What money? Chance would be a fine thing! Right now I have seven kittens here I am totally unable to sell, four months old, not one inquiry even at £250, and I owe the vet more than £800 (and nothing much went wrong either, most of the bill is for vaccinations) Honestly, if you think you are going to get a new motorbike out of the profits from a litter of unregistered kittens, you are going to have a very nasty shock. If something goes badly wrong you could very easily make a crashing loss.

Liz

I suspect he's a troll too.

The genetic test is actively being worked on and hopefully is only months away. I have built up these lines over 16 years and do not want to lose them. Once the test is available, obviously I will be able to see exactly where any problems are and then I can go from there. The stud that proved to be a carrier was widely used around the breed, the gene could be all over the place by now

Liz

Do you not breed to fill a waiting list then Liz? And why do you breed the ones you have that are probable carriers (the ones that come from the same line as Gordon did)?

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Waiting list? In my breed chance would be a fine thing! No, I breed for myself. Gordon's parents were immediately removed from the gene pool, but all my asians except one may carry hypokalemia and I am not sacrificing the line I have spent 15 years working on! Obviously any cat found to be a carrier will be removed from my programme but until the genetic test is done there is no way of knowing who carries and who does not, it is all a matter of probabilities.

Liz

I'm quite surprised at that! Even after 15 years if I thought there was a remote chance any of the cats were carriers there's no way I would breed any of them untill I had tests done. Am I right in thinking untill you get the tests you continue to breed potentially poorly cats, possibly low, possibly high probability of being a carrier of hypokalemia. Do you tell buyers this? Even on the non active register? Just being nosey? got jet lag & can't sleep

Please excuse my comment if I've read any of the above wrong.

What about Gordons siblings Liz ... are you breeding them?

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It's a recessive gene and so it's only an issue if it is received from both parents. If I use my Burmese boy there is no issue (well, as far as we can know, the condition has been seen in Burmese of course because it originated there). I have only sold one kitten for breeding since I found out about this, and that was to a very experienced breeder and, of course, with full disclosure. I had sold three kittens previously for breeding and immediately contacted their owners to explain the situation, offering to take the cats (adults by then) back for a full refund if they wished.

I have sold only one kitten who could possibly be affected herself, she has a 1 in 16 chance. She was sold with full disclosure to someone who has had a kitten from me before, she was sold after the buyer had seen the youtube video of Gordon, and she was sold with an offer of a full refund if the condition develops, whether or not the buyer decides to keep the kitten (in fact I am certain she will keep her regardless). This condition develops between 4 and 6 months and the alternative was to keep the kitten until 7 months and then sell her, which I was prepared to do, but this chance of a wonderful home came up.

The trouble is that the condition originated in the Burmese breed, the Asian group is derived from Burmese and most are nearly all Burmese now, my own cats are 84% Burmese and mine have less Burmese in them than most. There is no way of knowing where the gene is and the Burmese gene pool is already in such dire straits that any further removals from the gene pool need to be done for a very good reason.

If the condition were more serious I might think differently but it is easily controlled with a dietary supplement which brings things back to normal. Gordon lives a perfectly normal life unless he misses a dose.

Liz

Only one.

Liz

Interesting OP post but what I would really like to know is why there is not a banned under their name!!!! Long time members have been banned for less imo so why should a newbie be allowed to use foul language