ExcaTiburFolds

I NEVER oversell a cat, I have a take or leave it approach when displaying kittens. I want you to love that kitten and I want to know that kitten has found it’s soul mate human. I will undersell our cats because there are 4 things we do that speak for themselves and by seeing our cats will make you fall in love with our kittens on their own.

 

#1 Our cats looks

 

#2 Our cats show records

 

#3 Our cats personalities

 

#4 Health screening and paperwork proof of our parent's and kitten's health

 

1. I will price kittens according to show versus pet quality. I will undersell any kitten with a pointy faces or a medium quality tail (good enough for healthy pets, not good enough to handle the TRASHING all judges at a show will put the tail trough dozens of times at a show by pulling on the tail hard enough to drag the show cat across a table multiple times from different angles) and by fully disclosing any fault. I will demonstrate on our show cats and pet quality or high quality kittens the differences a judge would use. Mostly you will be able to tell by the pictures who is super cute and who is medium cute.
    

2. Any cat with a stiff tail or arthritis will not show well enough to make Quadruple Grand Champion or Supreme Grand Champion. I got my cats from established breeders with verifiable Breed wins, Regional Wins, and International wins. I did NOT price shop for my show cats. I can tell you almost every backyard breeder in the NW has contacted me for pets and thought my alter price was too high for breeding rights, even though I won't sell to backyard breeders and breeding price would be at least double pet price. These people show up at cat shows a few months later with their discount no-name cats and get DISQUALIFIED for arthritis and they go home and keep backyard breeding known arthritic cats, some even claiming because they showed up for 2 hours they have show quality cats. TICA show scores are up on the website to verify and I have included links on our meet the cats page of my cats. My fold Pink was handled and approved by over 51 TICA judges and given over 80 All breed cat awards by those judges, some of who are cat geneticist and teach TICA cat health and disease classes who are VERY tough on folds.
   
   I also go to every show in the NW region so stop by and see our cats. Cats who go to shows regularly should be able to make QGC within a few months. If they don’t, most judges are trying to be nice to them and just withhold finals without a full DQ because the tail is fair quality. If they can’t make it in under a year it is NOT show quality. If breeders don’t show, they won’t be able to get cats from the Scottish Fold heavy hitters. The best breeders are proud and protective of their healthy bloodlines. We want to know that our cats are being bred to the best cats by the most ethical breeders so that kittens that have our names on them are not am embarrassment at shows. If you don’t show, we have no proof of that and the best breeders will turn away breeders who don’t show. Many then turn to overseas breeders in small registries giving very false information. Some tell adopters they can breed fold to fold every 3 generations (you can NEVER do that). Some claim to be accredited felinologist (that isn’t a real thing, there are geneticists and veterinarians). Most ship off cats they know have stiff tails since people will not forfeit their cargo shipping price to return them and there is no legal recourse for a bad cat from overseas. These backyard breeders are then stuck with unhealthy cats, no money, and choose to breed those cats to try and get their money back. We have heard this story so many times at shows and I always ask if they checked the TICA website for scores of the parents.
   
   We are also one of the only catteries in the world to promote the Scottish Straight by paying to show them. These heroes of the breed are often overlooked by breeders because they don’t make as much money and are very hard to show because they are often viewed as second class cats. We show just about any straight in our home who is eligible. Getting them out there in the shows opens up the door to these healthy cats who do not have the arthritis risk but high quality ones will have the huge eyes and head as an adult and look very kitten like for their whole lives. We are groundbreakers in the straights, elevating them to their own rightful place in the cat fancy. Our straight boy Jammy was International best in breed 2 out of 3 years they have been allowed to show and compete and was the FIRST Scottish Straight to make Supreme Grand Champion in the world. My daughter shows him as her Junior Exhibitor Cat where she tells the public about how important they are for the breed and why Straights are good as pets by themselves or for breeding with Folds. He goes to shows and often does better than folds that are there.
    

3. We are a no cage cattery except at cat shows or to the vet. Kittens are raised underfoot, first in a bedroom with humans sleeping in it, then in our main living area. We snuggle with them, trip over them, and our home is basically half theirs with all the trees, beds, and toys. This makes a huge difference on personality and is even observable at cat shows. Many cats who are caged are aggressive at shows and bite and swat at judges and this may also contribute to an inability to Supreme a cat that can’t be handled. Some of this may also be a cat with arthritis in pain not wanting to be moved or it’s tail tested and cause it pain.
   
   We spend hours a day with our kittens, even “boring” newborns. We must weight kittens twice a day and make sure to get visual confirmation twice a day that every kitten is nursing or we have to step in and syringe or tube feed that kitten every 2 hours until it is nursing again on its own. Breeders who don’t spend several hours a day with kittens will lose many kittens a year to fading kitten syndrome (failure to thrive due to not nursing leading to death). Our kittens are socialized from the first day of birth due to all the handling we do. It is tempting when kittens first start walking to cage them until potty trained but that barrier immediately cuts off constant direct human interaction. Instead we have to be diligent in putting kittens in their training litter box as often as possible, which is also human interaction!
   
   Kittens that are caged can also have a problem integrating with other pets in their new homes and have litter box trouble. Many of the top breeders cage and are the best because of a high volume of kittens to chose from. So some of our breeding cats we’ve brought in are not able to handle other cats and by the time we get them the kittens are to old to adjust and we just have to keep them separate from cats they don’t like or have them in rooms with vinyl flooring while we try to work on litter box training them. You can come see us at cat shows and see how social our cats are in that very stressful, loud, and scary environment. A cat social at a cat show with thousands of spectators and hundreds of screaming cats can handle any good home.
    

4. ​We screen the crap out of our cats and have documentation of it. THIS is where the backyard breeder will really be separated out from the healthy cats as genetic tests and yearly ultrasounds can cost over a thousand dollars per cat. Backyard breeders don't want to chance finding something wrong with cats they paid for since they already have arthritis and don't care about genetic problems either. We do a full trait and disease genetic test on all our breeding cats. This includes every test they have such as 2 forms of HCM, PKD, blood type, hair type, and we have the report you can view during a visit.
   
   There are only 2 known genetic forms of HCM currently and there is thought to be 50 or so. Until we know them all, the best breeders ultrasound their cats hearts for HCM. The test doesn’t mean the cat will never get HCM, just that it doesn’t have it yet. We have scanned our males and most of our females. It cost $400-800 to do the ultrasound, but at cat shows we put on clinics where we get a discount if we have more than 10 cats do the scan. They should also be rescanned throughout their breeding career. We have documentation of the ultrasounds performed by a board certified cardiologist that can be viewed during our visit.
   
   Every kitten is Felv tested as long as it is not adopted a taken home the same day it is visited such as at cat shows. It’s best to wait for the test to as close as possible to it leaving the cattery. We spay and neuter every fold before it leaves the cattery. We CANNOT chance backyard breeders breeding cats that we have not put through the judges gauntlet of testing the heck out of it’s tail to prove that it is healthy. Every straight can be altered before leaving as well, but it’s optional that it can go home at 11 weeks only to lighten the bioload on the nursing queen, who by 11 weeks is skin and bone from nursing her kittens even free feeding several cups of dry food a day and raw and can food several times a day. Micro chipping may be included if I can get them in for an additional vet visit before 11 or 13 weeks, and for sure on older kitten.
   
   Most of our queens and studs are part of Banfield’s wellness plan and include twice a year worming, fecal samples, and blood work just as a preventative screening for any internal organ problems. Kittens are given a dose of Revolution which is a wormer, ear mite, and flea preventative just for peace of mind and as a first dose as most vets will pressure you to due a full 3 rounds so at least the first round is taken care of if your are guilt tripped into it.
   
   And lastly, we again show our cats and have documentation of it. Scottish Fold cats that are not shown are not healthy, and show records are open to the public on the TICA website. I can’t stress this enough as even after all reputable breeders warnings, we still get people who read those warnings but come crying (literally crying with tears) to us when they find out they bought a crippled cat from someone else that we didn't warn them enough about how bad it was to go with someone who doesn't show and have verifiable QGC and SGC.