Expert: W - 9/22/2008

Question
My mothers cat is a British Shorthaired and she is trying to have a litter. She was at the stud for 1 month and was mated. She has been home for 2 days and is now calling again, could she be pregnant or not? She has been to the tom at least 4 times over the last 12months. Do you think she could be infertile? The tom has produced several litters.

Answer
Hi Diane

If the tom is a proven stud, that is he has fathered several litters, and the queen is still calling, it MAY be, please note I am saying MAY be, that she has very low fertility.

I would suggest a visit to your veterinarian to test to see if the queen is ovulating and is fertile. I do not know how experienced your veterinarian is with small domestic animals but they may have access to equipment that will help with the tests I suggested.

You could also check the queen's pedigree as a close mating in the past may also lead to reduced fertility in future litters. Do you know if any of the queen's litter mates have produced kittens?

I would also suggest your mother take the queen to another tom if that is a possibility to see if 'Mating Vigour' may encourage the queen to ovulate and produce eggs and of course become pregnant.

Ray