 Purred: Thu May 24, '12 12:20pm PST |
 | |  | | I read a few responses and had to shake my head.
It's not a dominance behaviour. Cats are a little less like humans than dogs are: we're the hierarchical species. Likely, he got caught up in the moment and decided to try something new that his instincts are just trying on for size. Puppies as young as 6 weeks try humping (Trust me, I was the one dissuading the little bugger from doing it) I can't imagine a nearly-adolescent cat wouldn't test it out.
I only know the research for dog-related spaying and neutering. In dogs, early neutering causes growth plates to close wrongly, and also delays the delay in telling the long bones of a dog's body to stop growing, leaving them with elongated and narrow bones. Cats... Well, they tend to hit their adult size (Not weight) sooner than dogs, don't have as many long bones, and I suspect their growth plates have to close earlier to facilitate leaping and climbing behaviours. I don't think neutering at adolescence will delay your dude's growth.
However, you don't actually have to expect spraying. Spraying is not a hormonal behaviour, though it can be driven by hormones. Cats without hormones are just as likely to spray. It's stress-related behaviour. I had Egon neutered at 10 months, he had never sprayed a day in his life, but started some pretty aggressive humping at month 9. I suspect he sensed that the beginning of his sister's cycles were coming, because the week after we got him snipped she went into heat. |  |  | |  |
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sometimes. And even though Rory is Fixed and I am not, we are big buddies and love vacationing together. It helps me because they keep taking my girl friends away, except for the old grannies. But those ones are not so much fun for me, they remember when I was little, and they still step on my head to hold it down and show me who the boss is. I bet I could have made even more surprise kitties when I was a youngun if those old biddies hadn't told on me being bad!
