Siamese Cat Breeding

Researchers screened 846 cats across 41 breeds and found this variant in 16 breeds. In North American and European Siamese, they measured an allele frequency of about a third. The authors wrote that it poses a significant health risk particularly in the Siamese breed group.[1] That is not a rare-disease footnote. Without a test on either cat, you are running a coin toss blind.

The condition is recessive, which means a kitten needs two copies to lose its sight, and a cat carrying one copy sees perfectly well its whole life. That is precisely why the variant spread so far. A carrier looks like a completely healthy cat, wins in the show ring, and passes the copy to half its kittens.

Carriers do not have to leave your programme. Paired with a clear cat they produce sighted kittens every time, which matters in a breed where removing every carrier would take a large bite out of the gene pool. What a carrier does need is disclosure, so the person who buys the kitten can test before they breed from it in turn.

The older survey collected 2,928 litters from 735 queens. Dystocia occurred in 5.8 percent of litters overall. Pedigree litters ran a much higher risk than litters from cats of mixed breeding, at an odds ratio of 22.6, which is a very wide gap. Siamese-type litters were named among those with relatively high levels.[7]

The same survey found that long-headed and flat-faced cats both had significantly more dystocia than cats with a middling skull shape.[7] The breed standard asks for a long tapering wedge,[8] which puts the Siamese in the long-headed group. This is the one place where the shape of this breed does appear to cost something.

Read the two surveys together and the sensible plan is the cautious one. Know the mating date, count the days, and have a vet who will answer the phone at night. A first-time queen in this breed is not a birth to leave unattended.

That study grouped Siamese together with Balinese, Oriental Shorthairs and Longhairs, and Seychellois, so the findings describe the family rather than the Siamese alone.[10] Read with that caution, two results still stand out and neither one appears on a typical breed page.

The first is excessive grooming. Cats in this group were the most likely of any breed to overgroom, alongside Burmese, while British Shorthairs and Persians were the least likely. The second is that owners of these cats, along with Persian owners, reported a behaviour problem more often than any other group. Both are worth saying out loud to a buyer, because both are manageable and neither is what people expect to hear.

One popular belief did not survive the same study. Wool sucking, the habit most strongly associated with this breed in folklore, was commonest in house cats, Norwegian Forest Cats, Turkish Vans and Maine Coons. The Oriental group was not among the top groups at all.[10] Meanwhile these cats were likely to seek human contact, which is the trait buyers actually come for.

One more thing is worth mentioning to a buyer, and it concerns breathing. A review of feline asthma notes that the condition usually appears in young to middle-aged adults, at a mean age of four. It also notes that the Siamese breed appears to be overrepresented.[11] Asthma is treatable, and it is not a reason to avoid the breed. It is a reason to tell buyers that a cough is not a hairball.

Welfare researchers have argued that the pedigree cat debate should turn on the harmful physical features themselves, rather than on statements about individual breeds.[14] Judged that way, the Siamese comes out reasonably well. The breed standard asks for a long, fine, muscular cat rather than a flattened face or a shortened limb.[8] Nothing in that shape stops a cat breathing or moving normally. The birth is the one place the long head does appear to cost something, which the section above covers.

The honest caveats are the ones above. Test for the blindness variant and ask hard questions about liver disease in the line. Warn buyers that this cat wants company, and may overgroom when it does not get it. Say the lifespan out loud too, because a buyer who expects twenty years and gets twelve feels misled.

If the answer turns out to be no, neutering costs a fraction of what a litter does and settles the question. An adult cat that already exists is also a better fit for many homes than a kitten. You can rehome or adopt a Siamese through the same platform, or see what buyers are asking on our Siamese kittens for sale page.

Petmeetly connects owners to each other. If you go ahead, the first step is a test result on paper for both cats. The second is finding an owner who screens as carefully as you do.