Dear Most Esteemed and Knowledgeable Kitties:
My fiancé and I moved in together about 2 years ago. We have a young female cat who has not been spayed yet. Since the first day I brought my 13-year-old son our home to live, our crazy cat Lucky acts like she is in heat every second my son is in the house. Lucky keeps her body low to the ground but lifts her bad side while following him around the house making chirping noises threw her nose. My son is beginning to be fed up with it. When he leaves the house to go to school or to hang out with his friends Lucky will whine at the door for a minute and then return to being a normal cat just like that until he returns home. He will even hide from Lucky in his room to avoid the constant chirping.
~ Amanda
Siouxsie: Well, Amanda, we think it’s all about sex.
Thomas: It’s not that Lucky has a fetish for humans, mind you — heaven forbid!
Bella: But instead, we think she may be reacting to all the hormones in the air.
Siouxsie: We’re not doctors or veterinarians, mind you. But we do suspect that it may have something to do with the fact that Lucky is not spayed and your son is going through puberty.
Thomas: Pheromones are pheromones, after all, and since Lucky is 2 years old and hasn’t been spayed, we suspect she’s going a bit stir-crazy and even the slightest hint of male sex hormones in the air are bound to set her off.
Bella: The best thing you can do to put a stop to this behavior is to have Lucky spayed.
Siouxsie: Spaying is very important to maintaining your cat’s long-term health.
Thomas: Not only are unspayed female cats at risk of unwanted pregnancy (cats in heat are amazing escape artists!), but by roaming around in such a distracted state, they can be at risk of being hit by cars or suffering other injuries.
Bella: And unspayed female cats are at a much higher risk of uterine, ovarian and mammary gland cancer.
Siouxsie: When your cat is spayed, the uterus and ovaries are removed, thereby eliminating the risk of cancers of those organs. And as her hormone levels go down, so does her risk of getting mammary cancer.
Thomas: If you have Lucky spayed, we’re sure her annoying behavior toward your son will diminish and ultimately disappear as all the sex hormones leave her system.
Bella: If finances are an issue, low-cost spay/neuter clinics are offered pretty much everywhere. Contact your local animal shelter or rescue group to see if they know of nearby clinics or, if you’re in the United States, check out the SpayUSA website to get a referral to a low-cost clinic in your area.
JaneA Kelley is a punk rock cat mom and award-winning blogger. She is a regular columnist for Catster Magazine, and she and the Paws and Effect Gang share a home in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.
Yes Ms. Lucky can be reacting to pheromones she smells, and the human boy being a pubescent teen raging with hormones is the perfect attractant for her!
She needs to be spayed for all the reasons the Paws cats mention above, as well as her own mental well being- being in heat IS stressful for female cats and if we are not spayed over time can be aggressive and even start having behavioral issues like spraying. There’s no excuse not to do this for it is our human guardian’s duty for our health, well being and for the community’s as well– pet overpopulation is totally preventable and can help end the abandonment, cruelty, and public misjudgement and scapegoating of feral/homeless cats.
Yes, she is surely in heat and knows your son is a male. Years ago, before we had the good sense and money to get our female cat spayed, she would go around my dad and bother him constantly. He would laugh and push her away saying, “Quit, I can’t do anything for you!” It seemed funny at the time but at 11 years old (she was never outside and never got pregnant) she became ill and we had no choice but to ger her spayed. She lived another 5 years afterward. Now, I get every female (mine or not) that I can spayed. And yes, female cats can spray.
i read somewhere that it can be quite painful for the cat while she’s on heat if she doesnt … get any… (so to speak…) and that an owner had to use a cotton bud (like for cleaning your ears) to ‘relieve’ her… (she was a Queen and they didnt want her to have another litter just then i think) NOT recommending for you to do that AT ALL !!!!!! they were trained and knew exactly what they were doing…
i recommend to get the cat spayed so she doesnt have to suffer while in heat…
i have a cats that act like that around my husband! and they all have been fixed before they where 6 months old, what gives with that?
Maybe your two cats just love your husband a lot. I have one male neutered cat that always sounds like he is in heat. It drives us crazy but I think he just wants attention from either one of us.
Our cat does this to to me at the moment. It started just a few months ago. She has been fixed too. We were thinking about taking her to the vet, but it’s reassuring to hear that others have experienced this.
I just came onto.this site to try to find out more of what my Himalayan x is going through with her heat. Then for the first time ever I read about female cats spraying , not even two seconds after reading that, my cat jumps over my chest and I swear ti God sprayed me. i am in sbock and really grossed out. I appreciate the wisdom from your site though because had she done that before, I would have thought she needed a vet. I am still stunned!. Headed for the sbower now!
Our cat is now in her first heat. Her spay is has been scheduled for mid this month. I was praying she wouldnt go into heat before her surgery. But inevitably she has. This is day 3 and im loosing my mind. In our househould is myself (female), our two young daughters and one male, my husband. My cat has always disliked my husband from day one. Just never rly liked him or came around to him, even though he rly made an effort. She just tolerates him. So now that shes in heat she has not left him alone. She chirps at him and constantly assumes the mating position. When hes away at work her symptoms are very minimal. Im talking like 10-20%, and sporadic. The minute he arrives home she goes into overdrive. Rolling in the floor, trying to get as close to him as possible. If my husband even speaks, just speaks to me she will lift ur butt and chirps away. She finally settled by my feet and he reached within a foot of her for sumthing under the cofee table (the cats back was turned away from him) and she immediately put her butt in the air and went towards him. Its absolutely insane. I never knew female cats in heat could be attracted or made horny for lack of better phrase my a human male. I was not prepared for this and its crazy. My husband has off for the next five days and i dont see how im going to survive. Much less my overly horny disgusting cat. I love her dearly and i kno its nature and not her fault, but its disturbing how she acts around my husband. Any thoughts or theories or explanations to this weird behavior towards him would be appreciated.
I totally agree that a cat in heat can get sexually arroused by a male human. I am 63 years old and never seen this behavior before until I got my wife a kitten and it came into its first heat. This cat would not leave me alone. It was all over me. Jumping on me. Meowing, purring loud, rolling around, digging its claws into me, nudging me hard, putting its butt up and backing into me. Showing no sign of stopping. Make no mistake this cat was in a sexual frenzy. I would leave the room just so the cat would settle down. My wife just sat there in amazement. She has also had never seen a cat in heat act that way towards a human before. Both of us had been around a lot of cats in our lifetime. We are seeking quickly as possible to get the cat spayed. We really love this cat and before coming into heat she very loving and affectionate and normal behavior. The behavior our cat had while in heat towards me was a completely differant hehavior and sexually aggressive in nature. My wife is keeping her calm as possible and I am keeping away as much as possible to get this much loved and enjoyed cat thru its first heat.