Expert: Marcia Owen - 4/28/2008

Question
Hi, I have a ragdoll female cat with 8 years, she was bought with show/breeder rights but I for some reasons I did not go along with my breeding plans. Now appears an opportunity to bread her with a good ragdoll male, with 13 months, with good pedigree, just like my girl as. She as turn out just 8 years some days ago, can she get pregnant with this age ? She still has her heat about every 6 to 8 weeks...

Answer
I do have to pose a question here.  Has she ever had kittens before.  If she hasn't then it would be extremely risky and possibly unkind at her age.  The risk would be that she wouldn't be able to pass the kittens as  effectively she is approximately 50 in human terms and you can appreciate the risk of a woman giving birth for the first time at 50.  

If however she has had kittens before say in the last 3 years, then yes she can get pregnant and if she has given birth before she should still be able to.

Do give it a lot of thought though if she has not had kittens before as the chances are that she would have to have a caesarian to have the kittens and as she has never known motherhood, she may reject the kittens.

Marcia.