Greetings,

This is my first post. I was recently adopted by Darcy the Bengal about 5 weeks ago. She is an entire 5 year old beauty. At the same time I had been enquiring about Abyssinians but none were coming through. Darcy was a timid cat to start with but has been settling in, at night however and during the day she would make the weirdest howling, gurgling, barking and screaming sounds. I simply couldnt pick her up, she only came for affection on her own terms, the chances of her sitting in my lap were zilch and so i resigned myself to being patient after having read numerous posts and articles. My kids are absolutely in love with her and she sleeps at the bottom of my daughters bed etc...which would get me jealous as she was showing the kids more affection than me! A couple of days ago I bought her a cat nip filled toy and she has been getting some REAL exercise as a consequence and for the last couple of nights she# fell asleep in my lap and I was absolutely astounded, overjoyed at finally having made a breakthrough....

now heres my dilemma.

I went to see an Abby about 10 days ago who I absolutely fell in love with as he was all over me. Great I thought, the kids can have Darcy Farcy to themselves i'll have the Abby as hes not timid etc...(he's intact btw) consequently Abby arrives on Saturday, now Darcy has just begun to get cosy with me and not been squawking as much over the last couple of days, i'm worried if the arrival of the Abby will change things i.e her affection etc... should I not get the Abby now? I'm confused, please advise....

Darcys Dad

PS I'm going to try and attach some pics of her which her last dad took.





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Are you sure her period of howling and acting crazy wasn't due to the fact that she was on heat? If she isn't mated I think they go on heat every couple of weeks which could explain why she has periods of yowling all night and then periods of being snuggly. Obviously if you get a male and don't neuter him you'll end up with unplanned kittens. I don't breed so I don't know how an entire female would act with a neutered male. But I don't know, if you're not planning on breeding I think it's well worth getting her fixed to see if that helps calm her down. In addition it may make getting a second cat easier as I'm pretty sure that entire females are very territorial, she'll stress herself out as well as making it difficult for an aby to settle in quickly.

I'd also get the male fixed because even if Darcy's fixed there's going to be a settling in period. You don't want a scrappy male to retaliate by spray-marking everything in sight!

I think that if you want to get the Abby you should postpone it and see if you can get your girl fixed first. If not, make sure the boy has a room to himself with his own tray and food/water. I really really wouldn't let them mix until at least one of them's been neutered, get it booked as soon as possible. Once hormones are taken out of the equation introductions can be made and tensions are less likely to escalate. I think that she's shown the potential to be friendly with you, even if this puts you back a step pr two with her I believe you can regain her affection even if she's grumpy for a while. Make sure not to overtly treat the abby as the favourite. Interact with them both, see if you can get them both to share some playtime with a wand toy or something.

Best of luck to you.

please get her neutered, she will calm down quickly afterwards - there are thousands of unplanned kittens in the world and you really don't need any more so get her sorted then bring the boy in - you should get him done to to avoid any undesirable male traits (you know how men are!!)

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Thanks for the replies. Ginny, the Abby will be 2yrs old in August. He comes from a reputable breeder and has won a few awards. He was the runt of the litter and is quite small in comparison to his siblings. He had ringworm at one point and ended up being secluded from his siblings and ended up staying in the Au Pairs part of house. He has recently sired a litter of 4 kittens.

Yes, Darcy has been a breeding queen till now. Whilst I know i'm going to get gunned for this. I would like to breed the two. I'm fully aware of the arguments for not doing so, but I would like to keep 2 kittens from the litter and i have a couple of family members who would be interested as well.

tbh the world doesn't need any more moggies no matter how pretty

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- Dawn

http://www.nutkitty.com

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Best Wishes,
Maddy

Well said, Tally-Isham. At five years old, Darcy should be looking forward to a nice retirement as a spayed girl, not mated for the sake of "cute kitties".

Shame on both of the breeders, Bengal and Aby, for letting these two cats leave them entire. I am disgusted.

I'm with everyone else on this one DarcysDad.

Please let Darcy have her well deserved retirement. Queens are retired for a reason and Darcy should be allowed to enjoy her days as a spoilt pampered pet.

Ok Ok - sheesh

Darcy's been booked in for Monday

Delayed the arrival of the Aby for 3 weeks and will pay for him to get neutered while he is with the current breeder.

Good decision, you know it's the right thing to do.
Darcy is beautiful, enjoy her

thank you for taking our comments on board and not freaking out - dispite it being the most natural thing in the world things can and do go wrong when breeding a c section for instance would cost you around £500 and you could loose mum and kittens and this is just the tip of the iceberg - if you ever doubt you've done the right thing just take a look at the unwanted cats on a rescue website, maybe you could point your friends in that direction! she is a lovely girl by the way I've only just seen the pic because I don't have pics turned on most of the time - I'm here to work really!!

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- Dawn

http://www.nutkitty.com