Cat castration age-large breeds

RE: Cat castration age-large breeds

Stephen Courtney — Sat, 01 Aug 2015 18:13:08 GMT

I see plenty of skinny nervous little tomcats between 1-2 years old that obviously struggle to live it large in the hood.

Neutered cats IMO tend to end up bigger - whether this is a good thing or not i don't know.

Maine Coones do seem to be prone to weird bone things so to be honest I'd rather neuter later just on general principles but this is just a gut thing and I have no evidence to back it up.

RE: Cat castration age-large breeds

Sorrel Proctor — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 13:19:01 GMT

I suspect it won't make a difference... That said, unless its a feral/trap scenario I always try to wait 'til nearer 5 months if possible.

RE: Cat castration age-large breeds

Martin Atkinson — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 09:46:43 GMT

I always recommend castrating male cats at 7- 8 months, certainly after 6 months, in the (possibly misguided) belief that they mature into bigger stronger cats. At the very least they are sexually mature much later than females so the risk of slightly mistiming it is at worst a cat that smells when it pees rather than an unwanted litter of kittens! That said, with feral cat colonies I've castrated (and spayed) kittens as young as 12 weeks if they've been trapped as you never know if you're going to catch them again. Handling testicles at that age can be a bit of a challenge though.

RE: Cat castration age-large breeds

Utlendigur — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 19:52:25 GMT

Isn't there also a link between castrating early and the risk of femoral neck fractures due to metaphyseal osteopathy?

RE: Cat castration age-large breeds

Charlotte Marshall — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 08:27:56 GMT

I may be misremembering but don't the growth plates actually close later in castrated cats?