Posted by iZ's mom (+ Kirby too) on August 12, 2000 at 19:21:58:
In Reply to: Re: spaying and neutering? posted by Katherine on August 11, 2000 at 16:53:45:
once mature, females generally lay eggs on a yearly basis, whether they've mated or not ... being gravid is in itself, somewhat of a health risk and is hard on both the ig *and* the humans involved ... alot of things can go wrong while being gravid + the ig can potentially die ...
personally, i'd have a female 'fixed' before i would a male, just because there are more proven health benefits and more agreement on the benefits ...
neutering males ~ the jury's out on this one ... some have noticed improvement with "Mating Season" aggression, others have not ... if i had tried *everything* else and had an extremely aggressive male that wouldn't snap out of it, i'd *think* about it, but the prob is, there's no guarentee it'll help ... (and *knock wood* i never have to decide this cuz it'd be hard to send iZ into surgery again!) ... well, and there's another point ... with cats/dogs, neutering is a fairly simple procedure because the testes are external ... not so with igs! ...
no right or wrong answer to this ... just opinions ...