my cat - he is over a year old i think maybe 1.5 yrs and a big unnneutered tom - he has wildcat type markings and he wandered in to the garden in autumn as a stray and stayed ...i decided not to have him neutered as he wasnt when he found us .....has anyone got a tomcat that they decide not to have neutered and its been OK for them as i seem to hear lots of negative stories if cats arent neutered ..

A few of the negatives of leaving him with his nads:

He'll fight which could lead to serious injury, disease or death.

He'll continue to spray his scent all over the place.

There are enough cats in the UK already.

If you are taking responsibility fior him to have a respnosibility to neueter him

^^^^^^^^^^ agree 100% get him neutered. if you take responsibility for an animal like you have with this cat, you need to take on full responsibility which involves feeding/vaccinating/worming/de-fleaing/neutering. if you cant, you need to contact a rescue to come and pick him up so he can be neutered and help reduce the amount of cats looking for homes. i think any good owner will have their pets neutered JMO.

It may sound cruel, but he'll be a happier cat for it. How do you feel if you don't get a shag for a year? That's how your cat feels after a month. ATM, his entire existence is based around mating with any and every available female. He'll take more interest in the more usual cat pursuits once that is dealt with.

If you dont apart from the health risks he might wander. It makes a cat far happier without them. It doesnt hurt them and they get over it within a couple of days. I have all my male adult cats done and am going to get my 2 boy kittens done shortly.

agree with all of the above, neuter is the way to go.

..i must admit the wandering aspect / fighting is a big factor that i am considering seriously and thanks everyone for the advice ... i had sorta agreed in my mind he was a free agent and could come and go as he liked out on the razzle ' intact '..however have had a few cats in our family and always have had them neutered when kittens ..this is the first time have had a large male cat that isnt neutered so i didnt know what to expect behaviour wise ......

Aside from the sound advice you have already been given keeping an entire tom can also make you very unpopular with your neighbours when he sprays (very pungently ) in their gardens and fights their cats, leading to them having vet bills for abcesses.
Cats can also be at a greater risk from traffic when fighting as they focus on running from/to the other cat, (depending if they are aggressor or victim), and forget about avoiding any moving cars in the way
Neutered males tend to live longer, calmer, happier lives. All that testesterone can be very wearing on the system, both in terms of stress and the kidneys processing it via the urine.

I 'took on' a very large, VERY battle scarred old Tom cat many years ago after he, erm, befriended my female cat. He was a real eyesore of a cat with a really pungent smell. I got him neutered and we found him a billet with an elderly neighbour a few doors down. He lived a long and happy life in retirement and although he was never a lap cat he was a good pet. He kept his strong Tomcat looks and still liked a night out on the town but it was a good decision

I remember visiting a cat shelter a few years back where they'd just taken in an entire tom. Once smelt, never forgotten!

my baby boy Toby ( 6 months) was done a couple of weeks ago, within minites of him getting home he was tearing round the house as if nothing had happened !! also no stiches ,no shaving, no lampshade and he is still as loving and cuddly as ever .......dont hessitate .... its the best thing

Thanks for posting this. My little boy is due to have his little op at easter. Although I am a strong advocate of neutering it still puts my mind at rest to be reminded that they are still themselves after its been done.

However by the same token I can't wait till its done. He's 17 weeks old and has enormous clackers! Had male kittens before but can't remember them ever being that big at the same age!

ha ha that made me laugh !!! Toby is so fluffy i guess his were hidden so can't comment about the size !!! hope ure babys sails through it like mine did

We found a cat, a Persian on the streets a few years ago and took him in, he was at deaths door and we nursed him back to health. He was an 8 year old tom and the vet and everyone kept saying, oh no you cant have an un-neutered tom in your flat, especially as he has to be an indoor cat. He had to become indoor as he got cat Lukemia whilst on the streets so no immune system, so no more contact with the outdoors and other ferral cats. We did have a decent sized balcony he would sit on for hours.

I kept saying, well he hasn´t sprayed yet, he must like us! They kept saying its because he is ill, maybe when he gets better he will start spraying. They were right! He sprayed inside OHs expensive motor bike helmet, threw that away, then his jeans. I still said no to neutering an 8 year old, I though that was mean.

The day he sprayed on a pile of my clothes was the last day he had his bits! Whisked him off to the vets the next morning! When he came home, he tried to jump up on a chair that first night and fell back down again, ouch that must have hurt. The next day he was absoultely fine and stopped that awful yowling at night as well. Never looked back, had a loving cat for nearly 3 years until the Lukemia caught up with him.

He'll fight to his death.

I had a tomcat in the 70s. He lasted until he was 17 but he was an old soldier. It's in their instinct to protect their territories when they Toms and they will conquer others' territories too. A tom will never run or back away from a fight (even with a fox) which means that when he's old and has lost his teeth he will come off worse and that means regular trips to the vets to have his ears stitched back on etc.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing nicer than seeing an animal in its natural state with the confidence of a lion (our tomcat was very lovable to us and big ol' softie. He never once sprayed in the house or bit and scratched us. He watched over my nephew when he was a baby and paraded around as a proud father when his queen gave birth to a litter he fathered. He preferred to sleep outside and so Dad built him a kennel) but if he isn't killed by another tom cat in his old age then you'll get some do-gooding neighbour try to capture him and have him castrated.


All in all, it's much safer these days to get your cat neutered. It's kinder to him and to all he encounters.

just an update to say thanks for the GOOD ADVICE in this thread ..i have booked the big TomKat in to be neutered and microchipped in a weeks time with the local vets ....

believe me, in the long run it costs a lot more to keep an unneutered tom than it does to have them done. I was late having mine done and had already had to take him to the vet three times with infected bites and scratches. In fact he kept avoiding being neutered by getting an injury each time I was due to take him. The vet wouldn't put him under for an operation if his temperature was high from the infection. Got him there eventually though and he's a much happier cat for it. I still feel guilty about how many kittens he may have fathered before I had him done. Where I live there is a golf course over the fence and I often see the kittens of stray cats playing on there. No doubt many are lost to the local foxes.

edit: that's great news OP. keep an eye on the little rascal the 24hrs before you're due to go to the vet though. They seem to have an inbuilt vet radar and go off to hide.

Well done. You're doing the right thing by him.

He may still get into the odd scrape as he has the 'look' of a full male but at least he won't go looking for it.

well i had decided this as not one poster thought it was a good idea to let him be unneutered and what people said did come true ....as this last weekend he had gone missing for 2 days - came back smelling of stinky cat pee and now it seems he had been in a big fight and today he couldnt walk on one leg and it was a bite that had become infected /swollen ...so hes is confined inside on antibiotics and as said will be deffo having the snip next week ...

You don't think shagging is a "usual cat pursuit"

How many of the men, recommending de-nutting, would feel the same, if it were routinely done to human males

It might be if we were all in the habit of pissing everywhere, aggressively cornering females and raping them and beating hell out of any bloke who stepped within 50 yards of us.

Have you been out on a Saturday night recently

Not in the North West.

Perhaps they should do it up there then.

good decision op. Wish there were more like you.