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| Charlie aka Adecish So Amazing |
Meet Charlie
Isn't he gorgeous?
Charlie is a full GCCF active male pedigree Sphynx. Colour: Solid Black.
He is oh, so very gentlemanly, the sire who was chosen to be the father of Noodle's first & subsequently her second (final) litter.
Choosing Charlie
I had seen an advert for Charlie's stud services in the same place online that I had found Noodle. As he was my favoured look of Sphynx (solid colour, & in his case black) I felt he might be an ideal mate for Noodle later on. I made contact with his human, Sarah, asking for information about the stud service offered. We kept in touch by email as Noodle matured & we have become close & firm friends over the years since.
The right time for Noodle to be mated came when she was into her 7th heat cycle. I contacted Sarah right away asking if Charlie was available for us on Monday, August the 14th 2017 we travelled to his home in Gloucestershire. I had been instructed to bring Noodle's food but that litter would be provided. I also packed Noodle's beloved heat mat since it had become her favourite place to settle & with this being our first time apart I wanted her to have some home comforts.
Oz
Prunella needed a stud of her own. It couldn’t be Charlie of course, he being her dad. Oz was chosen because he is solid blue, my absolute favourite colour of Sphynx. Plus he is utterly gorgeous as you can see by the photos below. Mated with Prune, they would always have solid kittens in either blue or black and with his pale or her yellow green eyes. His colouration was dominant as from each of the litters with pairing went on to make ALL had his pale green eyes & the majority were born blue.
2019 was his first year of being open stud & having a perfect HCM scan & seeing the fabulous litters he has been producing with other females I felt confident that he was the man for my sweet Prunella’s first litter.
Meet Ragnar
Ragnar was chosen as a mate for Plum Pipsqueak. She is the granddaughter of Charlie & the daughter of Oz, so we needed to look further to find her a suitable partner. Ragnar has suitable credentials & so Plum went to meet him in spring 2024. Unfortunately Plum is a very nervous cat when she is faced with strangers & being out of her own home she was very stressed, added to which the set up where she was to be only served to amplify her fears. They were recorded as having mated but she did not take. Life became somewhat complex for me following this & with deep regret, she has not been able to reconvene with him this year however my hope is that we will try again in early 2025 with Ragnar coming to stay with us instead. I think you’ll agree he is a rather handsome chap!
Going to Stud
It is most usually the female cat who travels to visit with the male because with her hormones raging in her body to such levels while in heat she is focussed solely on her urge to mate & therefore, less concerned with the disruption caused to her by travelling & staying in new and unfamiliar surroundings (except this did not happen like this for Plum!). If it were to be the male who travelled to stay with a stranger in unusual surroundings, the disruption to his 'norm' would be likely affect him, perhaps making him agitated, stressed or fearful being in unfamiliar surroundings & so he would be much less likely to cover the female as is of course the intent.
The female & male cats are kept together away from other cats/pets who may normally live alongside the male. It is important that within the area they reside, that the male has elevated places to which he can retreat. This is essential because the act of mating can be rather ferocious, in fact to the uninitiated observer it can appear to be savage. The reason for this is because as the tomcat becomes sexually mature, on his penis he will developed sharp needle-like hooked barbs which when mating occurs stimulate the female's vulva. They are in fact the reason for the disturbing caterwauling & yowling choruses heard during feline matings.
After he has ejaculated & withdraws his penis from the vaginal opening the barbed hooks trigger the female to release her egg & as it induces a final immense flash of pain she elicits a final yowl & will strike out violently, lashing at her mate. He must retreat rapidly to a safe distance with those all-important raised platforms giving him & her the necessary space.
As soon as he has released her & retreats, the female will roll onto her back & begin to writhe convulsively. This act aids the semen to meet with & coat the egg helping to aid a successful fertilisation.
Despite the ‘violence’ of this act, the female's hormones do not subside quickly. She remains active & in pursuit of mating is receptive for several days. She will continue to call and flirt so their mating is repeated several times over a few days.
In a cat colony - or in a neighbourhood situation (where unfortunately, despite easy access to neutering there are always plentiful full tomcats), the continuation in the female's receptiveness & the way that her egg releases only in response to the sex act, her pregnancy & subsequent litter - which might be up to 8-10 kittens - could have several different sires.
Feline pregnancy is short lasting just 63-65 days. The count begins from the first mating with rapid development in the fertilised egg to embryo & neonatal kitten to their births. An average litter size is 5-6 kittens who may all have been conceived on different days but it is the eldest & most well-developed kitten who will kick start labour.
In the most extreme cases; such as within a colony or for outdoor roaming cats it’s possible that there could be as many as 10-14 days between the first & last conceived kitten within the same pregnancy. This time lag would not happen in pedigree cats due to the measured approach breeders take to ensure the female & male do not remain together longer than 5 days, but in both scenarios, it is inevitable that within a litter of kittens each will be born at a slightly different stage of their development. It is similar in dogs too, & this lag in development is where the somewhat ugly terminology of ‘the runt of a litter’ comes from as this will be the smallest & most underdeveloped newborn having had less days to mature before being born.
Staying at Charlie's - my first experience of taking a cat to visit her mate.
Used to travelling with me when it was just the two of us, Noodle was quite used to making car trips & was always brilliantly behaved, showing no distress when arriving & staying at a home that she is not familiar with.
On our first arrival, we learned that Charlie had a resident harem consisting of three very beautiful female Sphynx cats. Zipped inside her travel bag, Noodle was evidently acutely aware of the presence of other cats as she immediately & emitted a loud & angry hiss. This came as a bit of a shock to me as it was the first time I'd ever heard her angry or make any kind of sound like that! Of course, while I had looked away, she had just set eyes on one of Charlie's harem who being a typical Sphynx had eagerly come to check her out!
Sarah, Charlie’s owner showed me to her sitting room bringing Charlie in so that I could meet him. Then having exchanged the stud fee & chatted about what would happen over the coming days it was time for me to leave.
I was not at all worried at all about the quality of care Noodle would receive but still, it was very difficult for me to leave on my own & to abandon my 'baby'. Sarah was so kind & over the coming days provided me with lots of reassurance, keeping in touch daily & sending photos of Noodle & Charlie together which was so much appreciated. Indeed Noodle & Charlie quickly became good friends. He particularly loved her heat mat which we had taken with us & which they shared side by side (subsequently my cats have always travelled away with their heat mats & the boys always enjoy them!).
After I left, Sarah set the new couple up in a room where they would be undisturbed. Sarah told me that Charlie would keep his eyes open wide for the entire night watching over Noodle.
The very next morning Sarah was witness to their first mating (on Tuesday 15th August 2017). Charlie evidently had had to hold on to Noodle's neck biting it firmly to hold her down and in place but she must have learned 'the ropes' very quickly - possibly wanting to avoid a repeat of that bite-hold but proving himself to be a loving & kind mate in every single way, all of their subsequent couplings were more gentle, without need for Charlie to use any restraint tactics. I received video footage of their second mating later that same afternoon.
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| Back at home (and back on her heat mat) here you can see that bite wound healing.
Noodle liked flirting with Charlie & happily shared her mat with him.
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May I join you on my heat mat & do you think we can mate again now - pllleeeese???"
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Once Charlie had indicated loss of interest (by Wednesday, 16th) he was taken from the room, but each time he asked to go back after having first had a cuddle with his mum & then checking that his harem was still in place. Noodle stayed with Charlie until Friday 18th August 2017.
Maybe due to having been away for the first time ever, having been faced with those rival females, & having lost ‘her innocence’, back at home Noodle took about a week to ten days to settle down. It was quickly evident that she was changed. Although no physical signs would be evident yet, I was convinced that the matings had been successful & this proved to be the case when at 21 days the first physical signs of pregnancy were clearly visible. For more information about her gestation please see the Pregnancy page.
More photos of Charlie:
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| Charlie warming his 'cockles' on the radiator while also very studiously ignoring one of his playful offspring, a kitten was born in a litter belonging to one of his harem. |
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| Here Charlie is looking very dapper in his roll neck jumper as he peers out of his favourite bed. |
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I fell in love with Charlie & soon decided I wanted to have a solid dark kitten he had sired. He is the father of my second active female Prunella Prudence (Prune/Pru).
