Do animals have periods?
Mammals, or any kind of animals.
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Yes.
Well, to be more specific..it’s not always the same as a human..I know cats and dogs go “in heat”.
Yep, Google cat in heat or dog in heat for more.
Update: I know that “heat” and menstruation are not at all the same, but jumped in meaning to say that mammals undergo “periods” of change tied to fertility.
Of course. The difference is that when most mammals are in heat (bleeding) that’s the time when they are ripe for fertilization. With humans a menstrating woman is less likely to get pregnant.
Yes, of course….I used to put my dogs into doggy underwear when they had theirs
Actually, no, because humans are the only mammal that can conceive at any time of the year, except during the actual menstrual period. Other mammals do go into “heat” seasonally, and those are the only times they can conceive. It means that people are designed to expand their population quickly, to make up for how long they spend raising each baby to adulthood.
This question has me wondering about doggy PMS.
@Darwin- You are referring to overt menstruation and we aren’t the only species who experience it. Chimpanzees and some other primates do as well.
So I dont get it.. Do they actually bleed?
@Ivan You sir, are the the proud recipient of a GA.
Seasonal mating evolved so that the newborn would have the greatest possible chance of surviving the first Winter. If animals gave birth during the Winter, for example, their progeny would not survive.
During Oestrus, there are ovulation clues, pheromonal and visual. In certain primates, for example, the vulva will swell and redden. Mating does not take place out of Oestrus.
When proto-humans became bipedal, they lost visual cues for ovulation (this is also when permanently enlarged breasts evolved, a feature found only in humans) so humans have non-seasonal intercourse.
Menstruation is a byproduct of ovulation, not a signal for ovulation.
@naivete Yes, dogs in heat bleed,it’s another mess that comes with pet ownership, though it’s kind of opposite, it happens when they are most fertile.
@jaytkay So how do pet owners deal with it?... Doggy Tampons? :S
@Darwin I would think we cycle moe often because we generally have singletons rather than litters? I wonder if other mammals who tend to only have one or two babies cycle often even if their young are independent in a sort amout of time?
You are conflating Oestrus with menstruation. They are not the same phenomenon.
@naivete yes the dogs bleed..that’s why i put them in underwear…
There is blood, but it is not menstrual blood.
@pdworkin Menstruation is a byproduct of ovulation, not a signal for ovulation. I always try to explain this to people, but they don’t get it because women are taught that day one of menstruation is day one of their cycle. So, they think menstruation first. If you want to get pregnant it is better to count back from expected menstruation to predict ovulation, not forward from a previous menstruation. They almost never teach this in school to women.
@naivete – Husband says, “The female dogs I’ve had, when they go into heat, clean themselves a lot.”
@JLeslie I’ve been feeling that I’ve been swimming in mud in this thread, trying to disambiguate Oestrus and menstruation.
But… like, periods with blood and such. Or is it different?
I think most animals have semicolons and question marks. Only humans have periods.
@naivete So how do pet owners deal with it?... Doggy Tampons? :S
Doggy diapers.
@HungryGuy That was me when my mom tried to explain puberty to me.
@jaytkay I’ve had lots of trips to the pet store but I’ve never seen doggy diapers. Interesting
@JLeslie That’s how I figured out my fertile time and I’ve taught my daughters that. But I often get challenged. I think it’s because we know the date of the first day of menstruation (clumsy word).
@JLeslie – Partly it is because we only have one young at a time, but partly it is because we then spend 14 (in the old days) to 21 years rearing them before they attain independence.
@naivete – My neighbor raises miniature poodles and she can be seen periodically walking the diapered female. I’ve seen the diapers at PetSmart.
Huh. I always thought those dog-in-heat diapers were just to make it impossible for the male dogs to get in there.
Of course they do, silly. At least the mammals.
No, @Kelly_Obrien, they don’t. You are the one who is being silly.
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@faye Right. 14 days BEFORE your coming period that egg is going to pop, assuming you are under the age of 35 and your hormones are normal.
In a way yes but they don’t bleed like we do. All humans have “periods” otherwise they couldn’t get pregnant,
Actually, now that I think of it animals wouldn’t have periods. In fact they would have a need for punctuation of any kind.
My dogs use exclamation marks a lot, especially when they hear the UPS guy’s truck.
Or @ 3:30 am, scaring the you know out of you.
edit: wouldn’t have a need…
But if they get neutered, do they not have it?
Correct. If you lose your uterus and your ovaries you won’t ovulate, either.
yes , as human are animals so they do as human
@carrielynn It is the egg. If the egg was fertilized it would become a chicken, but commercial farms do not let the chicken eggs get fertilized, unless they need some new young chickens. The association with a period is not really genuine, because it conjures up bloody mess. A chicken does not shed its uterine lining like a human. Chickens are not mammals, it is not analogous.
It’s PETA. It’s not supposed to be scientifically accurate, it’s supposed to influence you to give up animal products. Hence, the line-drawing between eggs (yummy) and periods (eww, gross). That’s the problem with using sites like that – one must take their agenda into account when evaluating the information.
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