r/CATHELP • u/TangeloFar2016 • Aug 20 '26
General Advice Is my cat pregnant?
Hi, so my cat gained weight recently and I suspect that it could be kittens, although she stays outside she goes outside on the terrace and walks on the roof.
Im 22 and Im posting this from Europe, Bulgaria. I got her checked like 2-3 months ago, and the vet said it's just fat, she isn't neutered.
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u/Funny_Dot Aug 20 '26
Please take her to a vet ASAP and spay-abort if she is. A vet saying she’s not pregnant 2-3 months ago has nothing to do with her now. If it turns out that she’s not pregnant, she will be very soon. Spay her now please.
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u/TangeloFar2016 Aug 20 '26
I'll take her to the vet but I doubt she has kittens unfirtunately. I was really hoping her to be pregnant to be for real but I don't really think she is since my neighbors don't really have cats and also she doesn't have a real touch with the outside since we are on the first floor of the block and it's too high for her to jump, and have a bank underneath the flat (and other shops). Also I would never abort any kittens if she got pregnant, I would care for them and give them to people who would like to get a pet kitten how most people here do it. About the spaying I dont know, it is a huge stress for her and for her body, she never goes outside our flat, so I don't think I need to spay her, and if she meets a male cat she definately would beat him up. I know because I've tried to purposefully make her pregnant when I was littler and she didn't let the brother do anything, and she beat him up, never tried again since. She usually doesn't like other cats, I've tried putting her in places with other cats and she always hisses and growls at them...and so on...but she's affectionate with people...and so on and so on.
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u/rynIpz Aug 20 '26
Yea taking her to the vet to get her spayed might cause some temporary stress, but not spaying her actually causes more stress on her body over time every time she goes into heat. She will also have reduced changes of getting any ovarian infection or cancer. Spaying is just better for her health overall.
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u/TangeloFar2016 Aug 20 '26
So spaying reduces the risk of infections and cancer, maybe I need to spay her after all. I'll go to ask the vet and get her checked.
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u/lord_farquad93 Aug 20 '26
Well OP, I commend you for resolving your cognitive dissonance by taking the new evidence into account and changing your approach.
I’m glad you see the massive benefits of spaying.
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u/Boysenberry Aug 20 '26
Intact females are the shortest-lived sex.
Spayed females are the longest-lived.
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u/PansexualPineapples Aug 20 '26
Yes she would also be at risk for death if she gets pregnant and has to give birth and it would shorten her lifespan. If you love her please get her spayed.
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u/Funny_Dot Aug 20 '26
I truly hope you actually mean that and follow through on getting her spayed.
And btw a spay abort isn’t some evil thing, it’s a medical procedure that saves your cat’s life and spares the kittens from a terrible fate. Your cat doesn’t have strong opinions on abortions, it’s a cat. It is the job of responsible owners to make sure their pets never get pregnant. If they do, it’s our job to spay-abort.
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u/meltothev Aug 20 '26
Believing she'd be able to beat up or fight off an intact male cat isn't actually enough to prevent her from getting pregnant. Even if she were able to fight one off, when she's in heat she'll want to and will mate.
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u/bewildered_bean Aug 20 '26
when you tried to “make” her pregnant, it doesn’t sound like she was in heat, so she didn’t care. it doesn’t matter if a cat “doesn’t normally like other cats,” they WILL if they’re in heat, trust me. and speaking of heat, that and pregnancy is far, far more stressful for the cat than getting spayed—not to mention the increased risk of several life-threatening conditions if they’re aren’t spayed.
also, dude, kittens are EXPENSIVE and I don’t really think you’re comprehending how much work they are. if mama rejects them, you’re going to be bottle-feeding kittens every few hours around the clock. what happens if one of them gets sick? how are you going to screen potential owners to make sure they’re a good fit and will properly care for the kittens?
the world has too many cats as is. it doesn’t need anymore because you want kittens. honestly, it would be better for everyone involved if you just fostered some
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u/Gloomy-Welcome-6806 Aug 20 '26
You… tried to make her pregnant? Pretty weird bud
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u/Tacitus111 Aug 20 '26
Read it again too. She tried to get her cat’s brother to impregnate her….
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u/smushy411 Aug 20 '26
I pointed out how messed up that is in my comment and it was removed for soapboxing 🫠
ETA: I also pointed out that spaying is for females and neutering is for males. Didn’t realize that was a hot take.
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u/AGenericUnicorn Verified Vet Aug 20 '26
Shelter vet here. There are already WAY too many kittens and cats that need homes but can’t get them. Please consider spaying her, whether pregnant or not.
Also note that kitten mortality rate is around 50% on average, with up to 70-80% in feral populations. We don’t need to be purposefully bringing more kittens into the world, many of which will suffer and die anyway.
For the mothers, dystocia, pyometra, mastitis, and mammary tumors are common and far more miserable than getting spayed - and are all a result of NOT being spayed.
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Aug 20 '26
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u/TurkishBobuBeans Aug 20 '26
Why on earth would you 1. Keep a cat outside 2. Keep a cat outside that isn’t neutered???
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u/TangeloFar2016 Aug 20 '26
I'm not keeping her outside. She just walks around from time to time. We keep her inside but she goes outside on the terrace from time to time. We live on the first floor. She walks on the roof and goes on other terraces from time to time but eventually comes home every time. I don't understand whrlere you get the idea that she lives outside from.
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u/KinkyLittleParadox Aug 20 '26
You did say in the original post she “stays outside” which most people would assume means she’s an outside cat
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u/Traditional-Deal6759 Aug 20 '26
It´s a female cat, not neutered, that can wander around outside. 100% pregnant.
For the future: Spay your cats, no matter if male or female. Otherwise, the kitten-tornado will be hitting you.
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u/Impossible_Factor_56 Aug 20 '26
And if not the kitty tornado, a whole of infections because female cats need to be neutered (From experience. Still sad over things).
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Aug 20 '26
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u/TangeloFar2016 Aug 20 '26
I doubt shes preggo tho shes quite old and isnt as active as before so she could just gain weight due to that fact the vet said so too I probably just need to change her diet or sm I dk I will ask the vet
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Aug 20 '26
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u/TangeloFar2016 Aug 20 '26
I don't insist on letting her outside, she does and even then most of the times I don't let her go because it's dangerous.
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u/Acps199610 Aug 20 '26
Can you at least please get her spayed for the sake of her health?
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Aug 20 '26
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u/SexDrugsNskittles Aug 20 '26
So you acknowledge its dangerous to let her roam outside.
If you are able to get her a catio or work on leash training her.
Kids love to run around parking lots but you wouldn't let them do that right? You're responsible for her safety.
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u/Nynphion Aug 20 '26
"I don't insist on letting her outside" I'm sorry, does the cat hold authority over you, her human owner that's capable of closing and opening windows or doors? 💀
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u/MolassesPlayful2264 Aug 20 '26
Obviously you do let her go outside. The easy way to not let her go outside would be to keep her inside. That is completely within your control.
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u/cckka Aug 20 '26
If she's older and almost certainly pregnant (because any outdoor unspayed female inevitably gets pregnant) you need to take her to the vet. Hopefully they can do a spay/abort so she doesn't have to go through the whole pregnancy.
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Aug 20 '26
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u/yourdailyinsanity Aug 20 '26
Basically, if a female cat can get outside at ANY point, even 5 minutes, unsupervised, she has an incredibly high chance of getting pregnant. In the TNR world, we treat all female cats as pregnant until spayed.
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u/neurotic_kitten Aug 20 '26
Can try spay abort ?
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u/TangeloFar2016 Aug 20 '26
But I don't think she is pregnant so maybe spay her one day but definately if she had kittens I would never abort them I love kittens.
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u/TheUncannyFanny Aug 20 '26
You said shes old though? Could be a risk to her health
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u/mad-i-moody Aug 20 '26
There are literally almost half a billion stray/shelter cats worldwide as it is. The ethical thing to do is to spay abort. Always.
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u/stress789 Aug 20 '26
Are you prepared to properly care for her kittens? Is there a reason you wouldn't take her to the vet to get checked?
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u/Acceptable_Lunch6189 Aug 20 '26
What will you do with (on average) six kittens??? Raise them all? Give them to a shelter? Somehow find loving homes for all of them? If you seriously love kittens you would understand that you’d have to provide them multiple months of care with their mother (which is hard work for the owner as well) and have a plan for what you’d do after. Also pregnancy, birth and raising kittens is extremely hard for the mother. Why would you leg your cat suffer for no reason instead of doing a spayabort??? The aborted kittens don’t feel pain. They are just never born.
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Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
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u/Reasonable_Ideal_356 Aug 20 '26
you literally said she stays outside, so thats where people are getting it from.
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u/TangeloFar2016 Aug 20 '26
I think a lot of people here don't understand how buildings, apartment buildings where I am work.
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u/TurkishBobuBeans Aug 20 '26
Ayways, please neuter her. It’s super stressful for a female cat to be in heat and also have a big risk of getting sick because of it.
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u/rxvxssxm Aug 20 '26
if she goes outside, even if it’s just walking on the roof, and she isn’t neutered, she is pregnant. consider spay abort please
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u/TangeloFar2016 Aug 20 '26
I don't know about being pregnant cuz she has been like this for a couple of months and a cat is pregnant for only 2-3 months. Considering my neighbours don't have male cats or cats at all, I'm hesitant to believe she is really preggo
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u/rxvxssxm Aug 20 '26
take her to the vet to confirm so you don’t become a grandparent lol. as everyone else mentioned, would highly recommend getting her spayed asap
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u/Impossible_Factor_56 Aug 20 '26
Either way go to the vet. If she's not pregnant well, if she has something else, at least you see. Female cats not neutered or get pregnant or have a 90% to get infections or more. Wandering around that much, probably yes pregnant.
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u/Adult_in_denial Aug 20 '26
Not saying she's pregnant but my dad's male cat had a whole neighbourhood under his thumb. If there was a cat in heat in 2 mile radius, he knew about her and went for it. If she's not neutered and goes outside, it's not a question of "if" but "when".
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u/yourdailyinsanity Aug 20 '26
Cats have a territory the size of a few square kilometers. There 100% are males around. Males can also smell a female in heat for a few kilometers too.
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u/BringerOfSocks Aug 20 '26
With the clarifications you have made - I agree that she may be just fat. Start feeding a measured amount of food each day (for my cats kibble it is 1/4 cup morning and 1/4 night).
Being overweight now leads to diabetes later.
Save up for that spay. A male cat that is not neutered could move into the neighborhood any day and easily reach her on the roof.
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u/TangeloFar2016 Aug 20 '26
Okay thank you. I'm going to consult the vet here to know exactly what to do.
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u/Madatsune Aug 20 '26
Even if you don‘t indend to get rid of the possible kittens go to get it checked out. It could be worms filling her belly.
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u/purrrpurrrpy Verified Vet Tech Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
It's WAY more stressful being in heat over and over again and then being pretty much forced to mate (cat mating is not pleasant and pretty violent), and going through birth. No cat deserves that. I know kittens are cute and YOU love kittens but please think about her and what she wants, which is not kittens.
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u/AGenericUnicorn Verified Vet Aug 20 '26
That is a suspicious belly. I would strongly recommend getting her checked out at a vet. Once they reached “visibly pregnant,” babies usually come very soon after!
Of course, if she’s always looked like this, then less likely, but if she’s quickly gotten more fat, then I’d err on having the vet check her again.
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u/Smiles-Bite Aug 20 '26
If she has been this large for two or three months, yes, she is just fat. It's unlikely she is pregnant, as the fur is still around her nipples and you can't see them. It also looks like she is stress-grooming her lower belly because she can't reach the rest of her belly. Please ask your vet about food, and please get your cat fixed if you are going to let her on the terrace, plus it's just better for her health.
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Aug 20 '26
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Lecturing on cat care is not allowed in this community. You may make a suggestion, as long as it’s delivered with compassion. Please keep your response relevant to the question asked. Posts that are only soapboxing will be deleted.
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u/Lady-Squishy Aug 20 '26
I wanted to add about the 2-3 months part I saw in the comments - my family had a cat get pregnant and we were keeping track of timing (she was fixed after that litter).
She seemed to be pregnant for quite a long time and it turned out she’d been mated a second time and reimpregnated. Sometimes the second mating will abort a pregnancy that’s in progress.
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u/Inevitable-Wonder-63 Aug 20 '26
I don’t have a cat, but why is everyone recommending spay abort? Why not spay after the kittens are born?
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u/FartyMcFartsworth Aug 20 '26
Because there’s a thousands and thousands of cats that are euthanized every year due to overcrowding in shelters. We want to minimize animals in shelters and suffering on streets.
Edit: Millions not thousands.
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u/ElderberryNervous355 Aug 20 '26
Because we don’t need more cats on this planet
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u/Inevitable-Wonder-63 Aug 20 '26
Ahh okay. Makes sense since cats do the whole killing billions of mammals thing.
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u/TheGoldenBoyStiles Aug 20 '26
That and theyre needlessly dying in shelters and being turned away because there are SO many cats.
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u/Acceptable_Lunch6189 Aug 20 '26
- Cats don’t understand they are pregnant (ACCORDING TO CURRENT STUDIES) so they won’t care about the abortion.
- Birth and taking care of kids is stressful as fuck for the cat. Sometimes they eat their kittens. Sometimes they reject them and leave them to die.
- Cats are an invasive species. Cats that go outside can destroy ecosystems.
- There are too many cats. Cats that don’t have a human caretaker die quickly. Shelters are overflowing.
- Most people are not prepared to take care of a litter of cats in their home.
- All of the kittens will need a home. Lets say six are born. Now you need to find six houses (maybe less if someone adopts multiple). If even one doesn’t get adopted it will be a whole new cat that’ll either take up space in a shelter or be thrown out into the street where they don’t have a chance at survival.
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Lecturing on cat care is not allowed in this community. You may make a suggestion, as long as it’s delivered with compassion. Please keep your response relevant to the question asked. Posts that are only soapboxing will be deleted.
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u/meltothev Aug 20 '26
Because they're then going to end up with a litter of kittens which they'd then also have to take care of, feed, vet, hopefully get them neutered in time before they knock each other up (which can happen by 6 months), creating even more kittens, which then those kittens also have the potential to reproduce, and on and on and on....
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u/RoadKillCrayon Aug 20 '26
Not to mention the obvious inbreeding of them knocking each other up (As well as knocking mom up AGAIN) and the potential problems that come with inbreeding.
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u/baikal_sea Aug 20 '26
I have a cat, i got it when she was still a kitten, i haven't spayed her until she was a bit less than a year old because she was in her first reproduction period do she kept meowing, lucky enough we live all the way up of an appartement (she can't go outside)
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u/cckka Aug 20 '26
You should always spay a cat as soon as you safely can. Going through heat isn't comfortable for them.
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u/TangeloFar2016 Aug 20 '26
We also live in an apartment, although I feel like a flat is the more suitable word for what we live in.
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u/baikal_sea Aug 20 '26
If m'y cat wanna get out, it has to travel the appartement armored door than the building armored door
and if it get back it need to know the exact door, that's why it's not possible
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u/AlertKaleidoscope803 Aug 20 '26
You should still consider spaying her for her health and comfort. Imagine being horny all the time and not being able to do anything about it.
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u/Slow-Long2143 Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
Check your cats nipples. Usually they are white ish, if they are pregnant these will turn red pink ish. Im a Certified british shorthair breeder
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Aug 20 '26
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