Here we are.....kittens at 3 weeks

Our lovely Sam and Lavinia babies are now three weeks old and have been waiting to take these pictures as we do not use flash between eight and 20 days due to possible eye damage. All kittens doing very well and have now escaped the kittening box and are on the prowl....
All kittens are currently under assessment. Our waiting list is full.

Witchfyre Dubrava, brown tabby girl

 Witchfyre Fabian, silver shaded? tabby boy

Witchfyre Galochka, brown tabby girl

Witchfyre Elisaveta, silver tortie tabby girl

Our kittens are one week old

 The jury is still out on exact sex of kittens, and indeed colours. Had this problem last time with Sam and Lulu's babies, so am taking a best estimate at this point. Kitten 1 probably a brown tabby, pictured above we are not sure, girl or boy, so watch this space...

 Kitten 2 pictured above we think most likely a girl and possibly a tortie tabby.

 kitten 3 pictured above most likely a boy, could be a silver with gold

Kitten 4 most likely a boy, possibly silver.
More updates in a couple of weeks when we will know whether boys/girls and better idea of colours....keep watching :)

New kittens have arrived!

Our new sibby kittens are here. Dad is Musrafy Samurai of Witchfyre, golden tabby, and mum is Witchfyre Silvaamune, silver tortie tabby. More details and photos in a week or so. Kittens ready for new homes mid January. Enquires welcome.

HCM and PKD1 in Siberian Cats...a response to a breeders earlier post

A recent posting by a UK breeder regarding the condition HCM and PKD in Siberians contained inaccurate information. I responded to this post but it seems the person in question has chosen to ignore my comment.

Here is some information about HCM in cats.
http://siberianresearch.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=51&Itemid=72 http://www.fabcats.org/owners/heart/cardiomyopathy.html http://www.fabcats.org/hcm/index.html

General opinion is that HCM is caused by a DOMINANT gene. SRI have had some anomalies in certain lines and a theory of triggers and suppressors has been put forward, (source conversation with Tom Lundburg). However it is acknoledged that not all pedigree records are correct and that more data has to be gathered and the more people who participate in sharing loses of cats with HCM instead of hiding them, will improve the future for all breeds as this progressive disease is in most populations of pedigree and non pedigree cats.
There are many 'strains' of HCM in the cat populations, I think there are at least three identified in the Siberian to date?
Regarding inbreeding. You will only have a increased number of affected cats if you use a HCM cat. If one parent have one HCM gene there is a 50/50 chance of passing on the condition.
If both parents have one HCM gene this increases to a 75% chance of offspring being affected
If one cat carries two HCM genes all offpring will be affected.
Remember, these probabilities are for EACH kitten and not a percentage of the litter.
As we have only had a handful of reported cases in the UK it is prudent to monitor your own cats and do follow ups of offspring. I must point out that HCM and its 100s of strains has been in the human population for some time and research is still in its infancy.....

PKD1 in Siberians
Some information about testing your cats from UC Davies http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/services/pckd1.php
It is likely that PKD1 in Siberians will only manifest itself in cats whose origins include Persian roots or breeds using Persians as permitted outcrosses or where breeders have added these outcrosses to the gene pool. As we do not have reliable documentation about the foundation cats ancestry, or you suspect you cats ancestry may include such cats, a test may be prudent. However, if there is a strain of PKD in Siberians unique to this breed, as yet, no test has been approved. Monitoring of own cats and offspring and any occurances can be monitored and then that line tested and information shared.

It is important for those of us who breed this wonderful cat to be accurate in our publication of infornation. Many readers do not question the sources they read and can be misinformed.
NB Happily, in six years of owning and breeding Siberians, to date we have no reported cases of HCM/PKD1 cats in our foundation cats onwards :). If this changes I will cetainly let SRI know.

Kitten updates

Some lovely comments from our last sibby kittens that left us this month....

"Just to let you know that the 'babies' are coming along and getting up to mischief. Firenze, (tigger tabby) is the bolder of the two,he is always the first to jump in at playtime and the most inquisitive . Milan (boo) is still rather unsure,but he is progressing each day....thanks again for our bundles, WE LOVE THEM." Paul

"I thought I would just drop you an note to let you know that Napoli and Venezia are settling in well. They are eating well and have slowly started to explore their new surroundings. Their favourite past time at the moment seem to be chasing each other down the corridor or trying to climb any obstacle they can find. The girls are very sociable as they always try to play or just relax in the same room as us when we're upstairs (we haven't let them explore downstairs yet). They seem to know when we're about to leave the house for work as this is normally the time when Napoli wants a tummy rub or Venezia wants to play. They are really lovely kittens and we're so lucky to have them." Jenny

"Verona has settled in brilliantly and we are really pleased to have her. She was quite shy to begin with but is now lording it over the whole house and causing carnage. I can't believe how far she can jump when she is so small. All the best, Gavin"

Roma aka Cosmo went to live with Marc and family who are allergy sufferers. They called to say that he had settled in and had caused quite a stir at the vets, he went out of the consultation room with the vet to be weighed and returned with three vet nurses cooing over him!
Marc says the whole family love him to bits....

Its very rewarding when we get feedback like this, raising kittens is very time consuming and a labour of love....it keeps us going, holding on to these positive thoughts when we get messed about with petty timewasters and dreamers. I can honestly say we have found exceptional homes this time, even in the face of a massive increase in siberian kittens being born over the summer.....
After six years of breeding Siberians, selecting healthy and good tempered cats, we at Witchfyre are proud of our kittens.....and pleased that our new owners are happy with their new babies, enough to return for another!

Best of the best!

Some wonderful news from Lorraine at Bluemoon Siberians....
"Just to let you all know that the gorgeous Samson great grandson of Lolita Fiodorova della Taiga Son of Inspiration Lollita and Nellstars Zuko was nominated at the Grantham show today and won Best Kitten in Show, Best in Category 2 and finally Best Overall cat in Show.

This has taken almost 10 years of hard work so thanks to everyone who has helped along the way....
He is the double of his great grandmother and every category he won was unanimous."
Here are some pics (Lorraine apologises for the green tinge!

This is amazing news tinged with a little sadness as Samson will be moving to Europe with his human family and we will miss them all....
Good luck to Lorraine and family, two and four legged...... fly the flag for the UK!!

Hush hush.....

Our last sibby kittens went to their new homes today....all is quiet again:(
Final 2011 kittens due October from Sam and Lavinia....waiting list open