Everything worth knowing before your domestic shorthair has a litter.
Domestic Shorthair mix
Domestic Shorthair
Domestic Shorthair
Domestic Shorthair
Domestic Shorthair
Domestic Shorthair
Domestic Shorthair
Domestic Shorthair
Domestic shorthair cat breeding works differently from pedigree breeding, and most guides never say so. There is no breed standard to aim at and no club rulebook to follow. What you are left with is the part that actually matters: two healthy cats, a safe birth, and kittens that go to homes ready for them. The cats listed above are domestic shorthairs whose owners are looking for a match.
Domestic Shorthair breeding, at a glance
Short answer
Yes. A domestic shorthair is any cat without pedigree ancestry, so no club rules govern the mating. That freedom cuts both ways. With no breed standard to select toward, health and temperament are the only things you can breed for, which makes screening both parents the whole job.
Pedigree breeding has a target. A Persian breeder is aiming at a written standard, and a Ragdoll breeder has a specific heart mutation to test for. Neither applies here. A domestic shorthair is a description rather than a breed: a short-coated cat with no pedigree behind it.
That does not mean no registry will take your cat. The Cat Fanciers' Association shows these cats in its Household Pet class, which its own editor calls the class for the other 95 percent.[1] Cats there are judged on condition, appearance and personality rather than on how closely they match a standard, and CFA records them so they can earn titles.
So the question is not whether you are allowed to. It is what you are selecting for. Without a standard, you are selecting for health and temperament. Both come down to what you check before the mating, not what you hope for afterwards.
Curious how a breed with a written standard and a dedicated gene test compares? See Ragdoll breeding or Persian breeding.
Short answer
Test both cats for feline leukemia virus and feline immunodeficiency virus (FeLV and FIV), run a fecal check for parasites, and confirm vaccines are current before mating, not during pregnancy. Breed-specific DNA panels do not apply, because a domestic shorthair has no breed to test against.
Every test that applies before you breed
FeLV and FIV (feline leukemia virus and feline immunodeficiency virus)
Fecal examination
Vaccination review
General physical exam
There is no FIV vaccine sold in the United States or Canada, so testing is the only way to know.[6] A negative result on both cats before the mating is worth more than any paperwork a seller can hand you later.
This is the clearest split between this page and every pedigree breeding guide on the site. On a Ragdoll or a British Shorthair, blood typing is close to essential. Here it is a question for your vet.
Short answer
Yes, and it is common. Cats are induced ovulators, meaning mating itself triggers the release of eggs. A queen who mates with several toms during one heat can carry kittens by different fathers. In urban cat populations, 70 to 83 percent of litters have more than one sire.
This is the fact that decides how you choose a mate. A queen with outdoor access during her heat has not had a controlled mating at all, whatever you planned. Researchers studying free-ranging cats found multiple fathers in 70 to 83 percent of urban litters. In rural areas the figure was 0 to 22 percent, because there a single male could keep rivals away.[7]
It is also why littermates can look like they have nothing to do with each other. Two kittens from the same litter really can have different fathers. The same thing happens in dogs, though it is less common there.
What this means in practice. If you want to know who the father is, the queen stays indoors from the first sign of heat until the mating is over. There is no other way to be sure.
A cat is pregnant for about 65 days, with a normal range of roughly 52 to 74. Four kittens is typical. Most queens manage the birth themselves, and here the evidence is genuinely reassuring.
In the largest survey of feline birth difficulty, covering 2,928 litters, dystocia (a birth that stalls and needs veterinary help) was recorded in 5.8 percent of litters overall. Split by type, it ran at 0.4 percent in a large colony of cats of mixed breeding and as high as 18.2 percent in the Devon Rex. Pedigree litters carried 22.6 times the odds of a difficult birth.[3]
A more recent study of pedigree cats alone found 14.9 percent of litters needed veterinary help and 10.7 percent needed a caesarean. Its authors noted those rates run higher than the historical figures for non-pedigree cats.[8] The short version: your cat is far less likely to have trouble than a pedigree queen. That is not a reason to leave her unsupervised.
Call the vet during labor if
Have your vet's out-of-hours number written down before she is due. Most queens never need it, and the ones that do need it quickly.
Kittens start on solid food from about four weeks and are usually fully weaned by eight. That does not mean they are ready to leave. Between eight and twelve weeks they are still learning bite control and social manners from their mother and littermates, and the vaccination course is not finished.
The core kitten vaccine is FVRCP, which covers feline viral rhinotracheitis, calicivirus and panleukopenia. The first dose goes in at 6 to 8 weeks, with boosters every 3 to 4 weeks until 16 to 20 weeks of age.[9]
The last dose is the one that matters. Antibodies passed from the mother can block the earlier doses, so a course that stops before 16 weeks may leave a kitten unprotected even though it has had three injections. A kitten described as fully vaccinated at 12 weeks has not finished.
When the time comes to place them, you can list the kittens on Petmeetly.
Short answer
Expect to spend several hundred dollars before a single kitten leaves. The queen needs a pre-mating vet check and good food through pregnancy. Each kitten needs a vaccination series, deworming, and a retrovirus test. Most domestic shorthair litters cost the breeder more than the kittens ever bring in.
A typical litter, cost by cost
Run those numbers for a litter of four and the total lands well past a thousand dollars before anything goes wrong. The difference from pedigree breeding is what comes back. A registered breed carries a pedigree premium. A domestic shorthair does not, because there is no pedigree to sell.
Worth knowing before you start rather than halfway through.
Short answer
For most domestic shorthairs, before five months old. In 2016 a veterinary task force set that as the standard, and the AVMA, AAHA, AAFP, CFA and TICA all endorse it. Female kittens can come into heat at four months, which is earlier than many owners expect.
This is not our opinion, and it is worth noting who is saying it. The Feline Fix by Five consensus is endorsed by the two largest cat registries in the world alongside the main veterinary bodies.[10] The CFA both shows domestic shorthairs in its Household Pet class and requires that any cat eight months or older be altered before it can compete there.[1]
The timing argument is practical. Surgery before five months shows no difference in major complications, fewer minor ones, and a faster recovery than the same operation at six months or later. Waiting also risks a litter you did not plan, because a female kitten can be pregnant before she looks grown.
There is a longevity argument too. In a study of 7,708 UK cats, neutered cats averaged 12.45 years against 11.83 for entire cats.[2] That is a smaller gap than the 1.45 years between mixed and pedigree cats in the same study, but it is one you control directly.
If you decide against a litter, there are already domestic shorthairs looking for homes on Petmeetly.
Yes. A domestic shorthair is any cat without pedigree ancestry, so no club rules govern the mating. With no breed standard to select toward, health and temperament are the only things you can breed for, which makes screening both parents the whole job.
No. Breed-specific DNA panels exist because a breed shares a known mutation, and a domestic shorthair has no breed to test against. What does apply is a retrovirus test for FeLV and FIV, a fecal check for parasites, and an up-to-date vaccination record on both cats.
Physically, far earlier than most owners expect. Female kittens can come into heat from about four months old. That is well before they are grown, which is one reason veterinary bodies recommend spaying or neutering before five months.
About 65 days, with a normal range of roughly 52 to 74 days. Most queens give birth between day 63 and day 67. A pregnancy running past 70 days is worth a call to your vet.
Four is the typical litter, though anywhere from one to seven is common. First litters tend to be smaller than later ones.
Yes, and it is common. Cats are induced ovulators, meaning mating itself triggers the release of eggs, so a queen who mates with several toms during one heat can carry kittens by different fathers. In urban cat populations, 70 to 83 percent of litters have more than one sire.
On the evidence, yes, and by a wide margin. The largest survey of feline birth difficulty recorded problems in 0.4 percent of litters in a colony of mixed-breeding cats, against up to 18.2 percent in the Devon Rex. Pedigree litters carried 22.6 times the odds of a difficult birth.
It is optional for most. A blood-type clash between a type B queen and a type A tom can kill newborn kittens. But one survey of non-pedigree cats put type B at 7 percent, while several pedigree breeds run far higher. British Shorthairs have been recorded anywhere from 20 to 59 percent. Ask your vet to type her if your cat has known pedigree ancestry.
The core FVRCP vaccine starts at 6 to 8 weeks, with boosters every 3 to 4 weeks until 16 to 20 weeks of age. The dose at or after 16 weeks is the one that completes the course, because antibodies from the mother can block the earlier doses.
Twelve weeks, not eight. Kittens are still learning bite control and social behavior from their mother and littermates well past weaning, and the final vaccine booster has usually not been given before then.
Expect several hundred dollars before a single kitten leaves. The queen needs a pre-mating check and good food through pregnancy, and each kitten needs a vaccination series, deworming and a retrovirus test. There is no pedigree premium to recover it, so most litters cost the breeder more than they bring in.
Veterinary bodies recommend spaying or neutering before five months of age, and the AVMA, AAHA, AAFP, CFA and TICA all endorse that position. Neutered cats also outlived entire cats by roughly half a year in a study of 7,708 UK cats.
Fact-checked against the CFA, the AAFP, the AAHA, and peer-reviewed veterinary research.
Real stories from cat owners who found perfect breeding matches on Petmeetly
Grateful to petmeetly.com! It’s not easy to find ga ood match to mate sometimes, but your site helped to find it fast and good breeder to mate my Bengal Matilda! Thank you
Yulia Shic
California, US
We found a lovely female cat through Petmeetly, and she mated with our male cat. We’re now expecting kittens soon! We also discovered another perfect candidate—our male cat has already mated with one, and will mate with the other once she reaches maturity. We’re so glad to have this platform—it truly helped us find the right matches
Pelin
Florida, US
We liked being able to connect and meet with the parents of the queen.
Melisa
Washington, US
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