Vraagbaak voor beginnende katteneigenaars

[PeterN]

Hi! I wrote an article about this, but I see it has already been linked by Rik

KleinDraakje, thank you very much for your very useful manuals.
As far as I see now, we are going to the same direction - e-mailed to 15-20 catteries, got answers from 5-10 of them, the answers are positive (kittens are available and a visit is possible) from 3-4 cat breeders, so we have busy week of visits now!

Lidmaatschap van een rasvereniging is geen garantie voor een goede fokker maar het geeft een goede indicatie. Bij problemen kan de rasvereniging mogelijk ook bemiddelen.
Daarnaast kan een bezoek aan de cattery een goed beeld geven van de daadwerkelijke situatie.

Dinky, I see your point, bedankt!
Sure, we are going to visit catteries, 3 of them are already planned for this week .

[KleinDraakje]

KleinDraakje, thank you very much for your very useful manuals.
As far as I see now, we are going to the same direction - e-mailed to 15-20 catteries, got answers from 5-10 of them, the answers are positive (kittens are available and a visit is possible) from 3-4 cat breeders, so we have busy week of visits now!

Thank you! I've worked very hard on writing those articles. It took me about 6 weeks (on and off) to get it done, and I'm still changing small things to make them better hihi

Make sure to prep some questions before you go! And write down some points when you are there. It helps to jog the memory when you are home and 'comparing' catteries. And prepare yourself to fall in love with at least 1 or 2 kittens on the spot Having a list with questions with you helps to go back to the rational side of the conversation. I also had a checklist for myself with me with things you just observe and not specifically ask. Like how clean the house is, where they grow up etc. I would also write down for myself a few words about how I felt about the visit, the click with the persons and their values. It helps to remember later on.

If possible ask if you can see the family tree of mom and dad and the necessary tests for Main Coon parents. Just seeing them and how the cattery responds to it will tell you how transparent they are in sharing information.

Are you visiting the catteries on separate days? I would definitely advice that And have fun!!

[KiwiNL]

Are you visiting the catteries on separate days? I would definitely advice that

Most catteries even don't want you to visite other catteries on the same day. Just to be sure you don't transfer diseases from one cattery to another.

[PeterN]

Sorry for the late reply - this is a busy week, the first after holidays (nobody does your work while you are off ) and full of cattery visits in evenings.

We met 3 breeders and kitten from one of them looks very promising - but we still plan to see 2 more (at another cattery) because we are not 100% sure.

Dear All, may I ask you: if kittens receive "mixed feeding" - mostly artificial (a good one!) but mother still feeds them a bit, may this have impact on their size and personality in future?

Thank you! I've worked very hard on writing those articles. It took me about 6 weeks (on and off) to get it done, and I'm still changing small things to make them better hihi

Make sure to prep some questions before you go! And write down some points when you are there. It helps to jog the memory when you are home and 'comparing' catteries. And prepare yourself to fall in love with at least 1 or 2 kittens on the spot Having a list with questions with you helps to go back to the rational side of the conversation. I also had a checklist for myself with me with things you just observe and not specifically ask. Like how clean the house is, where they grow up etc. I would also write down for myself a few words about how I felt about the visit, the click with the persons and their values. It helps to remember later on.

If possible ask if you can see the family tree of mom and dad and the necessary tests for Main Coon parents. Just seeing them and how the cattery responds to it will tell you how transparent they are in sharing information.

Are you visiting the catteries on separate days? I would definitely advice that And have fun!!

Thank you for the good advice!
The "cattery observation list" indeed helps a lot.

And in response also to the KiwiNL's remark: we visit one cattery per day of course .

[KleinDraakje]

What do you mean with mixed feeding? That they eat kibbl and drink moms milk? That’s fine! How old are they?

Our kittens started eating small baby kibble around 4 weeks and still drank moms milk. Think they stopped drinking around 12 weeks because mom would not allow it anymore (because of the teeth). At that point they only drank once in a while because it’s nice, not because they needed it for their growth

[PeterN]

What do you mean with mixed feeding? That they eat kibbl and drink moms milk? That’s fine! How old are they?

Our kittens started eating small baby kibble around 4 weeks and still drank moms milk. Think they stopped drinking around 12 weeks because mom would not allow it anymore (because of the teeth). At that point they only drank once in a while because it’s nice, not because they needed it for their growth

As I understood, the mother had issues while giving birth to the last kitten (not that we consider as a candidate), so after a couple of days of "natural" feeding she got fever and was treated with antibiotics. That's why the breeder stopped natural feeding and switched to "bottle feeding" to avoid antibiotics coming to the kittens with mother's milk.
The mother-cat has recovered but probably has less milk, so now kittens (4.5 weeks old) have bottles, sometimes mother's milk and starting to eat some kitten's food.

The weight of the 4.5 weeks old kittens is about 550 grams - is this OK for the male coons?

Thank you for your replies and support .

[KiwiNL]

In general kittens weigh about 100 gram at birth and gain 100 gram every week. So their weight is normal.

[PeterN]

In general kittens weigh about 100 gram at birth and gain 100 gram every week. So their weight is normal.

Bedankt!

[KleinDraakje]

Oh bottle feeding is fine! Their weight is good too. 100g per week old. Our Pebbles was bottle fed the first few weeks too as she wasn’t heavy enough to fight for a place for moms milk. She would drink by her mom but would not get enough so in addition she got bottled milk. She is doing great

[PeterN]

Oh bottle feeding is fine! Their weight is good too. 100g per week old. Our Pebbles was bottle fed the first few weeks too as she wasn’t heavy enough to fight for a place for moms milk. She would drink by her mom but would not get enough so in addition she got bottled milk. She is doing great

Thank you very much for the answer!

[PeterN]

It seems that we will buy 2 Maine Coons - brother and sister - instead on one planned
I didn't expect to get addicted so fast!

[Mleen]

Great choice! They will have a lot of love and support from each other!

[Lieselotje]

It seems that we will buy 2 Maine Coons - brother and sister - instead on one planned
I didn't expect to get addicted so fast!

When will they come? Wishing you much fun with them.If you have pictures of them, i would like to see them.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn LG-D855 met Tapatalk

[PeterN]

When will they come? Wishing you much fun with them.If you have pictures of them, i would like to see them.

Great choice! They will have a lot of love and support from each other!

Thank you very much!
They will come to us only in the end of October because they are 1 month and 3 days old now.
We asked the breeder to keep them for extra 2 weeks to allow us to finish renovation of our kitchen - we afraid that construction noises wouldn't be very much welcome for the kittens during their first weeks in a new house.

Unfortunately the breeder isn't in favor of posting photos of his (yet ) kittens here, so I need to wait - at least until we sign the contract or perhaps till the end of October, sorry .

[KiwiNL]

I think it's a good choice to have two kittens. It's not only much nice for them, but also for you. I have two brothers (now 10 months old) and I still enjoy them playing and washing together every day.