Do female animals know when they are pregnant?

My mother in law said she had a “sense”.
I say she had none XD
I really don’t know what they know…hmmm…abstract thought in animals….;)

I believe they may well do yes. Especially cows, they milk it for all it’s worth.

They know something, I’m just not sure how or why. Whenever a cow was going to have a calf outside, they would always go off by themselves to the wildest parts of the woods and hide the calf. All the rest of the time they would stay together. And this is from a not all that bright species.

I believe they do . Though we need to study more they way they act in the first weeks .

It’s impossible to separate what they know from how they act.

Many animals have false pregnancies- it’s really common in dogs. They will start whining and nesting and carrying socks around like they are puppies- sometimes they will even make milk. But they are not pregnant- most vets think it’s hormonal. So I am not sure that they “know” they are pregnant.

In goats, a first-time mom definitely doesn’t understand what is happening to her and will yell and scream and sometimes have the baby while she is still standing. She also may not keep good track of where the kids are. Experienced mothers have their kids with a lot less fuss, lie down to do it, and do a much better job of keeping the kids with them.

So I do think that they learn to associate the feelings of labor with what is about to happen to them. But that’s a bit different from knowing they are pregnant.

A conscious awareness of pregnancy? No. Behavioral changes due to physical changes that occur during pregnancy? Yes.

Why don’t you ask one of us females here on Fluther? O. Wait. I can answer this question!

I did not know I was pregnant until my body started feeling a bit odd, 3 to 4 weeks after conception, but even at that it took me a while to figure out what was up. The second time I figured it out much, much faster. I think the same would apply to other animals. Second time around they have experience to draw upon. There are plenty of women out there who get pregnant for the first time and don’t realize it for months and months, probably due to total ignorance.

I don’t think that male animals, other than humans, knows what the end result of copulation can be. If you took a totally ignorant, 16 year old human male who had no idea what the end result of copulation could be, he’d still be running around like crazy looking for to have sex with someone. It’s an instinct.

@Dutchess_III We aren’t totally clueless. I have a 15 week old nephew. I’m smitten.

@Adirondackwannabe What?

You’re answer kind of implied males have no concept of what sex can result in. I have a new nephew that the whole family is crazy about, so I understand what babies represent a little more. Does that make any sense?

Not really. I’m just answering the OP’s question. My point was, even if you (not you, personally @Adirondackwannabe) had never had sex education, no one had ever discussed it with you, even if you had been raised in the woods by wild animals, after puberty you’d still be driven to have sex, even if you didn’t know “why.” Without education or SOME sort of knowledge, females wouldn’t be any smarter about the consequences than males.

And no. A female human who was THAT ignorant wouldn’t “know” she was pregnant the first time. She’d know something was different, but wouldn’t know what or why.