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Domestic animal- "an animal, as the horse or cat, that has been tamed and kept by humans as a work animal, food source, or pet.."                   -Dictionary.com 

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Domestic animal- "an animal, as the horse or cat, that has been tamed and kept by humans as a work animal, food source, or pet.."                   -Dictionary.com 

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Female cats are seasonally polyestrus (they have multiple heat cycles during the breeding season). This could vary depending on their environmental conditions and location (principles and applications of domestic animal behavior).

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Various changes i your queen will occur. She may beginning to seem more restless and might eat more then usual. During this time she will attract tomcats, but will only reject them if they make sexual advances towards her.

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Also known as the "heat" stage. The queen will make loud frequent vocalizations (loud meows). This is her way of attracting toms. She will become more affectionate and rub against things. She will also start crouching in a unusual stance. This is also her way of attracting toms.

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Here's a video of the loud vocalizations the queen will perform as well as her crouching stance.

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This video was posted in Jan 2011. It was Creme's first and last heat. We had her spayed a month later, see http://youtu.be/mOE5ZhNSpMc

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Female Cat= "Queen"
Male Cat= "Tom"

* The Queen could experience her first cylce of heat as early as 4 months of age.

*A tomcat begins to mature at about 10 to 12 months of age.

Below is an act of artificial selection taking place. The vet is collecting the Tom's sperm by using an artificial vagina.

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While in the estrus stage, the female becomes prepared for the engagement of courtship and later copulation. Both queens and toms will vocalize in attempt to attract each other. Once the queen is assumed into the mating crouch, the male will attempt to mount her.

Copulation can be painful and even violent if the female is not ready.

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There are four stages the queen will go through as she approaches mating: Proestrus, estrus, interestrus and anestrus.

"Proestrus and estrus are the more vigorous stages. During each stage, a different hormonal response is triggered and the actions of the stages of heat become apparent. These four stages conclude the normal cycle of reproductive mating behavior in cats. Yet, the only way to stop this cycle from occurring is through spaying or neutering"(Understanding Cats' Mating Behavior).

-"Vetinfo.com"

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This stage occurs from November to January. They will go through Anestrus during times when the hours of daylight are shorter. This obviously depends on location. For my cat, the period of Anestrus would be from November to January.

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This stage only happens if the queen hasn't engaged in any sexual activity with a tom. If this occurs, the cycle will start over.

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They studied the corpus luteum in correlation to pregnancy and hormones in pregnant/ non pregnant queens. They looked at luteal function (of the corpus luteum) at different stages of cat's reproduction. They concluded the development of corpus luteum occurs after ovulation. Also, luteal regression would occur from then, moving forward.

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Life cycle of feline Corpora lutea: histological and intraluteal hormone analysis. - PubMed - NCBI

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Reprod Domest Anim. 2012 Dec;47 Suppl 6:25-9. doi: 10.1111/rda.12033. Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Review

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The study's goal was to observe the dominance levels in the male ferals in an outside environment. It resulted in the heavier males showing dominance over the smaller ones majority of the time. The heavier ferals overpowered the smaller ferals in engagements during the estrous season.

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Mating behaviors, courtship rank and mating success of male feral cat ( Felis catus)

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The mating behavior of the male feral cat ( Felis catus) living on a small island was investigated. The cats in the study area (6.0 ha) formed the "feeding groups" at the garbage sites (Yamane et al....