Pre-mating preparations

Pre-mating preparations

When you first see signs that the queen is ready to mate you must keep her in or she will choose her own husband within an incredibly short time. The cat will be anxious to get out of the house. pacing up and down by the windows and lumping at the door handles. Children are often tempted to oblige by opening the door for a cat that is obviously desperate to go out.

To avoid this temptation and the accidental slipping out as humans come and go. it is best to fit a room with a cat-proof wired-in run attached to sleeping quarters or to build a special house and run in the garden where the cat can be confined. This should be prepared well in advance of the queen's first call.

These queen's quarters will be invaluable later for confining the cat and her kittens so that they do not get trodden on or moved by the queen to unsuitable places Keeping her in such a nursery will also make sure the queen does not escape to stray or get killed before the kittens have been reared- a disaster that would leave the owners with the onerous task of hand-rearing.

In cold and temperate climates a source of heat should be available. particularly for foreign breeds. so that the quarters may be used all the year round.

Look around for a suitable stud of the same breed while waiting for your young adult queen to Ball: the breeder who sold her to you may have some good suggestions to make about this.

You might wish to consult the pedigrees of several studs and compare them with the queen's own pedigree. The stud should be a champion and fairly experienced if he is to mate a maiden queen.


A more mature queen can be sent to a young stud The stud should be chosen to complement the queen and excel in any points where she is lacking For instance if her only defect is poor eye colour. choose a stud with superbly coloured eyes. You can sometimes assess him by his kittens seen on the show bench. Some studs always throw kittens with good eye colour regardless of the queen's potential.

Book the stud in advance. and give the stud's owner some idea of when to expect the queen. You can judge a suitable date if you keep records of her calling cycle. once this has started Some cats go off call if moved too quickly.

It is better to wait a day or two until the cat is really ready than to send her or take her to stud as quickly as possible. If she goes Goff call whenever she is moved it may be necessary to arrange with the stud's owner for her to stay with the stud until she comes on call again This will not be possible unless the stud has a double stud house with room to have a queen in waiting.

It is usually wise to visit the stud in advance. not only to see the stud but to inspect his quarters. They should be clean and roomy preferably with a queen's department with her own fresh-air run and some heat for the queen if she is used to it at home Otherwise she may catch a chill during her stay.