Most puppies and kittens attain puberty between 8 and 12 months of age with a range of 6 to 22 months. If you are planning to breed your pet we recommend you wait for at least the second heat period which will occur in 6 months from the first. Dogs and cats generally come into heat twice a year. With the amount of strays and unwanted pets, we recommend sterilization before the first heat cycle.   « less

Puppies & kittens get some disease protection in the first milk from the female just as human babies do. If a kitten or pup nurses, it does have some protection. However, this protection starts to disappear at 6 to 8 weeks of age. We recommend starting vaccinations at 8 to 10 weeks of age in dogs and giving 3 sets of vaccines two weeks apart followed by a rabies vaccine. In a kitten we give two sets of vaccines at 9 and 11 weeks.    « less