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For any breeder the health of the cats and their kittens are of the outmost importance and you want to do everything to ensure the health of your cats. Many diseases can easily be cured and some of the more serious illnesses you can vaccinate your cats against. If you are a breeder you are required to vaccinate and keep the vaccination updated regularly to avoid your animals to become ill and to avoid passing on any disease.

DNA Test

The majority of diseases are visible on the cat but others lie dormant in the cat and only become visible in the litter when both dame and sire are carriers. One way to detect some of these diseases is to take a DNA test of both cats. If the disease lies dormant in both cats a mating should be avoided to breed healthy cats. While mating such two cats doesn't guarantee that the disease will be present in the kittens you are likely to pass on the genes for the dormant diseases.

If you use a DNA test you can detect some of the diseases. Which diseases depends on the cat race that you have. For example can you test an ocicat for the diseases PK and PRA. It is our viewpoint that this should be done for every breeding cat you have and if you want to mate with a cat from another cattery that cat should also have taken the same tests.

A further advantage of DNA tests is that you can obtain knowledge of some, but not all, of the colour genes that your cat have. For example can you test if your ocicat has the gene for cinnamon and chocolate. This is important information if you want to have a kitten of a certain colour.

Testing your Cat's DNA

Basically there are two ways you can test your cat's DNA. The first method is to use a cotton swap - don't worry the testing organisation will tell you how to do this. This is what we have done with our cats for now. The downside is that you not have proof that the swap is taken from your cat and this can be relevant if you want to prove to a third party that your cat has a clean bill of health.

The second option is to go to your veterinarian and have them take the test. The test can either be done by a cotton swap or by a blood sample or a mixture of several methods to obtain the DNA. Your veterinarian then send the DNA sample to a laboratory, which can be exacly the same as the one you send your own sample to, if you have used the first method mentioned.

There are several laboratories that do the DNA tests and a few are listed in the right column. Study their offers carefully as they do not all offer the same tests and prices vary.

When the test is done you should register your results with i.e. PawPeds or other organisations that register DNA-results.

For now we have chosen to publish our results on our website and with the Health Register for OCICAT.