How Much For That Kitty

Many people would much rather spend a couple hundred dollars for a pedigree kitten instead of over a thousand dollars for a kitten. But in the long run will you be saving money?

1. Reputable Fold breeders breed cats with genetic issues in mind.

What I mean by this is a reputable breeder will only breed folds to straights (or the

allowable outcross of the BSH or ASH). They will never do fold to fold breedings

so the risk of OCD (osteochondrodyplasia) is greatly decreased. The cost of treating a

cat with OCD is several hundreds to thousands of dollars (vet trips, glucosamine

supplements, pain medications, acupuncture, etc). While these costs don't occur all at once

they will occur monthly for the rest of your cats life.

2. Reputable Fold breeders only use allowable outcrosses

A reputable breeder isn't trying to get folded ears on every cat out there. Those "breeders"

using Munkins, Selkirk Rex, Himalayans, etc are in it to make money. These crosses may

have cute, but fake breed names, are not registerable because they are not pedigree cats.

They are just really expensive Domestic Short/Longhairs.

2. Reputable Fold breeders health test

The 2 main genetic problems with folds (besided OCD which greatly reduced with proper

breeding) are PKD, polycystic kidney disease, and HCM, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Reputable breeders will be doing the screenings for these disease. PKD is a simple DNA

test looking to see if the cat carrys the gene. As long as both parents are negative all

kittens will be negative since the parents don't carry the gene. HCM is a little different,

there is no DNA test for folds so this means the parents should be screened by a board

certified cadiologist who will perform an echocardiogram

3. Reputable Fold breeders breed for the sweet temperaments that the breed is known for

I resently had this conversation with a young man who was told by another

"breeder" that the personality and temperament were all in how you raised your

kitten. While this is important there is much more to it. Genetics plays a huge factor in

personality and temperament!!

4. Good breeders alter their kittens before sending them to their forever homes

Good breeders are not in it for the money. We are in it because we love the breed and

want to better it. We do not want our babies becoming kitten factories at the hands of

people who don't understand what it takes to breed. We do not contribute to the over pet

population because when a kitten leaves our homes they are altered (the only exception is

the few times that we may have a kitten go into an established, reputatable breeding

program with the same beliefs)