Cat in heat question

[engineerjoe]

What is the precise trigger for a cat to go into heat or come out of it? I understand the basics. What I am looking for specifically is the physiological reactions and brain chemistry changes. Does anyone know this or know where I can find it?

 

[spidergoat]

As far as I know, all that information became classified under the Weapons of Feline Destruction Act of 1968.

 

[skaught]

Probably something closely resembling the human menstral cycle.

http://cats.about.com/cs/pregnancybirth/a/mating_game.htm

 

[Steven Genieus]

the heat is then same as when your girlfriend has a menstril period except cats have blood discharge. the heat is to attract male cats to mate because she is at her fertility peak just like when humans on their menstril period to attract males.

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

Probably something closely resembling the human menstral cycle.

No, it's substantially different. The estrus cycle in cats, dogs, and in fact in most mammals, is not just about the ability to become pregnant, but about the ability to copulate at all. A female cat, horse, squirrel or elephant is physically incapable of intercourse when not in estrus. Everything from interest to elasticity of the tissues is simply gone.

However, in humans and a few other social species, the ability to copulate remains even when pregnancy is impossible. Humans, dolphins and bonobo chimpanzees use intercourse as a bonding ritual. Dolphins are cooperative hunters, and every individual in the pod has to be on good terms with all the others for the hunting expeditions to be most productive. Bonobos use sex to maintain a sense of camaraderie, which distinguishes them starkly from the true chimpanzees, whose clans are marked by treachery and violence. Human mothers spend years raising their babies and therefore need the father to stick around and help. Being able to get sex at home keeps him from wandering over to the next cave or the next tribe.