Unspayed female cats go into heat, which means that they are fertile and ready to mate with males. One cat can mate with multiple males during her heat cycle. You can expect your cat to go into heat as often as every 2-3 weeks.
There are some specific behaviors a cat in heat displays, such as meowing excessively to let males know she’s ready for mating, rubbing against everything, raising hindquarters, being restless, and overgrooming herself.
This can be very annoying for you as a female cat owner, and even for your neighbors who probably had enough of your cat’s loud vocalization!
To stop this, and also to prevent your cat from running to mate and potentially becoming pregnant, there are some steps you can take on your own.
Let’s check out five home remedies for cats in heat that can make your life easier.
1. Keeping Your Cat Indoors
Cats have several heat cycles throughout the year. This means that there’s a possibility that your cat can get pregnant in basically every period of the year.
Therefore, the first and most important home remedy for your cat in heat is decreasing her possibilities to mate – meaning keeping her indoors.
You should close all the doors and windows to keep her away from males. Keeping your cat inside during her heat cycle means keeping her safe, calm, and, of course, protected from getting pregnant.
You should be aware that there’s a good chance that your cat in heat might try to run away from home to detect males in her area.
Make sure your house is well protected and be extra cautious during your cat’s heat cycle.
Interesting Read: How Long Do Male Cats Stay In Heat?
2. Give Her Something Warm To Sit On
There isn’t a guarantee that this home remedy will work, but you might want to give it a try.
Giving your cat a heat blanket, a wet or warm towel, or a heat pack could calm her a bit and alleviate her heat symptoms.
According to Cattitude Daily, the warmth provides felines with the sense of security they always crave for.
3. Play With Your Cat
Play sessions are essential for your cat. By playing with her on a daily basis, you two are spending some quality time together, but you’re also providing your cat with both mental and physical stimulation.
You should do your best to make a playing session a part of your daily routine, together with some petting, or any other type of affection showing your cat seems to like.
Another great thing about playing is that it can be a good way of distracting your cat in heat.
So, when you notice some of her symptoms, such as meowing and rubbing against everything, you should approach her and start to play with her.
This home remedy may not provide a long-lasting solution, but it can certainly help alleviate your cat's symptoms, even if only temporarily.
You can use this distraction when you’re home, or advise the other family members to do the same when you’re away, if they are able to do it, of course.
4. Enrich Her Surroundings
Another important thing is to give your cat chances to feel good and entertained in your home.
If she gets a lot of fun and activities inside her home, she might have less desire to run away from home, despite her being in heat.
Therefore, you should make sure there’s enough space for your kitty to longue around and to hide. Also, you should provide her with interesting toys, scratching posts, and tall cat trees.
For her not to neglect her hunting instincts, you might also give your cat hunting toys, such as string toys and toy mice.
5. Use Feline Pheromone Diffuser
- 6 refills last up to 6 months
- Reusable diffuser, replace refills
- Reduces cat stress and tension
- Drug-free solution for spraying and scratching
- Veterinarian recommended, 90-day guarantee
Pheromone diffusers might also be helpful for relaxing your cat in heat.
Their purpose is to relieve felines from any restlessness, anxiety, and stress. A pheromone diffuser will keep your cat calm.
You can use it not only to relieve her heat symptoms, but also to prevent her from any destructive behaviors, such as urine marking or furniture scratching.
Be sure to select a pet-friendly diffuser, especially if you're using it for the first time. If you're uncertain about which one to choose, consider consulting with a veterinarian for guidance.
Should You Spay Your Cat?
Home remedies that we’ve mentioned can be very helpful to keep your cat in heat calm. Also, it’s great to know you can do something to assist your cat in distress, without even having to leave the house.
However, you need to be aware that these aren’t long-term solutions. Your cat will keep going into heat until she gets pregnant or spayed.
Now, if you’re worried about whether you should get your cat sterilized, since this is, after all, a surgery including anesthesia, you should know that this is a standard procedure nowadays. Your cat is likely to be fine a few days after the surgery.
Also, although it’s better for cats to get sterilized even before going into heat, you should know that it’s never too late to spay a cat, just as long as she’s in good health.
Spayed cats aren’t fertile anymore, and, therefore, are unable to get pregnant. This means that sterilization helps in decreasing the number of abandoned kittens in shelters.
Besides this, Hill’s Pet points out these benefits of spaying your cat:
• Disease prevention: Spaying greatly reduces the risk of cervical, ovarian, and mammary cancer in felines.
• Reduces risk of roaming: You’ll stop seeing your cat escaping away to find a mate. This means that she’ll be safe and protected inside your home, decreasing the risk of her getting injured or even killed on a highway.
• A cleaner home: While males are known to spray urine to mark their territory, female cats might also pass bodily fluids when in heat, alerting the males that they’re ready to mate. By spaying your cat, you will also get rid of this problem.
Conclusion
Going into heat can be very stressful for your cat, but also for you as her caregiver.
Constantly seeing her rubbing against everything and meowing loudly can be quite annoying. Moreover, this also increases the chance of your cat getting hurt, since she’s likely to escape away from home to find a male to mate with.
To prevent this, these five home remedies for cats in heat we’ve mentioned before are easily available and effective.
By using them, you will protect your cat from getting pregnant, and also relieve the symptoms that have been making her feel discomfortable.
However, these home remedies aren’t a long-term solution for your cat in heat. The only way to make sure your cat will stop getting into heat is by having her spayed.
Besides preventing her from getting pregnant, spaying is also proven to be beneficial for a cat’s health. This means that sterilization might prolong your cat’s life expectancy.
Although home remedies can be very effective, I still recommend you to have a talk with your vet to find out all the information about getting your cat spayed.
