Two weeks ago, I posted a photo diary of newborn Siamese pooties. Those pictures were taken when they were one day old. Now the "degenerate creatures of darkness" are two weeks old. Lots has happened in those two weeks. They've opened their eyes, grown like weeds and have fat bellies, made a lot of progress in walking, learned how to play, started purring, demonstrated cat behaviors such as licking and cleaning themselves as well as each other, hissing. They are doing very well! So go below the fold for new pictures of my baby pooties.
First up is a picture of mom, Effie. Effie is vying for mother of the year! She keeps these kittens spotless. I never see a drop of poo anywhere. They have very full bellies all the time. Effie has been keeping them in the den. I change the towel almost every day because the moms start moving the kittens if they think the den smells too much, but she hasn't done any moving.
Let me explain about these cats as we go through the pictures. This is a litter of pedigreed Siamese kittens. The sire and dam are both registered in CFA and are show cats. Mom is just 15 points from achieving the title of Grand Champion, she'll finish that title after these kittens are weaned. I breed kittens for show, not to make pets. A kitten I sell as a pet is a failure to me. I'm hoping that all three of these kittens will be show quality, they look promising at this stage. If they are, I will keep one or two and the other will go to another breeder who also breeds for show.
Here's Effie resting her head on her baby girl.
And here's one of my favorite pictures of this set. This is the little girl standing and supporting her body steadily on all four legs. She was able to do this before her brothers who have fatter bellies. This took most of the two weeks to accomplish.
Now everybody say awe! Here are all three kittens. The kitten in the forefront is one boy, the left in the back is the other boy, and the right in the back is the girl. I can't tell the boys apart from the front yet.
I do not recommend breeding cats to anyone that 1. wants to make money, 2. does not have a lot of disposable income and time to spend on vet care and shows, 3. does not have the stomach for all of the heartbreak that comes with breeding. I also encourage anyone who wants a Siamese cat to check out Siamese Rescue before looking to a breeder for a cat. I've worked with some of the people in the Siamese Rescue organization and they are wonderful people who do some great work for this breed. And if you visit their site, go to the for sale stuff. The Millie beds are the preferred bed of all Siamese cats. Buy one for yours!
Back to the pictures.
You may be wondering what colors these kittens are? The two boys are seal points just like their dad. The girl, I don't know. I suspect she is either chocolate or lilac, but I can't for sure yet. She doesn't look like a seal point. In this picture, you can see why I don't think she is a seal. Look at the paw of the seal point boy kitten on the left compared to the girl's paw on the right. They are not the same color. Now, she could darken up later, but right now I don't think she is a seal point.
There are four colors of Siamese accepted in CFA - seal, chocolate, blue and lilac. These are the four colors that existed in the breed when it was originally created. CFA breeders have never purposely hybridized the breed to bring in new colors (hybridized means mixed with domestics or other breeds). In CFA, we have three other breeds with the same body type of the Siamese but other colors and coat-lengths. The Colorpoint Shorthair (I breed these as well) is the breed for Siamese-type cats in red point, cream point, lynx point and parti-color (tortie points, etc.). The Balinese is the breed for Siamese-type pointed cats with long hair. And the Oriental is the breed for Siamese-type cats in full color and both coat lengths (some 300+ colors).
Here is one of the boys showing off his belly.
Some stats on the Siamese breed - in 2007 (the latest year I have stats for), there were 2880 Siamese kittens registered in CFA. Breeders sometimes do not register all of the kittens in the litter, some only register kittens they will show or breed. So I would add another 1000 to or so to that and say that 4000 CFA "registerable" kittens were born in 2007. That's a tiny fraction of the millions of cats born in the US every year. And here's the thing - ten years ago, there were 7000+ registered Siamese with probably over 10,000+ CFA "registerable" Siamese kittens born in 1997. Before anyone jumps on my ass about breeding cats when so many die in shelters (there's a little James Dobson in everybody, even at dkos, so I'm expecting it in the comments), pedigreed cat breeding is on a serious decline. Breeding is slowing down all on its own primarily because of the economy. Pedigreed cat breeders don't need any James-Dobson-esque pushing.
Here are two kittens playing, I don't know which ones they are.
And here's a decent picture of one of the boys. He's squinting at the light. I had to put a lamp in the den to get enough light. The flash makes too much red-eye. Some of these photos are with flash, and some with just the lamp.
Seal point is the dominant color. Blue and Chocolate are recessives. And lilac is the uber-recessive. I'll save color inheritance for the next diary. It's a fascinating topic!
And lastly, here's a milk bar picture.
More in two weeks. The kittens will be in a different den by then. They should be able to jump and climb by then, so I need to make a den with higher walls that they can't scale yet mom can still get in. I have a trip to Lowe's planned.