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by Janice Reichle /Diadem Silvers When listening to newcomers to the cat fancy, the subject I find so misunderstood and often mis-handled is the care and handling of a male intended for breeding. Many people buy a male kitten and wait for him to grow up and begin to sire. Sometimes it's just that easy but often it isn't. There is nothing more discouraging than having your plans center around a beautiful male that either won't breed or is not a dependable stud. The worst scenario is that with a cat whose owners decide, when he is about a year and a half to two years old, that NOW is the time for him to begin siring. He may have been shown from the time he was a kitten and now his show career is over or the owner may have decided that this is the optimum time for a male to begin breeding. They have a female in season and think this is it -- we're finally going to have a litter! With no more thought or preparation than that, they put the female in with him and are amazed when she turns on him like a tigress and he jumps up on a shelf to get away from her and won't come down as long as she is in the cage. Surprise! Breeding is not so easy, is it? From many long years of experience and quite a few studs who were and are all good breeding cats -- this is how one breeder has handled "The Care and Training of Studs". It 's pretty simple -- let the male run with the other kittens and adult females from the time he is a kitten and he will breed when he is ready! It may not be the breeding you planned -- but it is a beginning. No matter what your cattery arrangement as long as the cats are not too closely confined you can follow these suggestions. Except at night, our cats are seldom confined to the cattery, which is, in our situation, one large room. It was, in an "earlier life", an attached two-car garage and the door to that area is a screen door which is seldom closed. The females, unless in season, and kittens, have the run of most of our split-level home. Around six weeks of age, the kittens move from the cattery to the den where they live until they are big enough and know enough to go downstairs to use a litter pan; then they too have complete freedom. This is when your male begins to "train" to be a stud. Around and after four months of age, a male kitten begins to act like a male. It is all a big game because while it looks as though he knows what he is doing it's all play and it doesnÍt even matter if it's another male kitten he grabs. These little guys put on a pretty good act and if you pick one up when he is going through the motions, you will find that the little penis looks ready for action -- but physically he is still a pre-teen. The most important factor in a male becoming a good working stud is that you let him begin when HE is ready -- not when you decide it is time for him to start. Our males do have the run of the place until they begin to mark. It may not be spraying and usually isn't, but the effect is the same. When it comes to marking, it doesn't matter whether they hit the back of hubby's favorite chair or the seat cushion of that chair -- you will have the tomcat smell and probably an unhappy husband. There is a big advantage to having just one breed or one color, and in my case it is silver or silvers and goldens. If you have other colors and/or breeds running together, the result will be undesirable looking offspring. When that youngster first breeds, and you may not see him the first time. In the case of more than one of mine, I didnÍt even know it until I discovered pregnant females. If you let him run with the girls and breed* when he is ready, his first mate will be either an older, proven and easy-going female or a kitten that he has grown up with and I've had it happen both ways. It may not be the breeding you planned but it gets him started. Needless to say, following this plan you don't let two males run loose in the same area. When he gets the urge and picks a female, it's one that he is comfortable with and it will give him the confidence that many of them seem to need. I've heard of sensitive males that back off and won't breed if a female so much as hisses at them but I've never had one act that way. That's probably because there is at least one he is comfortable enough with, and brave enough, to approach. If at all possible, the first female you put with your unproven male should be a proven and very good-natured, easy-to-breed female because she is more apt to put up with his fumbling, first attempts. A female who hisses and/or slaps a novice male may discourage him for some time, especially if he is a sensitive cat. One year we had a female with a litter of kittens and she was unusually greedy and determinedly crowding her youngsters away from the food. She was certainly in good weight -- almost too good! It was then that we realized that she was pregnant again! A kitten being shown at the time was not nearly as innocent as he looked -- (CH) Diadem Pride N' Joy was not only a proven stud but also had kittens born while still in the Kitten class! He had shown no interest in her or in other females that I had seen, but apparently got up his nerve when no one was around. United Silver Fanciers vol. 30, no. 1 Spring 2002 Sometimes having a human audience discourages either the male or female -- but not always. (EUR GC & DM) Diadem Make My Day was six months old when he sired; he grabbed and bred a female right in back of me while I was grooming. (GP) Kitnpaws Kickback was seven months old the first and only time he sired; it was one of his "playmates". HE was never given another opportunity! Most of my boys have sired by the age of ten months and I had only one that was a problem but more of that later and how that problem was solved! Perhaps you have an adult and you haven't been able to let him run with the crowd or didnÍt acquire him as a kitten or you have taken in an outside female for stud service. Hopefully, you won't have him isolated in a room of his own thinking that all that freedom is good for him. It is, of course, better than a small cage, but he needs company and you need some way to let males and females get acquainted before the are put together. My studs are in large walk-in cages in the cattery and the girls run loose so they are all well acquainted. Most of the time the girls will be rolling or calling right in front of the cages -- the definition of a real tease! If the bridal pair are not acquainted, an ideal situation would be to have them (caged) side by side with just a divider between. Short of being in the same cage, they are as close as they can get and as the romance builds, the male will be talking to the female and vice versa. When the female has been in season a few days and seems receptive, you can put them together. Before you put them together there are a few things you have to remember to do. First -- are her vaccinations up to date? If not, now is the time. Cut the nails on all four feet of both cats both cats and clip/shave the rear end of both the male and female. If one is a cat that you might want to show and donÍt want to clip, wet a brush and brush the hair back out of the way as much as possible. You should be willing to sacrifice a little hair in strategic places! Put some kind of a mat down on the floor of the stud cage to give them footing and it should cover as much as the floor space as possible. When all is ready, put the female in with the male. It is always best to take the girl to the boy -- it is a territorial thing. It is especially important if you have a bossy female. Never leave them alone until you seen them mate at least once. Until that time you don't know if there will be a battle which could do injury to either one and eyes are especially vulnerable. After breeding, the female will turn on the male so he needs room to get away from her -- either a shelf that he can jump up on or just plenty of floor space. It's important that both have nails clipped because not only will the female turn on the male, slapping at him between rolling, but also as she goes for him, he may return the slap. I've seen my boys' rear back and raise a paw but I have never had a male of mine make any attempt to hurt a female. There are two schools of thought on whether on not the cats would be left together. The practice I've always followed is to put the female in with the male twice a day for three days and let them breed* about twice each time. Some breeders just leave them together all the time once they have begun to breed. Some males become bored if you leave them together and others just pester the female and breed far more often than is necessary for conception. Putting a female in a couple of times a day keeps a male interested. It is good to have an accurate date when the female is due to deliver and breeding* them for only three days gives a smaller window of time for delivery. Some breeders let a female live with a male all the time, in season or not, if they get along, and this can lead to problems. Not knowing when she was bred/due also means you will not know if she is dangerously over-due We have all heard of cases where the owner has put two unacquainted cats together and they have bred with no damage to either -- very lucky circumstances. But for every story like that, there are several that weren't as lucky. A male can be so put off on breeding if a female beats him up that he may not sire for a long time -- if at all. If your male is aggressive to the point of being so rough on a female as to hurt her, she may never want to breed again. We have heard of situations where a number of males live together and are not aggressive studs. That may be the case but are they not aggressive because they live together harmoniously or do they live together with no problems because they are not aggressive studs? By living together, I mean in the same room or area uncaged. A well-known breeder once told my mother our first male, GC Walnut Hill Pride of Gray-Ivy, would never (a) grow coat because he slept in bed with her on an electric blanket and (b) he would never be a good stud because she made such a pet of him. He was very wrong on both counts I am happy to say. He was a super stud that could breed any female and was many times Best in Show! My only problem stud was GC Diadem Allegro. He was a wonderful cat who granded at nine months of age in one show. That was unheard of in those days and the record stood for about 30 years. However, his early breeding performance was irregular to say the least. By the time he was nearly five years he had sired fewer than five litters. He grew up the way the others did but he was a shy cat. We jokingly said that he would breed only chinchillas and only when the moon was full. Not so funny as I had only one chinchilla and even she was not terribly tempting to him. The girls would throw themselves at his feet and he would jump up on a shelf to get away from them. If they got up beside him, he would jump down. A friend, a local silver breeder, was always begging to use him. I was going to be away for a couple of weeks and she offered to take care of him while I was gone; she said she had always wanted to use him. I pointed out that he just didn't sire so it was hopeless but she insisted and she took him. She had a large, finished basement and just turned him loose with her girls. When I came home she said he had bred everything in the house! From that day on he never stopped breeding until six months before he died. What caused the change? Was it a complete change of environment? Or was it having the run of a very large area with the girls -- more freedom than I gave him because he sprayed. Or was it the complete quiet and isolation that got him started and gave him the confidence he needed? I donÍt know but if your boy won't breed and you have tried everything else -- try sending him on a vacation! Stud cats require more attention, affection and handling than females to make up for their life of "solitary confinement". They seldom have the freedom given to the females because of their propensity for marking their surroundings. It is perfectly natural and they are not being "dirty" -- they are telling the girls they are "ready, willing and able". Some breeders have an altered cat that can live with them for feline company while others teach their stud to wear stud pants so that they can have a modicum of freedom in a family situation. Males, and some females, are apt to get what is called "stud tail". It is actually a condition known as seborrhea -- excessive oiliness of the skin. It is also apt to affect the chin and might be likened to teen-age acne in youngsters. My boys learned at an early age to stand quietly on the sink counter in the grooming area while I washed the tail. It isn't necessary to do a complete bath to keep the tail in full bloom but that oiliness can go unnoticed until the hair begins to fall out and in advanced cases; pimples and abscesses can develop. Use the spray to wet the tail, apply shampoo and rinse well. Doing this once a week keeps even the oiliest tail in good condition. Another part of grooming your stud is to check the penis for hair where it shouldn't be. The penis can get what is called a "hair ring". There have been situations where cats were unwilling to breed and when examined were found to have a ring of hair around the penis. Undetected, it has the effect of a tourniquet. It a good idea to regularly check for this by pushing back the sheath and checking for hair that obviously shouldnÍt be there. A ring can do real damage. Just recently a breeder found her male a bit too lethargic and she couldn't see any cause for it. When the veterinary examined him, he had a full bladder and little urine could be expressed. Upon examination, the tip of his penis was found to be black and there was a tight hair ring around it. This disaster resulted in the male losing a significant portion of his penis. This is an ongoing case so it is not yet known if he will be able to successfully penetrate a female. He is a valuable young breeding cat and the line will be lost if he can never again sire. Sooner or later it will be necessary to keep your own stud. Before you make this commitment, visit other breeders to see how they keep their males and then arrange for the best possible set-up. Keep in mind ease in cleaning. A floor to ceiling cage with several shelves and a scratching post in a bright area is really a must. If this can be arranged around a window -- that is even better. You may be one of the rare lucky ones with a non-marking male who can be trusted in your living room -- but don't count on it! * breed/breeding as in mating or copulating Copyright ©1996-2002, Janice Riechle Originally printed in the USF Spring 2002 All rights reserved. |
| "The Care and Training of a Stud Cat or How to Make Him Ready, Willing and Able!" |
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