Most families that rehome a cat over toxoplasmosis are guarding the wrong route. The cat is a real source, but a small and manageable one: oocysts leave the body in feces without being infectious, and they need 1 to 2 days in the environment before they can infect anyone. Freshly scooped litter is not where the risk sits. Undercooked meat, unwashed produce, and soil are the routes public health guidance names first.
3 rules cover almost every household case, and none of them require giving up the cat. Everything below is about dose and timing, which is what actually decides risk.
Why the litter box window is 1 to 2 days
The cycle runs in 4 steps: a cat eats infected tissue, the parasite cycles through the gut wall, oocysts pass in feces, and those oocysts then need 1 to 2 days in warm, moist conditions (up to 5 days in cool weather) to sporulate and become infectious. A box scooped every 24 hours never holds infectious oocysts from a fresh deposit. That single fact carries most of the practical guidance.
Shedding is short and usually once. Most cats shed for 1 to 2 weeks after a first infection and rarely again, because immunity blocks the second round. A cat that has hunted for 5 years is more likely to be past that window than a 6 month old kitten that just caught its first mouse.
3 rules that cover the household
Rule 1, litter: a pregnant person does not scoop. If nobody else can, wear disposable gloves, bag the waste sealed, wash hands for 20 seconds with soap, and scrub the box with 60 degrees C water every 2 to 4 weeks. Keep the box 3 m from the kitchen and off food surfaces.
Rule 2, meat: no raw or pink meat for anyone in the house, and none for the cat. Cook whole cuts to 66 degrees C and poultry to 74 degrees C, checked with a thermometer rather than by color. Wash boards and knives in hot soapy water, keep raw meat away from salad, and rinse produce under running water. Cured and fermented meats are not a safe shortcut in pregnancy.
Rule 3, soil and hands: gloves for gardening, a cover on any sandbox, shoes off indoors, and no unwashed garden produce. Wash hands after the cat, after the box, and before eating. A cat kept indoors on commercial food and never fed raw meat has almost no route to infection in the first place.
Serology: what a titre can and cannot tell you
An IgG test on the cat answers 1 question: has this cat met the parasite before. IgG turns positive 2 to 3 weeks after infection and stays positive for years, so a positive cat is usually a cat that finished shedding, not one shedding now. IgM rises earlier and can stay up for months, which makes a single IgM result hard to read without a second sample 2 to 3 weeks later.
What a titre cannot do is tell you whether the cat is shedding this week, or how much. A negative IgG cat is the one to watch, because it is still susceptible and could pick up an infection later, which is why the indoor and no-raw-meat rules matter more for that cat. The titre that changes obstetric care is yours, not the cat's: a human IgG drawn before pregnancy that is already positive means prior infection, and prior infection is the safe position.
The litter box, step by step
| Task | How often | Key number | Who |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scoop the box | 1 per day, never past 24 hours | 2 minutes, gloves on | Not the pregnant person |
| Full change and scrub | Every 2 to 4 weeks | Water at 60 degrees C | Not the pregnant person |
| Box placement | Fixed spot, 0 moves | 3 m from the kitchen | Anyone |
| Cook meat through | 1 per cooked meal | 66 degrees C, poultry 74 | Whoever cooks |
| Hand washing | 1 per contact | 20 seconds, soap | Everyone |
| Gardening | 1 per soil contact | Gloves, 1 covered sandbox | Pregnant person too |
Total cost of the setup: gloves, a second box, a meat thermometer, and 1 titre for the cat at 60 to 120 USD. The yearly budget at /tools/cost/ does not change; this is a 1 time purchase near 100 USD that never repeats.
Where the risk actually sits
Ranked by how often they explain a human infection: undercooked lamb, pork, or game; unwashed vegetables and herbs; soil under the fingernails after gardening; untreated water in some regions; and then cat feces, usually from a box cleaned bare-handed by someone who ate right after. A cat that hunts adds a real route, because infected tissue comes back through the door. That is an argument for a bell, a dusk curfew, or an indoor life, not for rehoming.
Cross-border adoption adds 1 wrinkle: a cat that arrives with no health record needs a fecal exam and a titre before you plan around it, and the paperwork side is at /adopt/cross-border-adoption/. The first 2 days in a new home, including where to put the box so it is not beside the kitchen, are at /adopt/first-48-hours-after-adoption/.
What to do at the first prenatal visit
Say 1 sentence: we have a cat, it lives indoors, someone else scoops. Ask for your own toxoplasma IgG and IgM panel. If your IgG is positive, that worry is off the table for this pregnancy. If it is negative, the 3 rules above are the protection, and a repeat test at 12 to 16 weeks is reasonable after a known exposure such as gardening without gloves.
Do not ask for the cat to be tested as a condition of keeping it. A cat titre changes nothing about your own care, and a positive result on a healthy indoor cat usually causes a needless panic in week 20.
When to call the doctor
Most infections in healthy adults cause nothing at all, which is why testing beats symptom watching. Call for a flu-like illness with swollen neck nodes 5 to 23 days after a known exposure, or for any fever in pregnancy. Diagnosis is a blood test, treatment exists, and earlier treatment works better.
First week checklist
- Day 1: move the box out of the kitchen, 3 m minimum, and buy 2 boxes of disposable gloves.
- Day 2: hand scooping duty to another adult in writing, not by habit.
- Day 3: buy a meat thermometer and post 66 and 74 degrees C on the fridge.
- Day 4: book your own IgG and IgM panel with the first prenatal visit.
- Day 5 to 7: cover the sandbox, put gardening gloves by the door, and read /tools/cost/ before adding a second cat.
Frequently asked
Do I have to give up my cat if I am pregnant?
No. Keep the cat indoors, feed commercial food, have someone else scoop daily, and cook meat to 66 degrees C. Oocysts need 1 to 2 days in the box to become infectious, so a box cleaned every 24 hours is not an infectious source. Rehoming removes a small risk and leaves the bigger ones, undercooked meat and soil, untouched.
Should I test my cat for toxoplasmosis?
It rarely changes anything. A positive IgG usually means the cat finished shedding years ago, and a negative result only tells you the cat is still susceptible, which is a reason to keep it indoors and off raw meat. Spend the 60 to 120 USD on your own IgG and IgM panel instead.
How long after exposure would symptoms show?
Usually 5 to 23 days. Most adult infections cause no symptoms at all, so a test is more reliable than watching for signs. Call your doctor for a flu-like illness with swollen neck nodes after gardening or raw meat, or for any fever during pregnancy, since treatment works better when it starts early.