# Cat help please!



## Anna_r (May 27, 2007)

I took my ragdoll down to our chosen stud yesterday, it will be her first ever mating. She has been in contact with other cats.
However once we got her down to the Stud she became very hissy and started growling i put this down to new smells etc, which it probably was.
I spoke with the lady last night and she said the cat had attacked her with teeth and claws which is so unusual for her as even when playing she never used claws let alone teeth,
Ive tried calling the lady today but to no avail yet.
So my questions are
Is this normal behaviour for cats when going for their first mating?
Also whats the chances of her accepting the male in time to mate if shes like this? as she was already in heat for 3 days before we could take her to them.
Quick response are very appreciated!
Thanks in advance!


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

Cats have many and varied responses to being taken to stud, but I must admit I haven't come across many that have attacked the stud cat's owner - certainly none of my girls did (except Leyla, but she did it immediately after mating so I would excuse that!).

To answer your questions:

1. In general, no.
2. Probably not much of a chance if she was 3 days into call before you took her.

Sorry if that's not what you want to hear! :blush:

Can I ask you - how experienced is the stud cat owner? Has she been breeding long and had a lot of queens in to her. The incident may have come about because of her inexperience.

Did she have separate queen's quarters for your girl or did she put your girl straight in with the boy? That can make a huge difference.

There are a lot of factors to consider when mating up cats, so more information might help.

The reason I answer not much of a chance to your second question is that if she is so uptight about her situation that she has attacked the stud cat owner, then I would say that she will not be conducive to mating in the immediate hours. That being so, by the time she might mate, she could very well be too late for ovulation to be successful. 

I certainly learned from my own experience of 20 years cat breeding, that if I couldn't get my queen to the stud cat within the first 2 days of coming into season, then I wouldn't bother making the journey, because if the queen mated on the 4th day, she went through the mating procedure, thought she was pregnant, but wasn't. That meant she was knocked off call for anything up to 2 months delaying the prospect of mating. For me it wasn't worth the risk, so I'd wait until the next season and get her there promptly.

If you have any more questions, just ask and I'll try to help.


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## Anna_r (May 27, 2007)

thanks for that.
Yes there were seperate areas for the queen, with a meshing between so they could get used to eachothers scent.
We had to take her on the 3rd day as it was a 3 hour drive to get there and with full time work was impossible to do before saturday morning. Although i must say she wasnt at her peak, padding her feet and rolling around excessively, she was about a day away from getting to that.
From speaking to the stud owner she sounds very experienced and appeared to really know her stuff, i think from what i can gather shes been doing it afew years now and so far with 100% success. We have a guaranteed remate if it doesnt work, but i'm not sure she will want to take her in again after this.
Im just so stunned that shes been like this as we've never seen aggression from her before.
Also with it being so far away im really worried and just want to fetch her back to be honest


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

Well I can appreciate how you feel - that was the one aspect of breeding cats that I disliked and in fact on more than one occasion I've taken my girls to stud, stayed with them until they've mated and brought them back home - always successfully I have to say!

I appreciate the difficulties of getting to stud, but like I said the first time one of my girls came into season and I couldn't go straight away, (I live in the north east and my stud was in Gloucester, so a heck of a journey to undertake at short notice. And I stayed at the stud owner's house for a few days, so needed to arrange time off work too), so we didn't get on the road until the 3rd day of her season was the only time she didn't get pregnant.

Also I must say that if you saw any sign that she was in season, then that was the start of it, so whether she wasn't kneading or rolling really is irrelevant. She will have been in season for 3 days. sometimes male cats can mate a female before the owner even knows she is in season! The signs get stronger as the season progresses and the queen becomes more and more desperate to be mated - and they don't stop after she's been mated.

Quite often with some queens the journey knocks them off call and the stud owner will keep them until they come back into call, so my next question is, is she used to travelling? Because if she isn't, a sudden 3 hour car journey could have knocked her off, which would then mean that she wouldn't want to go anywhere near the stud and could feel threatened being close him?


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## Anna_r (May 27, 2007)

Shes travelled before, she spends 5-6 days a week with my and my OH then she comes to my parents with me once a week for a night. But 3 hours i have to say is excessive to what shes used to. She was calling on and off all the way down there but as i said she suddenly changed when she got into the cattery.
I appreciate you pointing these things out for me as i had no idea that travelling could affect her heat.
I think we will be collecting her early from the studs.


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

I think you need to speak to the stud owner when she is available to find out how your girl is behaving today. She may have settled by now and even been mated. 

However, if she has not been mated and is still threatening the studowner, then I must be honest and say that if she was my cat I would be having her home tonight as the incident has obviously really upset her and I think it is very unlikely that she will mate now - and if she does mate tomorrow or the next day it is less likely that she will get pregnant and the whole exercise will have to be repeated anyway.

However, I should also point out that different people have different ideas of what constitutes an "attack" and you need to have full details of what happened. Did the studowner grab your queen or trap her in a corner frightening her into "attack is the best form of defence" mode? Or did the stud owner just go into her pen to speak to her and the cat attacked without warning. Like I said what might constitute an attack to one person, might not be seen as that to another.

Just one other thing - why did you choose this stud? Was there not a stud nearer that you could have used just to try out your girl first, so that you didn't have a long journey, could get her there quicker and better settled and pick her up quicker if things went wrong?

I usually advised people who bought breeding queens from me that they choose their first stud by locality - in other words the closest available stud, just to make sure that the queen can get pregnant and a car journey and strange place won't knock her off call. Once they knew the queen wouldn't get knocked off by travelling and could easily get pregnant, then that was the time to consider the best stud for their queen in terms of pedigree and type. Just a thought?

.


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## pigglywiggly (Jul 19, 2008)

i`ve had a few girls into my studs, and it seems to be the cats who have been kept indoors without access to a secure outside run that seem to be the most difficult.

they seem to find the outside wind and smells very frightening, and it totally changes their behaviour, i`ve kept girls here for 3 to 4 weeks waiting for them to settle down and relax enough for them to come back into call.

the maiden girls are always a handful!

but i always give free return matings if the girls dont get catch, as well as if they have two or less kittens.

you really need to speak to the stud owner, hopefully she`ll settle down in a few days, have you asked if she`s still eating?

or if you had to fetch her back, would you be better off using a local stud this time, so your girl is less stressed, and saving the re-mating to this boy for next litter? might be worth running past the stud owner?


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