When to Mate?

I tend to mate girls when they’re 10 months or older so that their first litter is just after they turn 1 year old. The older girls are mated twice a year. In New Zealand everyone goes on holiday at Christmas and January so it's best to have kittens ready for new homes at the end of January. If you’re planning a litter before then kittens should be ready no later than November. I always take care with adoptions at this time because people often want a kitten from a November litter but then want me to hold it over Christmas and New Year but I hold out and can usually find someone wanting a kitten for a present for someone for Christmas (often at the last minute!).

A cat pregnancy in the Burmese breed is 65.3 days – and I tend to find this is pretty spot on give or take 12 hours. (See the chart below for your breed). So you can plan it close enough to that if you mate the cat on Wednesday she will deliver on a Friday 65 days later. In fact, I've found if you pop her in with the stud IN THE MORNING she will often labour during the day more often than not! I work from home on Thursdays and Fridays so I can actually mate her from Tuesday to Friday. Another consideration is that the tiny kittens that need orogastric feeds or topping up usually take 2-3 days of 3 hourly feeds until they're feeding independently and usually only need two top-ups a day from then so if the kittens are born on a Friday then I have the weekend to top up and go back to work on a Monday. As I own my own business I can work from home on a Monday, but by Tuesday I’m working as a GP and I have been known to take the occasional kitten to work on a heat pad in a bucket and feed them between patients. I prefer not to do that as most of the staff are kitten crazy and no one gets any work done! So the sweet spot for mating is a Wednesday. Kittens are born on a Friday and I have the weekend to top up the tiny ones so they’re feeding well by Monday.

Sometimes this doesn’t go quite to plan as some girls are determined only to be on call from about Friday to Tuesday. So after a few rounds of this I give up and take a risk with the day of mating. Luckily big thanks have to go to Sharlene from KittyMeadow as she has bailed me out a few times by coming in to provide midwifery services.

I can organise my life quite well with the attached spreadsheet. First column is all the Wednesdays through the year, second column is the birthdate 65 days later and third column is the 10 week mark. I go through that sheet and cross out any dates that coincide with holidays, family events, work commitments and cat shows or when I don’t want to have lots of kittens ready for homes.

I hope this helps you with your "when to mate" decisions but feel free to ask or comment as I love to get tips from other breeders too!

Mating Calendar 2025.xlsx

Download XLSX • 11KB