I have 2 kittens, boy an a girl 11 weeks old. There is also an entire adul tom in the vicinity. I am wondering when would be the best time to neuter the kittens. The vet wants to neuter the boy first at 5 months, which seems terribly young to me, especially as he is a little on the small side. I intend to keep the kitens indoors for at least 6 months, so the adult tom in theory at least should not pose a problem, but I am not certain if I will suceed in keeping them apart. The adult tom seeems more of a threat than the little brother. It seems to me that I should neuter the girl first as young as possible. What do you think? At what age have you had your kitten neutered?

They can and should be neutered at 4-6 months. The girl should wait until about 6 months. It´s very easy to get the male neutered, literally takes like 2 mins.

Ok thanks for that. I think I will have to neuter the boy ASAP as he is already displaying dominant behaviour towards the girl at only 12 weeks. He has also caught up with her sizewise.

When I took Baileys to be neutered, the vet said they usually neuter pretty early nowadays - round about 3 months. They try and do it before the hormones kick in.

I think his already have kicked in. He dominates her and she seems to tolerate it quite happily. It makes me wonder, how old they really are. (I got them from a pet shop.)

Oldwoman, this question has been discussed in another thread. This was the advice given about when to spay/neuter and why some vets suggest waiting, which is for their convenience and not in the best interests of the kittens:

"I think your kittens are just acting on dominance Oldwomen. But please take them to the vet anyway (just to be sure). Though kittens are advised to be neutured on 4-6 months, there are great results with early neuturing! There are vets that say that kittens can be neutured when they are appr. 10 weeks old and have no negative side effects! But as neuturing a small kitten is more difficult to a vet than neuturing a 6 month-year old, they still advise neuturing at 6 months!
Concluding: I would have the two kittens neutured to prevent future trouble! And IF your female is pregnant, the kittens will be aborted at the same time. Your kitten is really too young to have a litter for herself..."

I agree...my country vet said there is a small risk of the kitten DYING if spayed too young (For a female cat it´s a more intense operation) and I wasn´t willing to take any risks with Tegan especially considering her shakey and weak start, so we are waiting another month before the big VET OP.

I heard from five months on is fine...but there´s nothing wrong with waiting a couple of months just to be on the safe side. Just don´t wait too long!

my vet reccomended spaying raanii at about 10 weeks! i think its to young. but i know the RSPCA here in australia spay REALLY young too! Pickles was neutered very young and i think its kept him really "kittenish" which i like.
I think the younger they are the better they recover (within reason of course) I have found from working in a practice the younger ones really bounce back quick!!!!!

Picklekitty, yep RSPCA will NOT let a cat go to it´s new home until it is desexed. Which means for kittens is 8 weeks old. It is very young, but with the new anaesthetics these days realitvely safe. As with all anaesthesia there is always a risk of death or brain damage. It is small, but someone somewhere has to make the 1%. Most vets prefer to wait until they are at least 5 months. I had Skitz done at 12 weeks, I didn´t want him to start spraying and with Molly a horrid sprayer I wanted to get him early. As a male it´s a much easier op on the babies.

I agree with picklekitty, the young ones to bounce back really quickly. Talk to your vet and see what they say. They can give you all the inns and outs and stats. Good Luck.

Well, I have had a second vet´s opinion about when to neuter my male kitten Tondo, so as not to impregnate the female kitten Tilde. This vet suggests to bring him in for a check at 5 months, to see if he is sufficiently developed for the operation. Unlike the first vet who would have given him the snip at 4 months regardless of his state of development. I am much happier with this, although there is a tiny chance of the kittens being sexually active at 5 months of age. Tilde is not likely to have kittens at that age even if Tondo does his best to impregnate her.

This is my VERY, VERY humble opinion - I would consult yet another vet before you have a houseful of kittens!!
A lot of vets don´t like to neuter/spay young kittens because the tinier their organs, the more difficult the surgery - for the vet, not for the kitten.

From experience, I know that some vets prefer to neuter from 5 months upwards, but as my vet said "every cat is different". Therefore I suggest that you rather get a second opinion, just to make sure. I had my one tom neutered at 5 months and my girl at 7 months and they were fine. In the beginning of this year I had my little boy (7 months old) neutered and he unfortunately passed away due to complications. He was very small for his age (as he was a rescue case) and the opp was too much for him to handle. My other little tom is now 3 months old and the vet wants to neuter ASAP. Your vet will know best and will evaluate every kitten individually. Neutering is the greatets "gift" you can "give" your kitten (only my opinion)

Oh. sdw, that´s awful that your little tom died after neutering. And people make it sound as such a routine operation.

I have had 2 bad (not as bad as yours) experiences with neutering toms. The first one was a 2 year old, who after his snip could not walk in a straight line for months. He recovered eventually, but continued to spray indoors. The second was a 6 month old kitten, who after the op developed a scab on his scrotum. The vet never admitted to anything having gone wrong and so I just ignored it, untill someone put me straight, that it was not normal. The poor kitty had a crooked looking scrotum afterwards, but no other harm was done. I think that he was too small for the op and the vet messed it up.

Don´t worry marcatmm, I will take the kittens to the vet for interim checks.

I think its 4-6 months to get them down. In Australia if you get a kitten from the RSPCA they will de-sex them before they leave at 6-10weeks. My male cat was done at about 9-10 months and never had a problem with him spraying or being donament. Even before I de-sexed him had no problems

I had Frodo neutered at 6 months, my vet isn´t keen to do it before then. He was absolutely fine after the op, although that wait to get them back home has to be one of the worst things ever! .I have to go through it all again in a few months with my dog.

What does donament mean, ste? Do you mean dominant?

You are right daftdog, the wait for the vet is awful.

I find that 6 months is generally the best time if u can wait that long- with shakespeare i couldnt as he was urinating everywhere. The reason being that if the penis isnt developed properly it can have problems with blocking and bladder infections later on in life. Avet should be able to tell u if he is developed enough. I know the rspca do them earlier but thats basically to stop people letting their cats breed out of control. If u have a choice it is better to wait

Thank you for that. I have had my suspicions about the motivations of the RSPCA and vet regarding early neutering.

i haven´t neuter katie as yet and i am plannin too but is it safe whether she is over one year old and she has already started to go through the hormonal period...