Speaker 1: Live. This is pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2: Hello, my beeline friends, this is Michelburn, your host on Catitude.
Speaker 3: All right, guess what time of year it is? Yep, Spring,
Speaker 3: but it's also kitty season. We're going to talk about today.
Speaker 3: What is kitty season, what you should be aware of,
Speaker 3: and what you can do to make it easier for
Speaker 3: all of the thousands and probably millions of kittens being
Speaker 3: born this season. Stay tuned, we'll be right back.
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Speaker 5: Let's talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 3: Welcome back everyone. It is kittyseason.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: What is kitty season? This is the time of year
Speaker 3: an unaltered female cat, which is called a queen, goes
Speaker 3: into heat. Now this time in at least the northern
Speaker 3: hemisphere is about April through October. It can vary a
Speaker 3: little sometimes as early as March, and it's generally, you know,
Speaker 3: in the warmer months. So my guess is in other
Speaker 3: hemispheres would probably be opposite. And there's a lot of
Speaker 3: reasons you should be aware of it, and there's a
Speaker 3: lot of things you can do, as you know, a
Speaker 3: pet parent or as a caring pet advocate person to
Speaker 3: do your part two help the kittens that are being
Speaker 3: born out there in the wild, and to protect your
Speaker 3: cats and protect the T and R cats in your neighborhood.
Speaker 3: So here's some facts that I found while doing my
Speaker 3: research that I thought were pretty interesting. Cats can go
Speaker 3: into heat female cats, of course, female cats can go
Speaker 3: into heat as early as four months old. As soon
Speaker 3: as the cats are able to go into heat, there
Speaker 3: called a queen that's only for cats, you know, female
Speaker 3: cats of course that are not fixed. Just so you know,
Speaker 3: cats can be fixed pretty early in age, just as
Speaker 3: they give birth pretty early in age. They can give
Speaker 3: birth as soon as four months old, which I mean
Speaker 3: that's pretty short, but they can be fixed as early
Speaker 3: as eight weeks old or two pounds, which is definitely fixed.
Speaker 3: The sooner the better. There's been discussions between different veterinarians,
Speaker 3: different schools of thought whether cats should be able to
Speaker 3: go through their first heat or not. I'm on the
Speaker 3: side with fix them as soon as you can, because
Speaker 3: if you're not able to control your cat during the
Speaker 3: heat season, you may end up with a litter of
Speaker 3: kiddies you weren't expecting.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 3: Cats can also give birth to multiple litters at once,
Speaker 3: and what happens is when the cat is impregnated by
Speaker 3: different males within a seven day period, they're likely to
Speaker 3: have actually multiple litters within the same litter. And this
Speaker 3: happened to Sammy, the cat that gave birth my pregnant
Speaker 3: Tea in our cat that I didn't know was pregnant.
Speaker 3: More about her a little bit later. Also, another great
Speaker 3: interesting fact is that when female cats are in heat,
Speaker 3: they will do whatever they can do to find a tomcat.
Speaker 3: And a tomcat is an unaltered male cat. I think
Speaker 3: it has to do with the pheromones and hormones produced
Speaker 3: in their body to just find a guy and have
Speaker 3: it done, you know, were lack of better words. And
Speaker 3: there's also I believe the pheromones that are produced in
Speaker 3: the female queen cats the pheromones that are luring the
Speaker 3: tomcat to her as well, so kind of going both ways. Also,
Speaker 3: cats can go into heat up to five times within
Speaker 3: a cycle. Now, when cats going into the heat cycle,
Speaker 3: that's like never ending. Some cat can give birth and
Speaker 3: get pregnant within just six to eight weeks, so while
Speaker 3: they're actually nursing and recuperating with their babies, maybe just
Speaker 3: six weeks later, before the babies are even fully weaned
Speaker 3: from them, they can get pregnant again. And yes, that
Speaker 3: also happened to my cat, Sammy, and I'll tell you
Speaker 3: the story a little bit later. Now here's some tips
Speaker 3: on how to tell if a cat is pregnant. There's
Speaker 3: a few different states, actually five stages. There's one fertilization
Speaker 3: and you know what, cats, just like females female humans,
Speaker 3: do get morning sickness and it's generally the first two
Speaker 3: to three weeks. So during this time she'll have, you
Speaker 3: know what, it seems like morning sickness. You won't be
Speaker 3: eating too much, and by the middle stage, which is
Speaker 3: the third stage, she starts to be gaining weight. By
Speaker 3: the fourth stage, you can tell that she's labor because
Speaker 3: her nipples become visible, and she'll stop eating about two
Speaker 3: days before she gives birth. Now for labor and delivery,
Speaker 3: she'll find a secure place. She'll lick her babies and okay,
Speaker 3: this is a little gross to us, but she eats
Speaker 3: the placenta because this gives her nutritional benefits. You know,
Speaker 3: cats in the wild are very about survival, so this
Speaker 3: is just something that's normal to the female cat. Little gross,
Speaker 3: but hey, now, what do you do once the kitties
Speaker 3: are born? Okay, here comes the fun part, But it's
Speaker 3: a challenge. You know, the kitties are born, they're adorable,
Speaker 3: they're cute, but you have to be responsible for them
Speaker 3: with her in a sense, and there's things that you
Speaker 3: will have to watch out for, and they become mobile
Speaker 3: very quickly. But first thing you should do don't disturb
Speaker 3: the kittens unless necessary for a little while. Know that
Speaker 3: if the mom seems to have abandoned the kittens, she
Speaker 3: might just be on the hunt for food and will return.
Speaker 3: Even if it's a cat mom that you're feeding, she
Speaker 3: still may go on the hunt to look for food.
Speaker 3: This is something that's in her nature to do, so
Speaker 3: don't become too worried. You only need to go into
Speaker 3: action if you see that the kitties are in harm's way.
Speaker 3: And this is something interesting that happened to us. When
Speaker 3: Sammy gave birth. She had the kitties on the side
Speaker 3: next to the side of my house by where there's
Speaker 3: some you know, brush, so she felt protected well. During
Speaker 3: a heavy rainstorm, she didn't know, but she was near
Speaker 3: a water spout and the kittens almost drowned. So if
Speaker 3: I hadn't moved them to a more secure place, there
Speaker 3: would be no kittens. And you know she's a cat.
Speaker 3: She wasn't aware of this. Of course, the next day
Speaker 3: we got some some hosing to move the water away,
Speaker 3: so if she still went to that spot, she would
Speaker 3: still be fine, and so with the kittens, of course,
Speaker 3: But just try to keep an eye out for where
Speaker 3: the kittens are, don't disturb them, and just make sure
Speaker 3: they're secure. Kittens can be weaned as soon as four
Speaker 3: to six weeks old, and they should be handled from
Speaker 3: five weeks old to socialize them. This isn't something else
Speaker 3: that's really important. Kittens they grow so fast. By I
Speaker 3: would say two to three weeks, they're already walking all
Speaker 3: over the place. And if the momcatcave birth, you know,
Speaker 3: someplace near your home by some brush or bushes, or
Speaker 3: just some secure area where she feels a little hidden.
Speaker 3: You want to keep an eye out for the kittens
Speaker 3: and see how far they're going, because it's very easy
Speaker 3: for them to go under a car during any time
Speaker 3: of wet weather or very warm weather. That's where they
Speaker 3: go under the car to keep them dry, to keep
Speaker 3: them away from the sun. So really it's time too
Speaker 3: when they're about two weeks old, and if she's going
Speaker 3: to keep them in your area, try to find a spot,
Speaker 3: if passed, where the kittens can be somehow contained. I
Speaker 3: was lucky enough to have a little dog run, so
Speaker 3: I made a little house for the kittens in there.
Speaker 3: You know, they had a tarp, so they had I
Speaker 3: made it, you know, put a tarpa actually the husband
Speaker 3: made of tarp so he gets a credit. We put
Speaker 3: a tarp up so that they would be protected from
Speaker 3: the sun and the rain. She was able to feed
Speaker 3: them there, she was able to climb out and do whatever,
Speaker 3: but the kittens weren't at least for a while, and
Speaker 3: it was a grassy area. There was a couple of
Speaker 3: plants we bought for they would have little bushes around
Speaker 3: them for jumping on some toys and things like that,
Speaker 3: and they were fine. This way kept them somewhat protected
Speaker 3: from you know, definitely kept them protected from the driveway
Speaker 3: or going undering your cars. And it also kept them
Speaker 3: somewhat protected from wildlife such as raccoons and ducks and
Speaker 3: possums and so forth. At least that's what I find
Speaker 3: in my aria, my neck and woods. You might find
Speaker 3: deer or something else that you need to protect them from.
Speaker 3: All right, we're going to be right back right after
Speaker 3: this break, real people, real stories.
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Speaker 3: Welcome back, everyone. This is Michelle Burn, your host on Catitude,
Speaker 3: and we're talking about kittie season and what you can
Speaker 3: do to get through it. When you find community cats
Speaker 3: in your neighborhood that you want to assist or just
Speaker 3: to keep your cats safe, and especially if you have
Speaker 3: indoor outdoor cats. So we've been talking about you know,
Speaker 3: what to do when the kitties are little and the
Speaker 3: mom has just given birth and the kitties are a
Speaker 3: couple weeks old. Here's another thing to be careful of.
Speaker 3: Watch out for kitties hiding inside your car. Yes, I
Speaker 3: said that right inside your car. Where I live, it's
Speaker 3: an area that gets torrential rains and hurricanes and horrible weather.
Speaker 3: And I found this also true for people that live
Speaker 3: in areas where there's a lot of hail. So during
Speaker 3: the time we were prepping for a somewhat mild hurricane,
Speaker 3: we couldn't find Sammy or what she did with her kittens,
Speaker 3: and so we were looking around, looking around, and we
Speaker 3: finally noticed that she hid them up inside my husband's
Speaker 3: SUV inside the car. I don't even want to think
Speaker 3: about what could have happened if the car had been
Speaker 3: turned on. That's oh, I can't even go there. But
Speaker 3: one thing that I've read many places on the internet,
Speaker 3: and I've also heard from others show hosts on pet
Speaker 3: Life Radio, this is a good tip before you start
Speaker 3: your car, bang on the hood. Just give a little bang.
Speaker 3: This will startle any cat that happens to be climbing
Speaker 3: up inside your car and will get them to jump out.
Speaker 3: So that was something I mean, I don't know how
Speaker 3: this mama cat, Sammy the mom and cat managed to
Speaker 3: bring all of her babies one by one up inside
Speaker 3: and she found an area she's a skinny little thing
Speaker 3: to curb her body and have the cats still fit
Speaker 3: and wean from her. But the other thing that happened
Speaker 3: is the cat babies also fell out. You know, they
Speaker 3: just like plopped out. They were so little, maybe at
Speaker 3: this time they were a week and a half old.
Speaker 3: So we put some cushioning that was covered so from
Speaker 3: the even with the elements, it would still be you know,
Speaker 3: cushioned for them, so if the babies fell out, at
Speaker 3: least they wouldn't get hurt. Just be aware that kittens
Speaker 3: and cats can hide inside and under your car so
Speaker 3: that you don't have any horrible surprises. You know, during
Speaker 3: the lifetime of a cat, she can have up to
Speaker 3: fifty litters of kittens, and most litters are anywhere from
Speaker 3: three to five kitties. And considering they can go into
Speaker 3: heat maybe up to five times during their cycle, that
Speaker 3: is a lot of kitties. And multiply this times all
Speaker 3: of the millions of cats out there, queen cats out
Speaker 3: there that are not you know, their queen cats are
Speaker 3: not fixed. That's a lot of kitties, and what happens
Speaker 3: to most of them is they are killed, euthanized, or
Speaker 3: run over or taken his prey by other wild animals.
Speaker 3: The best way to put a stop to this is
Speaker 3: to get your cats spade or neotered. That's, you know,
Speaker 3: the best thing you could do. I can't think of
Speaker 3: anything better fix your cat, but one thing better, One
Speaker 3: thing that I am really a huge, huge advocate is
Speaker 3: is adopt, don't shop. There are so many kitties out
Speaker 3: there that need to be adopted in shelters, especially during
Speaker 3: kitty season. This is a great time if you ever
Speaker 3: wanted to volunteer at a cat shelter or if you
Speaker 3: want to adopt, because there's an overwhelming amount of kitties
Speaker 3: that are available at places, you know, like your local
Speaker 3: humane society or local you know cat shelter. There's a
Speaker 3: lot of vets that do TNR, so you might want
Speaker 3: to inquire there or just you know, even there's neighborhood sites.
Speaker 3: One that I know of is called next Door. That
Speaker 3: was actually where I did the responsible thing in getting
Speaker 3: the kitties adopted. So I'm going to talk about that
Speaker 3: in just a second. So there's a lot of ways
Speaker 3: you can reach out within your community to let people
Speaker 3: know you have kitties. They're safe, they're okay. If you're
Speaker 3: able to take them to the vet for their first look.
Speaker 3: A lot of vets don't charge for the first visit.
Speaker 3: Then you can let the people that are adopting the
Speaker 3: kitties know that they're healthy and you know, fine and
Speaker 3: ready to adopt. So there's a lot of things you
Speaker 3: can do just to be I guess, a really good
Speaker 3: pet person, pet pet parent, pet advocate, and think about
Speaker 3: maybe adopting yourself, you know. I mean, this is how
Speaker 3: my kitty family grew by by four. I had one
Speaker 3: and now there's five. So this is what happened. So
Speaker 3: now I was talking earlier about Sammy and I mentioned
Speaker 3: little bits of her, but I want to share a
Speaker 3: little bit of the story. Some people might have heard
Speaker 3: it in an earlier episode, but you know, it deals
Speaker 3: with kitty season. When I moved into my now home,
Speaker 3: it was around kitty season. It was right around April,
Speaker 3: and there was you know, a little I thought it
Speaker 3: was a little kitty, but and she might have been.
Speaker 3: I don't know how old Sammy was. And we started
Speaker 3: feeding her and then we thought wow, you know, she's
Speaker 3: she's getting kind of she must be doing okay, you know,
Speaker 3: and lo and behold, maybe a couple months later, she
Speaker 3: gave birth right in front of my doorstep, right there.
Speaker 3: And she must have been impregnated by two tomcats because
Speaker 3: and remember earlier I mentioned that the queens can be
Speaker 3: impregnated and have multiple letters in one berth. Well, two
Speaker 3: of her kitties looked just like her and just like
Speaker 3: who I think is the father. And the other kitty
Speaker 3: was black and white. That's miss Molly. If you've seen
Speaker 3: her on Instagram, which is at catatude seventeen, she's a
Speaker 3: little black and white diva with the most gorgeous like
Speaker 3: green alien eyes as I call them. Anyway, So she
Speaker 3: gave birth and it was awakening for me because I
Speaker 3: had never been around kittens that small. So these kittens
Speaker 3: are growing and they're mobile, they're walking all over the
Speaker 3: place by about three weeks, maybe a little less, and
Speaker 3: that's when I decided we either have to put them
Speaker 3: in some place, which we luckily had a dog one
Speaker 3: And some people said, you know, why didn't you take
Speaker 3: them in your home? Why didn't you bring them in
Speaker 3: your patio? We do have a covered and screen patio,
Speaker 3: and the reason is because of Mama. Sammy wouldn't have
Speaker 3: liked it. She's very much a wild cat. She's I
Speaker 3: don't want to stay wild. She's a feral cat. She's
Speaker 3: a community cat. She's come a long way and she's
Speaker 3: become much more socialized towards us, but she's still an
Speaker 3: outdoor cat. So if I had tried to bring the
Speaker 3: kittens inside the patio, they would be separate from the mom,
Speaker 3: and Sammy would have done whatever she could to get
Speaker 3: to the cats. So we couldn't put her inside a
Speaker 3: contained place. The only time we did is kind of
Speaker 3: and it feels a little mean, but we kind of
Speaker 3: trapped her and put her in a very large cat carrier.
Speaker 3: Is during a hurricane that was going to be very,
Speaker 3: very pretty bad and there was nothing else we could do.
Speaker 3: But we did put her with the kiddies and put
Speaker 3: food in water, and she had plenty of room and
Speaker 3: she wasn't in there very long. It was just during
Speaker 3: the part of the storm that was you know, horrible,
Speaker 3: and probably a couple of hours. It wasn't very long,
Speaker 3: but we you know, built a little community for them
Speaker 3: under a tarp well they had a tarp area, big
Speaker 3: grassy area, plants, toys, the whole bit, and they did well.
Speaker 3: And so I was wondering, you know, when can I
Speaker 3: get her fixed? Well, I tried to catch her myself,
Speaker 3: and that didn't work so well. And so by the
Speaker 3: time I did try to get her fixed, guess what,
Speaker 3: she was pregnant again. Yep. And that was only a
Speaker 3: period of maybe oh geez, maybe like four weeks, five weeks,
Speaker 3: six weeks, maybe six weeks later she was already pregnant.
Speaker 3: And people told me, you know, you can't really take
Speaker 3: her in to get fixed until the babies are old enough,
Speaker 3: so you have to wait six weeks, eight weeks. And
Speaker 3: then she gave birth today again to another three cats
Speaker 3: off tabbies like herself. Oh and by the way, we
Speaker 3: did adopt the black and white one from that, you know,
Speaker 3: miss Molly, so we adopted one, and we adopted the
Speaker 3: kitten that she had when that was with her, Charlotte,
Speaker 3: so we adopted two from her litter. Plus we have
Speaker 3: Dennis in side, so that's three indoor kiddies anymore. And
Speaker 3: I don't know if I would be able to breathe,
Speaker 3: because I just about manage my allergies with the three
Speaker 3: of them. So she had the second litter, and we
Speaker 3: took care of them the same way. And when they
Speaker 3: were very very little, we did get them, you know,
Speaker 3: some kitten formula and as they got older, you know,
Speaker 3: special food for kittens and so on. We did this
Speaker 3: with the first litter as well, and I began seeking
Speaker 3: out a way to get her fixed earlier than I
Speaker 3: did before, because I didn't want her to go through
Speaker 3: another litter. I made sure that all of the kittens
Speaker 3: were adopted the first letter, and you know, of course
Speaker 3: we adopted one. And then for the second letter, I
Speaker 3: did the same thing. I reached out on nextdoor dot
Speaker 3: com to my local neighborhood and adopted sim kittens that way,
Speaker 3: reached out to friends let them know. I also made sure,
Speaker 3: and this is common during kitting season, make sure that
Speaker 3: whoever adopts your kitties want a kitty that will turn
Speaker 3: into a cat and no longer be an adorable little kitten.
Speaker 3: There's still adorable cats, but don't just let anybody adopt them,
Speaker 3: you know. I recently did a wonderful interview with Crumbs
Speaker 3: and Whiskers, and they go through a little screening process,
Speaker 3: which is wonderful because a lot of times people will
Speaker 3: impulsely say, oh, I want that kitty so cute, and
Speaker 3: not realize all the care that goes into caring for
Speaker 3: a kitten, a cat, a dog, a puppy or you know,
Speaker 3: a durabil or rabbit whatever, But make sure that they're
Speaker 3: willing to deal with everything that's involved and the cost,
Speaker 3: the visits and so forth. So I had to do.
Speaker 3: And this is also an interview that I had because
Speaker 3: I've never heard of it and I thought it was interesting.
Speaker 3: This is an earlier interview. I hired a cat trapper
Speaker 3: and the cat trapper was able to catch Sammy and
Speaker 3: Sammy was fixed. I got her baby daddy fixed. So
Speaker 3: Sammy was fixed, and just to summarize where everybody is now,
Speaker 3: her baby daddy was fixed. That's Jethrow. So Sammy and
Speaker 3: Jethrow are like our outdoor cats, you know, they prefer
Speaker 3: it that way, and they have a house outside where
Speaker 3: they can go into. They have a special heating unit
Speaker 3: in there that specially for cats and very safe that
Speaker 3: we use during when it's a little bit cooler, which
Speaker 3: where I live is about fifty degrees. I know, not
Speaker 3: that called but for the kiddies, it's fine. They can
Speaker 3: go into there when it's raining, they get fed, they
Speaker 3: get flea treatment, and of course they were both fixed,
Speaker 3: so no more unwanted kitties being born trying to find
Speaker 3: a home. And they seem to be much happier as well,
Speaker 3: you know, and they're just the cutest little pair. They're
Speaker 3: on my Instagram at times. I have pictures of Sammy
Speaker 3: and Jeffer, but they're a happy cat family. Mollie is
Speaker 3: now Wow, she's about almost two and a half. Whow
Speaker 3: does time fly? And she's doing great. And Charlotte is
Speaker 3: her bigger sister. There's a little subling rivalry there, but
Speaker 3: Charlotte is doing very well also, and that's kind of
Speaker 3: what's going on. So I'm just so glad to be
Speaker 3: able to share this with you and to let you
Speaker 3: know all about kitty season. Also keep in mind that
Speaker 3: there's a lot of pop up kitty cafes and kitty
Speaker 3: adoption centers that will occur during this time period from
Speaker 3: April to October then compared to any other time, so
Speaker 3: be sure to reach out volunteer. If you can't adopt,
Speaker 3: you can bring, you know, old blankets or towels to
Speaker 3: your local shelter. They could always use things like this.
Speaker 3: And now you know a little more about Kitty season.
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening. Thanks to my kitties that taught me
Speaker 3: about the kitty season, which Charlotte and Mollie, and they're
Speaker 3: all part of one family. Dennis, he's another story. I
Speaker 3: opened the door and he came in, so that's how
Speaker 3: I found Dennis. But now you know more about Kinny Seusan.
Speaker 3: Thanks everyone for.
Speaker 2: Listening to this episode of Catitude on Kitten Season. This
Speaker 2: is episode two.
Speaker 3: Hundred and ninety eight.
Speaker 2: Wow, stay tuned and keep listening because episode three hundred
Speaker 2: has a super celebrity guest.
Speaker 3: You will not want to miss this show.
Speaker 2: I want to thank my cat crew, Dennis, Charlotte, Mollie,
Speaker 2: and I want to thank everyone listening to Catatude for all.
Speaker 3: Of these years and all of these episodes.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, and of course thanks to my
Speaker 2: producer Mark Winter for working his magic and making every
Speaker 2: episode sound amazing.
Speaker 3: Now remember keep listening.
Speaker 2: Episode three hundred this is that's your episode and hey,
Speaker 2: lose attitude, have aatitude.
Speaker 5: Let's talk pets every week on demand only on Petlight
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