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So I've been around lots of cats that are in heat at the Humane Society, but I've never actually lived with a cat that was going into heat.

Anyway, Clover's started to display some of the signs of heat but I'm not completely sure cause they're not consistent...

- When I rub her back sometimes she crouches and presents, with her tail raised and pulled to the side, instead of the usual tail straight up and straightening of the legs. Other times she acts normal or flops on her side. She isn't treading with her hind legs when she's presenting, but it looks an awful lot like heat behaviour.

- She's been vocalizing a little more than usual, but quite softly - no crying or really over the top vocalizations.

- Her vulva looks a little moister than usual - maybe. But it's so subtle that I couldn't really be sure. She's not inflamed or super moist like some cats in heat that I've seen.

Does it sound like this is the beginning of a heat cycle? I'm not sure what to expect as far as it starting and ending.

Her spay appointment is for next Wed, so hopefully if this is a heat, she'll be over it by then.


Also, Violet's appetite seems to have gone way down - it's a bit of a stretch in logic, but do you guys think it's possible for the hormones from one cat to be affecting another cat (Violet is spayed)? I've checked her over and had her at the vet on Sunday and everything seems fine, so the change in hormones is the only new factor that coincides with her reduction in appetite.

This is very true.

And yeah, she's totally in heat. sad She hasn't been too noisy yet, just very demanding of attention but I feel really bad for her. Violet's been giving her a fair bit of attention, though it wavers between hissing at her and smacking her in the head to grooming her. I think they're both confused.

I dunno if that's real or if it's just one of those crass internet things. Someone made a q-tip joke yesterday and I had no idea what they were talking about, so I googled it, and the only stuff I found were people asking if it was true and a guide for doing it that sounded like it was written by someone on 4chan.

I've just been giving her lots of attention and hoping that this doesn't last right up to her spay appointment.

My parents cats were spread out over a few months age-wise, so the oldest was spayed at about 6 months, and then our boy was neutered at about 5ish months because we were concerned that he was staring with the bad boy cat habits. The week after he was neutered, our youngest female kitten (who was about four months at the point) went into heat.

Thor still had enough juice in his veins to try to do stuff, so we tried separating him from the girls, but then the other two girls (one spayed, the other not) were cranky with Echo (the one in heat). So we ended up putting food and a warm blanket in the bathroom (we keep a water bowl on the sink and one of our domed litter boxes stays there as well, and there is usually at least one cat toy behind the toilet) and put her in there. There was enough people traffic (I think there were five of us in the house at that point that she never got lonely and she seemed content to be separated from the others (plus she's a calico, so she tends to hide alot anyways.