Yes, you can absolutely keep your cat while pregnant. The concern centers on a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii, which cats can shed in their feces, but the actual risk of infection from a pet cat is low and manageable with a few simple precautions. Most pregnant cat owners go through their entire pregnancy without any issues.
Why Cats Come Up During Pregnancy
Cats are the only animals that shed Toxoplasma in their feces, which is why they get singled out in pregnancy conversations. When a cat eats an infected rodent or bird, it can pass microscopic parasites in its stool for up to three weeks. Those parasites need one to five days sitting in the litter box before they become infectious. That delay is actually good news: it means fresh feces aren’t immediately dangerous, and daily litter box cleaning dramatically cuts the risk.
Here’s the part that surprises most people: direct contact with a pet cat is actually a less common source of human infection than handling raw or undercooked meat. In many countries, contaminated meat is the more significant route of transmission. Gardening in soil where outdoor cats have defecated and eating unwashed produce from the garden are also common pathways. So the litter box, while worth taking seriously, isn’t the only thing to watch.
How Risky Is Your Specific Cat?
Not all cats carry the same level of risk. Indoor-only pet cats have a dramatically lower infection rate than cats that roam outside. One large study found that semi-domesticated outdoor cats were about eight times more likely to carry the parasite than indoor pet cats, with infection rates of roughly 11.5% versus 1.5%. That’s because outdoor cats hunt rodents and birds, which is how they pick up the parasite in the first place. A strictly indoor cat that eats only commercial cat food has very little opportunity to become infected.
Even cats that do get infected only shed the parasite for a one-to-three-week window in their lifetime. After that initial shedding period, they typically don’t shed it again. So the chance that your cat is actively shedding Toxoplasma at the exact time you’re pregnant is quite small, especially if it’s been an indoor cat for years.
What the Parasite Can Do During Pregnancy
If a pregnant person contracts Toxoplasma for the first time during pregnancy, the parasite can cross the placenta and infect the developing baby. The global transmission rate from mother to fetus is estimated at around 29%, meaning nearly half of fetuses whose mothers become infected during pregnancy escape infection entirely.
The timing of infection matters a great deal. In the first trimester, transmission to the fetus is lowest (around 10%) but the consequences are most severe if it does occur. In the third trimester, transmission is much higher (around 56%) but tends to cause milder effects. The highest risk to the fetus overall occurs between weeks 10 and 24 of pregnancy. Early infections can cause serious complications including brain abnormalities: one study found that 48% of fetuses had cerebral issues when mothers were infected before 16 weeks, compared to just 3% when infection happened after 24 weeks.
This sounds alarming, but remember: this only applies to new infections acquired during pregnancy, not to women who were previously exposed. And the steps to prevent infection are straightforward.
Practical Steps That Work
The CDC recommends that pregnant women avoid changing the litter box if possible. If someone else in your household can take over that job for nine months, that’s the simplest solution. If you’re the only option, wear disposable gloves and wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water afterward. The key detail: clean the box every day. Because the parasites need at least 48 to 72 hours to become infectious after being deposited, daily scooping removes them before they pose a threat.
Beyond the litter box, these habits reduce your risk further:
- Wash hands after gardening. Outdoor soil can harbor parasites from neighborhood cats, sometimes for months.
- Wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly. Especially anything from a home garden where cats might roam.
- Cook meat to safe temperatures. Since undercooked meat is actually a more common infection route than cat contact, this matters as much as litter box precautions.
- Keep your cat indoors. If your cat already stays inside, great. If it goes outside, now is a good time to transition it indoors to prevent it from hunting infected prey.
- Don’t adopt a new outdoor or stray cat during pregnancy. Kittens and newly infected cats shed millions of parasites, so this is the one time to hold off on a new addition.
Testing and Screening
Routine screening for toxoplasmosis during pregnancy is not recommended in the United States, the United Kingdom, or most of Canada because the overall incidence is low. France and a few other countries with higher infection rates do screen routinely. If your doctor suspects a new infection based on symptoms or exposure, a blood test can check for antibodies. The absence of both IgG and IgM antibodies early in pregnancy means you haven’t been previously infected and should be especially careful about prevention. If acute infection is suspected, repeat testing two to three weeks later can confirm whether levels are rising.
What About Cat Scratches?
Cat scratch disease, caused by a different bacterium, occasionally comes up as a pregnancy concern. The evidence is reassuring. In a review of eight pregnant women with cat scratch disease, six gave birth to healthy babies with no complications, and no long-term effects were found in mothers or children over a median follow-up of 4.5 years. One early miscarriage occurred, but researchers could not establish that the cat scratch infection caused it. Normal scratch-prevention habits (not rough-housing with your cat, keeping nails trimmed, washing any scratches promptly) are sufficient.
You Don’t Need to Rehome Your Cat
The idea that pregnant women should give up their cats is one of the most persistent and unnecessary pieces of advice that gets passed around. The real risk comes from a specific set of circumstances: a cat that is actively shedding the parasite, feces that sit long enough to become infectious, and hand-to-mouth contact with those feces. Each of those links in the chain is breakable with basic hygiene. For an indoor cat eating commercial food, the chance of all those factors lining up is extremely small. Keep your cat, delegate the litter box if you can, and focus equally on meat handling and produce washing, which are statistically more likely sources of the infection anyway.