What breed?

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Montyiris96
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What breed?

Post by Montyiris96 »

Hello,

I've just joined this forum. I sadly lost my moggy 2 years ago at the grand age of 18. I'm now looking Into a new addition and it's a toss between the Traditional Siamese, Russian Blue or an Exotic Shorthair.

Has anybody owned the above breeds and can you provide me any pros and cons to these breeds?

I also have a 2 year old son so children savvy would be good :)

Thanks for reading!
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fjm
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Re: What breed?

Post by fjm »

I have had traditional Siamese, Russian Blue and several DSH, and the similarities far outnumbered the differences. Siamese are more vocal (a polite way of saying they often yell their heads off!), but that would be the only major difference I can think of. Mine was very attached to me and would follow me on walks, but so have at least one of the moggies. My Russian Blue was the sweetest thing, and incredibly intelligent, but Tilly-cat shares many of her traits. So much depends on early experiences and time spent with mother and litter mates, I think - they are all cats, not bred for specific traits like herding or hunting dogs. If I were looking for a pedigree I think I would look at any breed specific health issues, and then go by which breeder I felt most comfortable with.
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Mollycat
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Re: What breed?

Post by Mollycat »

I have only ever owned one pedigree cat, it was not a choice I would ever have made and one I would never make again (though I love the idea of a Turkish Van) as nature breeds in my view a far more catly class of cat to anything humans can produce.

Cat breeding is relatively new, compared to dogs, so the extreme differences between breeds are just not there. Also, dog breeds diversified for a purpose - to round up cattle, guard sheep and homes, hunt specific prey, and so on. And cats ever since domestication have had one purpose and one purpose only - pest control - which all cats of all shapes and sizes were capable of doing, and so the cat remained basically unchanged from early domestication around 9000 years ago to around 200 years ago, except for being a bit more sociable. So even now, there is very little difference between breeds, even the ones with notable characteristics like the vocal Siamese or dopey Ragdoll, enormous Maine Coon or water loving Van.

With a young child, the characteristics you would be looking for include tolerance and patience with small children ... there are simply no guarantees but upbringing is crucial so that's a strong case for a kitten not a young rescue cat. Would you consider a kitten from a rescued pregnant mother in a foster home, maybe? A good foster should be at least as good as a reputable breeder with socialisation and assessing a kitten's character, and an adoption like this would also free be helping support a rescue rather than a trade.

Whatever you end up with, I think we all look forward to tales of mischief and pictures of sweetness.
alanc
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Re: What breed?

Post by alanc »

Whilst I would agree with most f what Mollycat says, I would say that the Maine Coon and the Norwegian Forest Cat got the way they are (big and long haired) by natural selection. So far as anybody knows, that is. Human involvement was restricted to providing places in a cold winter climate requiring protection from rats and mice and (probably) encouraging them to be friendly to people.
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Mollycat
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Re: What breed?

Post by Mollycat »

alanc wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 2:58 pm Whilst I would agree with most f what Mollycat says, I would say that the Maine Coon and the Norwegian Forest Cat got the way they are (big and long haired) by natural selection. So far as anybody knows, that is. Human involvement was restricted to providing places in a cold winter climate requiring protection from rats and mice and (probably) encouraging them to be friendly to people.
The Van and Birman and possibly Siamese are also naturally occurring breeds at the start, I'm not disagreeing with you there. I only meant to say how much less difference there is in character traits between cats than there is between breeds, for example, of dogs.
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