or neutered early, at the age of 12 weeks. This makes them uninteresting to potential backyard breeders, since they cannot be used to breed purebred or mixed-breed cats.
Unfortunately, many people in Germany still stubbornly believe the rumour that early neutered kittens will develop health problems later on: males with urinary tract infections, animals staying smaller than their later neutered peers, and so on.
That is not true!
Read the results of a study by the American Winn Feline Foundation.
In Germany, as so often compared internationally, our knowledge about diseases, vaccinations, tests, nutrition and so on is still in its infancy. Early neutering has been carried out in the USA and other European countries for more than a decade without any disadvantages.
Here in Germany, unfortunately, only a few breeders and vets have so far taken the trouble to engage with this difficult topic. Fortunately, many animal shelters have now started having kittens neutered from the age of 7 weeks, to make sure these kittens do not later produce offspring that would keep adding to the flood of cats in the shelters.
Here is how a neutering operation on young kittens works:
Last feeding about 12 hours before the operation, on the evening before.
Before the operation, the kittens are given a health check and weighed so the anaesthetic can be dosed correctly.
The anaesthetic is given and within a few minutes the kittens are fast asleep. For the operation they are placed on a heat pad to keep their body temperature constant.
Little males get a small incision in the scrotum; the testicles are separated from the spermatic cords and removed completely.
Little females are opened on the side, and the reproductive organs are tied off, cut and removed. This procedure is the more difficult one for vets, because the females' organs are still very small and underdeveloped. It takes a certain delicacy and good technique. This is apparently why many vets still do not dare to perform this operation. That is hard to understand, really, since guinea pigs, rabbits, rats and other small animals are neutered nowadays too. Removing their organs should be even more difficult.
The operation takes about 10 minutes for the males and about 20-30 minutes for the females.
The anaesthetic is dosed sparingly and the kittens wake up shortly after the operation is finished. After about 1 hour they are given a painkiller injection to ease the wound pain, and about 2 hours after the operation they can go back home.
Kittens cope with neutering much more easily than adult cats!
Adult cats usually suffer from the after-effects of the anaesthetic and from wound pain for several days. They stay noticeably quieter for longer and take it easy.
Another big advantage is that future cat parents do not have to worry about their darlings having an operation. Many owners keep putting off the appointment because they cannot bear the thought of putting their pet through surgery or seeing it suffer afterwards.
With an early neutered kitten, you are spared this unpleasant experience and you get a completely healthy and happy kitten that will bring you lots of joy.
If you are still sceptical or simply want to learn more about early neutering, I would like to give you the opportunity here to take a look at an American study on the topic, initiated by the Winn Feline Foundation, a renowned organisation in the States that funds and carries out research on cats. This summary was originally written in English by Diana Curden, Ph. D.
Early Neutering of Cats - Study by the Winn Feline Foundation
The concept of early neutering (i.e. before a cat reaches sexual maturity) is anything but new.
At the beginning of the 20th century, early neutering was the rule, and concerns about negative side effects of such an operation only arose much later. Today most experts confirm that there has not yet been enough scientifically proven information available to determine the best age for neutering.
Until recently there were no research findings that confirmed or disproved the theory about neutering a dog or cat at an age of less than 5 to 8 months. In fact, one of the researchers in this field points out that many vets have been practising early neutering for quite some time, since there are enormous differences in when cats or dogs reach sexual maturity.
Large animal vets have long practised early castration on livestock and consider it not only acceptable but in many cases desirable. Even before concerns arose about the ever-growing number of unwanted pets, there were many scientifically proven reasons for neutering.
Spayed females are protected against uterine cancer and uterine infections.
In males, neutering reduces the risk of testicular cancer and enlarged prostate and the infections associated with it.
From the pet owner's point of view, a neutered animal is a much better companion. They are less aggressive and more affectionate than their unneutered relatives. Since they are not driven by the urge to reproduce, they roam and fight less often.
Until recently there was a painful lack of studies on the short- and long-term effects of early neutering.
Although there are many anecdotes about early neutering, these cases were not meaningful from a scientific point of view.
Most of these cases involved randomly mated, unrelated animals with completely different backgrounds, and there was no attempt to control for these differences.
There were very few university studies in this field. In 1972, M.A. Herron of Texas A&M reported that neutering before sexual maturity has a relatively small effect on the diameter of the urethra in males. More recently, studies have been carried out at Angell Memorial Hospital in Boston, at the College of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Minnesota and at the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences at the University of Florida.
The project in Florida ran from 1991 to 1992 and was funded by the Winn Feline Foundation in cooperation with the American Veterinary Medical Association. Every effort was made to reduce differences in medical background and genetics as far as possible.
The kittens were bred specifically for the study, and littermates were divided into three groups.
The kittens' mothers were mated and housed in quarantine, since nutrition and other factors both before and after birth can influence eventual size, weight and general health.
Dr. Mark Bloomberg states that although the study of long-term effects has not yet been fully completed, the initial results are extremely positive. Before conducting the study for the Winn Foundation, Dr. Bloomberg had completed a similar study on dogs. The animals in that study have now been observed over a period of five years with no negative side effects reported.
A total of 31 shorthair kittens from 7 litters, all born on the campus of the university in Gainesville, took part in the Winn Foundation study.
The kittens were divided into three groups:
Group 1: 11 kittens; these were neutered at the age of 7 weeks
Group 2: 11 kittens; these were neutered at the age of 7 months
Group 3: a control group of 9 kittens; these were only neutered after reaching full maturity and after the end of the first phase of the study (12 months)
The researchers reported that the operations on the Group 1 kittens were straightforward and without incident, and that these kittens recovered faster than the kittens in Groups 2 and 3.
Dr. Bloomberg noted that although there is very little material on anaesthesia in young animals, infants are generally very good patients in human medicine, and there is no reason why this should not also be the case for cats and dogs.
The biggest challenges in operating on young animals are maintaining body temperature, dosing the anaesthetic correctly, since the respiratory system of young animals is not yet fully developed, and maintaining the right blood sugar level.
The researchers withheld food from the Group 1 kittens for a shorter time before the operation than from the cats in the other groups, and as a precaution gave them small amounts of Karo Syrup (a syrup high in glucose) before anaesthesia. It should also be mentioned that the usual procedure for reducing the anaesthetic towards the end of the operation was slightly modified because the young animals recover faster.
Critics list several possible side effects of early neutering.
It is commonly believed that neutered animals are less active and more prone to obesity than unneutered animals.
It is also said that neutering at an early age hinders normal growth. Particularly in males, there were fears that early neutering could affect the development of the urinary tract and lead to more cysts and urinary tract inflammation. There were also fears that early neutering affects behaviour, food intake, nutritional requirements and the like.
The researchers set out to answer most of these questions by examining certain data in the three groups. In particular, they looked at the following: - weight and body composition (e.g. percentage of body fat); - bone length and the age at which the long bones stop growing; - behaviour; - food intake; - development of the urinary tract; - and the development of secondary sexual characteristics and the degree of sexual maturity.
The weight comparison showed differences between the three groups.
Males generally weighed more than females, but this was the same in all groups.
Studies of body composition and body fat showed that the values for groups 1 and 2 were identical and that these cats were generally fatter than the cats in group 3. The researchers point out that by 12 months of age the males in group 3 already showed the normal traits of adult males, such as weight loss and the development of stud jowls, which accounts for part of the difference. Later examinations also found that the weight difference between the cats in the groups keeps getting smaller. All the cats were placed in selected households under a certain degree of supervision and are more active in their new homes than they were on the university campus. A follow-up examination was to be carried out after three years, in May 1994.
Observations during the study
In general there was no difference in food intake between the cats in the three groups, except that in all groups there were differences between the male and female cats.
No differences were found in the growth rate of the cats in the three groups, although the males in all groups grew faster.
It was observed that the long bones of the male and female cats in groups 1 and 2 became longer. The reason for this appeared to be that the bones of the cats in groups 1 and 2 stopped growing later.
This also explains why cats neutered early are often bigger (taller and longer) than unneutered cats or cats neutered later. This seemed to be especially true of the males. At seven months, before neutering, the cats in group 3 were considerably more aggressive and also less affectionate than the cats in groups 1 and 2.
Contrary to popular belief, the neutered cats were just as active as the unneutered cats.
Observations of urinary tract development showed no differences between the three groups, apart from sex-related differences, which were, however, consistent across all groups.
The researchers measured the diameter of the urethra only in the males of the three groups and could find no difference.
There were concerns that early neutering would result in a smaller diameter, which could lead to a higher incidence of cystitis and related problems. This does not appear to be the case.
The biggest differences between the groups were found when comparing secondary sexual characteristics.
The males were examined for differences in the development of the penis, the prepuce and the penile spines.
The penile spines were not developed at all in the males of group 1, underdeveloped in the males of group 2 and normally developed in the males of group 3. Examination of the females showed that the vulvas of the females in groups 1 and 2 were more infantile than those of the females in group 3.
None of these differences caused any problems when trying to catheterise the cats. Concerns that the development of the urinary tract would be impaired by early neutering were clearly unfounded.
The results of this study so far show that the differences between the cats in groups 1 and 2 are negligible.
Although some of the differences between the cats in the first groups and group 3 are statistically significant, they do not appear to have a negative effect on the cats' health.
All signs clearly indicate that early neutering is not harmful to health, although this still needs to be confirmed by long-term follow-up studies.
From the point of view of animal shelters, and with regard to the problem of unwanted litters, these results are encouraging.
If all animals adopted from shelters, puppies and kittens included, are neutered or spayed before adoption, there should be a corresponding drop in the number of animals put to sleep each year. Results from Alachua County near the University of Florida in Gainesville seem to support this theory.
Alachua County animal control works together with the university researchers and has been using early neutering since 1990. No animal leaves the shelter without being neutered first.
In 1987, 1250 dogs and cats per month were put to sleep in Alachua County. Since early neutering was introduced, the number has fallen to 940 per month; in addition, no higher mortality rate has been found in connection with early neutering.
In recent years, the safety and efficiency of early neutering have become increasingly recognised.
The American Humane Association describes early neutering before adoption from a shelter as an appropriate way to reduce pet overpopulation and the tragedy of the resulting deaths.
In July 1993, delegates of the American Veterinary Medical Association voted in favour of the concept of early neutering.
Work carried out by veterinarians at Angell Memorial Hospital for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals supports Dr. Bloomberg's observations. Other organisations using an early neutering programme include the Denver Dumb Friends League in Colorado, the Miami Humane Society and Alachua County Animal Control in Florida, The Humane Society of Austin and Travis County in Texas, Chicago Animal Control in Illinois, King County Animal Control in Washington State, the Vancouver SPCA in British Columbia and the Southern Oregon Humane Society in Oregon.
The Dekalb Humane Society in Decatur, Collie Rescue of Metro Atlanta, the Georgia Alliance of Purebred Canine Rescuers, The Haven and Dog River Sanctuary in Douglasville are some of the organisations in Georgia that use early neutering for dogs, cats and exotic species.
The Cat Fanciers’ Association (CFA) has changed its show rules so that neutered kittens may now take part in shows. Many pedigree cat breeders work with their vets and have pet kittens neutered before they go to their new homes. These breeders say they are very happy with early neutering. The new owners of these pets say that thanks to early neutering they don't have to worry about the surgery and the costs of neutering later on.
Just like shelters, breeders therefore don't have to worry that the kittens they have found new homes for will add to pet overpopulation in the future.
"With kind permission of CAT-CARE Tierhilfe Kassel e.V., www.cat-care.de".