Hi all,

My pregnant queen Mya ( 1yr 9 months old ), is expecting her 2nd planned litter and is around 6 weeks pregnant today She gave birth to 6 healthy purebred bengals last July and all is well.

I have another 8 month bengal girlie, Harli who lives with her in the house and they get along just fine.

Harli being a youngster and like a Tasmanian devil, is tearing around ( as they do) jumping and ambushing Mya who happily joins in, sometimes its Harli doing the chasing, other times its Mya.

I have noticed once or twice that Mya has been arching her back at Harli and her ears have been right back almost flat to her head, a couple of times there has been some growling. She has probably always done it on occasion but as she is pregnant I watch over her like a hawk and am probably seeing behaviour that is perfectly normal to them. However 90% of the time they are just carrying on as normal, washing each other, chasing each other etc.

Harli is also 'calling' at this time.

I know they should be separated before the birth, but they seem to miss each other when I have tried separating them so not sure which is most stressful option for mummy Mya.

Ive thought about separating them when I'm not there and letting them see each other when I am there ( just in case I need to be a referee), but in your opinions, do you think I should separate them now over the remaining 3 weeks or give them another week together before I make them live apart?

I want to do the right thing and I've read that 3 weeks is the norm but on the other hand if Mya is mssing Harli she might get upset?

I'd definitely separate them in the last 10 days or so but just wondered what you think? thanks xx

here they are enjoying quieter moments on the sofa !!

I was given some very different and conflicting advice when i had a pregnant Lily last year.

I tried shutting her in the kitten room but she would go nuts!! She jump at the door handle and scratch at the door and i was fearful she would hurt herself.

I tried shutting her away from the other cats but with more rooms to roam but this distressed her as much.

In the end i followed the advice of several breeders but also my mentor and i just let things be. It is far better practice to have a pregnant queen that is not remotely stressed or upset. Right up until an hour before she went into labour she was running around chacing Toby... well, waddling! I then took her to the kitten room and closed us all in together, however she was frantically jumping at the door handle to get to her brother. She even had a bubble of sac whilst jumping at the door handle. I tried to let Toby in with her but it upset him seeing her distressed.... we ended up shutting her brother downstairs in the conservatory (so Lily couldn't hear him cry ). She was still distressed on her own so we woke Evie up and Lily settled immediately. Evie was licking Lily's head throughout the labour and all 5 kittens. Evie did not seem remotely interested in the kittens and remained that way until they were around 12 weeks old!!

After Lily had finished, i slept in there with her with the door closed and she was fine, so long as i was there. She still didn't really want to be apart from her brother and (great auntie) Evie so i couldn't keep her isolated from them. I just made sure i was around whenever they were!

Whilst this is not ideal, i would hate to think what might have happened with Lily being in forced isolation! I think it is very important that the queen is happy and stress free.

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Lollo

I also let things be......Poppy hated being away from her pals, stressed her out more then it helped so I let her call the shots.

Hi guys, thankyou for your advice, I think I will just have to see how they go, I agree in that there is no point in separating them if it distresses them and you cant always go by the book. I'll keep a close watch. I just wanted a bit of reassurance , so thankyou both for that xxx

Two of my girls stay together all the time, even when birthing (they help each other and clean the babies) and afterwards bringing up the kittens together. It is lovely to see. It is stress free for the mother and the kittens thrive having two "mum" looking after them (these are Tonkinese)

This is my brown tabby with her singleton kitten and my blue with her seven (three weeks difference in age)

oh wow, thats such a lovely picture, thanks for sharing it, I'm not so worried about keeping them together now x