Spaying and neutering cats...what age?

[twotonelover]

I've read lots of publications and research articles on the health and behavioral problems associated with spaying/neutering dogs before puberty. But what about cats? I haven't been able to find nearly as much information about the proper age for a cat to be sterilized.

Do any of you know of any articles/publications on this subject? I'd love to know!

[Little Brown Jug]

When I was in cat rescue we always went by the 3lb or 3 month rule and never had a hitch. My own personal cats were done at 5 - 6 months and there was never an issue. I don't know of any articles though, that's just been from personal past experience.

[Scarlett_O']

Ya, I wont do any animal before they are 5-6 months old, and even then I like to have them over 5lbs...although when she got spayed at 10 months old Ducki was only at 5.5 pounds!!LOL

[Caty M]

Although I prefer to leave dogs unaltered until two years, not cats. I have a male cat who I adopted at five years and was fixed then. He sprays outside and has inside a couple of times. I'd do it 5-6 months. My other cat was fixed as a youngster and doesn't spray at all.

[Maxy24]

Intact cat behavior problems are so much harder to handle than any possible dogs ones, and I haven't read anything talking about the benefits of leaving cats intact until maturity (though I do know you can often tell is males were neutered after they were done developing because they have "stud jowls") like I have about dogs. So I would get it done before sexual maturity, so around 6 months.

Male cats left intact almost always mark (and continue after they get neutered), and cats can slip out a crack in the door very easily.

Though I would be interested to see if there are health benefits to leaving them intact.

[monkeys23]

Yeah I've always done 6 months on my cats.

Although my Missy cat was 2 and very sick when I took her from the barn, so she'd actually never gone into heat yet. So when she got healthy enough to spay after her second round of antibiotics was when she went into heat the first time.

[twotonelover]

Thanks for the info guys! The shelter I work at does all our cats at 5-6months. We recently had a litter of pit pups that all got fixed at 2months :( I raised my concerns but everyone was more concerned with these guys not adding to the already exploding pitbull population (which I understand...but the thought of speutering dogs at 2mo still makes me shudder).

We've had a lot of people come by and make donations in memory of cats they have adopted from us, many 18+ years when they died (and this is on a crappy commercial diet!), so I guess speutering before puberty for cats isn't nearly as bad as it is for dogs?

[lauren43]

Thanks for the info guys! The shelter I work at does all our cats at 5-6months. We recently had a litter of pit pups that all got fixed at 2months :( I raised my concerns but everyone was more concerned with these guys not adding to the already exploding pitbull population (which I understand...but the thought of speutering dogs at 2mo still makes me shudder).

We've had a lot of people come by and make donations in memory of cats they have adopted from us, many 18+ years when they died (and this is on a crappy commercial diet!), so I guess speutering before puberty for cats isn't nearly as bad as it is for dogs?

For shelters its very normal to spay and neuter pups at 8 weeks, its because people usually want young puppies and shelters do not want to let the dogs go without them being altered first. On the positive end most young pups bounce back rather quickly from the surgery.

As for cats I haven't heard anything either way, but I had my foster done at about 3 months with no ill side effects.

[twotonelover]

Our shelter usually does dogs at 5-6months as well. But then again, we usually never get dogs younger than 6months so they are almost always of age when they are adopted haha That litter was a fluke for us!