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Message: <blockquote data-quote="PitRottMommy" data-source="post: 3697" data-attributes="member: 147">Ilovemysphynx gave you some great advice. You're getting yourself in to a mess of problems if you have an intact female and male and you "didn't plan to breed this early". Cats don't take into account what your plans are; they do what nature intended them to do: make babies. Cats cycle in and out of heat starting from about 6 months of age. They will continue to cycle until they become pregnant and females can become pregnant while they are nursing babies. 8 months is far too young to start having kittens. It's the human form of a 14 year old mother. The body simply isn't developed enough to be able to provide for babies without depleting the body of necessities. Mothers can die from this type of bodily stress, either from having too many litters per year or from having babies too young.In essence, unless you keep your male and female away from one another almost constantly--you'll never know exactly when you'll have babies due. This also creates another problem: alot of males endanger and/or kill babies. Not all, but alot of them do. Even further, if mom feels that her babies are in danger (even from the male that fathered them), she may harm or kill them. It's a tough time trying to keep a household balanced while breeding. For this reason, many breeders keep their females and their males completely separated. If I can push nothing else, please know that there is deep importance in only producing more cats that are BETTER than the cats you had before. Breeding isn't about making more babies or making money back on your investment for the male or the female. It's very important to have the male and female screened for HCM to ensure that the babies you're producing won't have a genetic heart problem that will make the sphynx line worse. It's a big problem with this breed. In addition, mom needs to be fully immune to everything included in the FVRCPC vaccine so that she can pass her immunity on to her babies. Both she and the male need to be negative for FeLv and FIV. It is also wise to do blood testing on the parents because there's a grand precidence for neonatal isoerythrolysis (learn more here: <a href="http://www.webvet.com/main/article?id=1402">http://www.webvet.com/main/article?id=1402</a>). A large number of sphynx (and other exotic cats) are type B. This increases the chances of problems if they're bred to a male that is A or AB. It can cause death in the entire litter within just a few short days. It is estimated that upwards of 40% of sphynx have this rare blood type and 60% do not (which means that there's a VERY good chance of problems if mom and dad don't share the same blood type). The best way to tell that your female is pregnant is to have an exam performed and radiographs (or ultrasound) performed. Know that sometimes Sphynx have problems having young and may also require a c-section which, depending on your location, may run as much as $3000 for surgery. Don't expect your female to deliver during the day when your vet is open either, they usually deliver late at night--when you're obligated to visit an emergency center for help. Owners of breeding cats should have this kind of money available to them at any time since dystocia (a difficult delivery) cannot always be solved externally and there's only so much time to retrieve the kittens before mom's life is at risk as well. All in all, the better pets are spayed and neutered animals because everything I've written above doesn't apply to you and it's nothing you'll have to worry about. Have your vet check your female for babies and be prepared to stay up with her when she delivers, if she's pregnant. Keep the male away from she and the babies, especially when unsupervised. Consider having her spayed and him neutered after this litter is delivered. Make sure that each kitten is examined at least twice by your veterinarian before they find new homes, you'll want to ensure that no juvenile heart murmurs are found as some sphynx babies with HCM can be detected at a very early age. They will also require deworming and vaccinations by your veterinarian and will need to be spayed and neutered before going home with their new families so that no "accidents" can happen.</blockquote>

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