Change of character

Question
Hi Norman
I have two beautiful Rag Doll Cats. Gemma is 2years old this month and Bynx (Blue Mitted male) and is 10 months old. Bynx joined our family at 9 weeks old to be mated with Gemma when he was old enough. The last few times that Gemma has come on heat Bynx has not realy shown that he was up to speed with what he is ment to do. Unfortunately Gemma escaped last time she was on heat and became pregnant. About two weeks prior to her giving birth Bynx became extremely interested in Gemma and made many attempts to jump on her. Gemma had her kittens about 3days ago and Bynx has been very out of character. He seems depressed and has been wandering around the house whaling a horrible meow. Hes never realy been a cat to want to go outside. He has always been a very loving and energetic cat. Although he still sleeps on the bed with us at night, he is continually up and down during the night crying out and waking the household up. I hope you can help me. It upsets me to see him like this.

Answer
Lee,

Bynx may know that Gemma has had a litter of kittens and may know they are not his.  I suspect that once the kittens are weaned, all will be back to normal.

BTW, Gemma may come into season when the kittens are 4-6 weeks of age.  If you do not want to overbreed her, please keep Bynx away from Gemma while this is going on.

Also, be careful as some males really object to kittens that are not theirs and may kill them.  Fortunately this should not be the case as Bynx has never bred.  However, you just may want to keep an eye on things.

One other thing, sometimes slower developing breeds, like Ragdolls, may take their sweet time in figuring out the whole breeding thing. It could be that at 10 months, Bynx was just not ready!

Best regards... Norm