Thread: How to Choose???

Originally Posted by Cherryshake

In terms of the health checks, do you think it would be reasonable of me to ask the breeder to have an echocardiogram (to test for HCM) performed before handing over a deposit? Do all vets do those or do they need to be specialist ones?

Echos are done on the parents, not the kittens. About the earliest you can begin to detect HCM issues via echo is two years old, so an echo on a kitten is likely to be pointless. What you could ask to have done on the kittens is something like the CFA genetics panel I linked to earlier. The HCM gene test is only for the most common cause of HCM in MCs, however, so a negative test alone does not guarantee freedom from HCM. This is the reason echos are done on the breedings cats as they age, and hip issues also have to be looked at in the parents. This is why you really should want a breeder who is regularly doing health testing. There are plenty of such breeders in the US, so there is no reason not to go to one IMO (unless you are trying to save money and find a cheaper breeder).

I would also say that if you definitely want to show and do well, you should find a breeder whose cats are doing well showing and talk to them about getting a show quality kitten. I know our breeder has encouraged owners to show several of her cats and that they have done very well (which in turn helps the parent cats with titles like Outstanding Dam). You can look at the TICA and CFA show standings to see whose cats are doing well. Here are the TICA standings I looked at:
http://tica.org/members/standings/stand_catbrd.pdf