My pet has the following symptoms:
So, I thought my almost 6 year old cat was pregnany, since I caught our "new" male cat try to mate with her about two months ago while she was in heat.
The male is just a year old and inexperienced in regards to mating, by the way.
A few weeks after, I noticed her belly starting to grow, she would eat more wet food (when she's usually more into dry food and barely finishes her wet food portions) and started getting really affectionate towards me. Again, she is usually a pretty independent kitty that doesn't like to be touched or carried unless it's on her terms, like when she's hungry or sleepy (or in heat), so that was a big deal. Since last week, she started to get really clingy, to the point that she would only lie/sit down when I was next to her or actively seek me out to sit/sleep beside me and vocally complain when I got up, then immediately follow me to wherever I went and be restless/meow at me until I returned to sit with her. Her belly was still growing so I was fairly certain at that point that she was pregnant, what with the belly, bigger nipples, increase in appetite and the behavioral changes that were pretty major. So I made her up a nesting box, as her due date would be pretty close if she did conceive around the time I caught the male trying to go at it with her. Her belly is big but not huge, so I figured I miscalculated and they had to have already mated before I caught them doing it.
Then, yesterday, she starts to always grab a certain fuzzy toy of hers and bring it along to where I was when she came to sit with me. I thought she wanted to play first (she sometimes bring the toys back to me when I throw them or brings it for me to throw it to her on the first place), but she doesn't run after it straight away, she just gets up after a few minutes and retrieves it while making those trilly meowing sounds.
Also, she could never stand the male (not counting when she's in heat, because her will is gone then), would always growl and hiss at him and swat if he came too close, but yesterday she suddenly approached him and even let him groom her for the first time ever, and do what I'm guessing is a display of dominance by nipping at her in between. He may have tried to playfight with her too but since he's already way bigger than her (she's pretty small for a 6 year old), I kept an eye on them and separated them when I felt he got too aggressive/rough. Keep in mind, she's been a single indoor cat since I got her at 9 weeks, and he was only separated from his rambunctious brother at lile 3 months when we got him, so he's more used to play/fights than she is.
She was making weird noises all throughout these few weeks of what I thought was pregnancy, but yesterday and today she was definitely making the extended trilling meows and "singing" she does when she's in heat, just sounding a bit half-hearted? And at one point the male bit her neck and tried to get on top of her again. I was supremely confused first, but a quick google search showed that pregnant cats don't go into heat(?) and that while it might be possible that the inexperienced male is confusing her pregnancy pheromones for estrus pheromones, if she isn't doing any lactating or nesting/looking for a place to have her kittens, which she isn't, in addition to the toy mothering and renewed heat symptoms, I am thinking it might be a fake pregnancy.
Any opinions on this or a sure way to know, aside from waiting or taking her to the vet? Can a pregnant cat be in heat?
It's been about 8 weeks since that day of potential conception, so shouldn't she be nesting/lactating by now? And I know it depends on the number of kittens, but I feel like her belly should be bigger than it is, too. It's her first litter though, so it might just be because she'd only be having few kittens.
Any help or pointers for certainty are appreciated.