When we picked up Dolly, The breeder asked us if we wanted her to send us her papers when they came back or did we want to have them sent directly to us? Of course we said "Sure, have them sent directly to us." We gave her all information she'd need (according to her) and waited. (just an aside, she suggested getting her spayed before 6 months and we said we may want to let her have one litter and she said "Oh... well, she's really a pet quality and not a breeder but... " We said not to worry as we're not going into the cat breeding business and she was ok with that)
Anyway.... 4 months went by and still no papers in the mail. I sent her an email that went unanswered, so I called her. She said "Oh Yeah... I got your email and I have your papers right in front of me. Things got really hectic and I never got around to sending them in, but I'll do it first thing tomorrow." Well, that was about a month ago and today I finally got an envelope, from her with a TICA Blue Slip form inside it with her card. The only things filled in on it are Her Cattery name in the top two "Name Choice(s)",
DATE: 09/15/2008
BREED: RAGDOLL
DATE OF BIRTH: 03/04/2008
SIRE NAME
DAM NAME
LITTER NUMBER
BREEDER NAME
There was also two SBT numbers before Males:3 and Females: 2
The theres a section that she filled in by hand with Sex, Color, Eye Color, STD is checked, LH is checked, **Not For Breeding is checked and she signed it.
I was surprised, even though we decided not to breed her, that she checked Not for Breeding.. but thats fine.
Can any of you tell me, First, what does STD and LH mean?
And also, is this all I'm supposed to get? What do I do with this?
Do I cross out her cattery name? Do I just add our cats new name after it? Shouldn't we have gotten something that shows her "Registration number" or is she not "registered" until we named and registered her? I mean, it's only $10 ($12 for non members) to do, but I would have thought registration or Papers would have been part of the purchase. Is it not normally?
And last, would you suggest getting a 3 or 5 generation certified pedigree or neither?[/size]
Any help would be great.
Thanks
Paul
The breeder does the litter registration; you get the blue slip and register the kitten and pay the fee if you want. The paper proves that the kitten is registerable. There are instructions on the form. The prefix cattery name must remain and you add the kitten's name after that. There is a second choice in case there is already a cat named your first choice (including the cattery prefix). You can just add an initial or add another name for your second choice. LH is Longhair and STD is Standard - and these are appropriate for Ragdolls.
If you want to register her, fill it out and mail it in with the $12 fee. This is the normal process.
A certified pedigree can be fun, but there is no real reason for a pet owner to buy it other than curiosity. The number of generations just means the amount of information (and cost).
Ok... Thank you Very much JanH.
I got the slip like that in the mail from the breeder and followed the instructions and mailed it in with the fee. Our breeder had written in a name, which was different from what we asked her for. So we added the name we wanted which was within the character limit and included the cattery name, and marked that it was our first choice, but the papers came back with the name the breeder originally put down. I was a little disappointed, but I guess it really doesn't matter.
I would ask that you not breed your kitten "just once." For one you did not buy breeding rights as your papers clearly say. Good breeding cats are very expensive and should be as close to the breed standard as possible. You would be breeding a cat that is only pet quality to a domestic male. The problem is that most areas are over run with too many domestic cats so you would be only adding to a problem by allowing your cat to reproduce.
Jan gave good advice, the checked boxes and such were appropriate. Our cattery prefix is Familytimerags, so every kitten we produce will always have Familytimerags, and then the family can add the name(s) to the end of the prefix.
Even though every one of our kittens are spayed and neutered prior to leaving our home, we still always check the box, "not for breeding" as well. If the cat meets standard, we will leave the box open for showing, but if there is a reason why the kitten doesn't quite fit the standard, we will also mark "not for showing". The SBT is the parents registration numbers. SBT, stands for Stud Book Traditional, meaning that your cat is from 2 purebred Ragdolls. You won't receive her registration number until you send in the papers. Her number will be SBT 030408 (and then 2 or 3 numbers will be added to that number to give full registration number, as the first numbers show her date of birth.
It was an excessive time to wait for your papers. I can say that as a breeder, we can all sometimes get busy with other things in life and let the papers take a back seat to what we may currently be dealing with. Also, certain times of the year, TICA is a bit slower at getting the papers out, just because of it being "kitten season", and they have many papers to go through. Another thing is TICA is in Southern Texas, and did lose power for a couple of days due to Ike, so that also may have delayed papers.
I am glad that you finally have your papers, and it sounds like the breeder has filled them out correctly. You can just choose your name and send it in. I don't know of any breeders who register the kittens first, but I know it can be done. We wait and get the blue slips, and hope they are in by the time the kittens are ready and they go home with the kitten, but on some occasions the papers come in after, and we send the blue slip to them in the mail.
Purrs,
Stormi
Things are a bit different here in France. 1) I do the litter registration 2) I ask for the pedigrees when my kittens are micochipped (8 weeks). I choose their names (including my cattery name) unless their new family choose a name previously. When my kittens are ready to leave I'm sometimes able to provide them with their papers. In most cases LOOF is a bit slower. So I have to send the pedigrees to their new family.
Thanks for further explainations. I've never had a pedigree animal before and didn't know how it worked. I thought, as you stated Stormi, that we would have gotten them when we picked her up and just filled in her name and mailed it in. But this is just a bit delayed and all quite normal. I've already filled it out and ready to mail it today.
But I have to ask... and first I want to repeat, we decided to not let Dolly have one litter and she has been Spayed. But, Why are so many breeder so.... "touchy" about people breeding their "pet quality" cats? One Member on here stated she has a breeder that is a Pet Quality cat that consistantly produces Show Quality Kittens. Dollys Father also doesn't really look like a real "Show Quality" cat either. His markings are not very symetrical and just looks like a biColor and not even pointed... but he's been used as a Sire many times! So, Obviously, color and patters are not that important to many breeders as shape and proportions. So, who's deciding if a cat is "as close to the breed standard as possible"?
When we purchased her, we told the breeder we would consider it and she didn't recommend it, but was not that opposed to it either. She just said "oh, I wasn't really selling her as a breeder" and as I stated, we told her it was not to go into the "Ragdoll Breeding Business" and would only be once. I'm sure if we told her from the beginning we wanted to breed her, she would have just charged us her breeding cat price. The main reason we wanted to let her have a litter was because, when I was a child, a Vet told us (with our first cat) it was healthier for a cat to have at least one litter... something to do with hormones and that they'd live longer. We learned this is no longer the belief and that played heavily on our decision to not let her have kittens.
If we were to breed her, it would have most likely been with another Ragdoll, not just another domestic cat. And before you say no breeder would ever let us breed our "pet quality" to their stud, We had already thought of getting a male ourselves. But as we had no intentions of selling any of the kittens, I do not see what it would have even mattered if it was a male Ragdoll, Birman or any other pedigree, or even a domestic for that matter, considering how small the genetic pool was with Ragdolls and how it was improved.
Have you been to a Puppy Store or Petshop lately? They sell all types of "Designer" breeds now! Labradoodles, Chorkies (chihuahua/yorkie), Buggs (Boston Terrier / Pug mix), Snorkies, Puggles, Maltipoos and the list goes on and on.
Yes, there are a lot of stray, abandoned and unwanted domestics, but that's more because of unintentional pregnancies. Remember though, (According to Most Histories I've read), "Josephine" was just a domestic. As were the Founding Cat(s) for many breeds.
I also had several people who would have gladly taken one of her kittens (friends, family and neighbors) and we most likely would have kept at least one.
But that's really not even the point... and I'm sorry if I sound defensive, but I guess I am a little. The breeder I got her from is the one who, or should have been the one to make the decision before selling her. She sold her unspayed and therefore she shoud have been ours to breed if we so wanted, with our without papers. (and besides that, the breeding Kittens were not that much more expensive than we paid for Dolly)
Please explain to me why you are all so opposed, and please don't say because there are already so many unwanted moggies. Is it because you paid so much for the "right" to breed your cats that you feel someone should not get the opportunity to do it for less? You're doing it for a business and Businesses are not usually cheap to start. We would be doing it once, for the pleasure of seeing "our baby" have babies of her own.
Is it because you're trying to be part of the effort to make the breed less... variable? What I mean is less pet quality kittens produced by future breeders. More standardized I suppose.
I'm not trying to offend anyone or upset anyone, and I'm sorry if I did. I just don't understand why so many breeders on here got so (I'm not even sure what to call it) defensive(?) or protective(?) when I mention breeding Dolly.
Thanks...
Maybe this should have been a new thread, If so, just reply it should have been and I'll repost.
And again, I'm just trying to understand your thinking, not upset anyone.
Ugh. Seriously, if you don't understand why it's wrong by now, I don't think anyone here can make it any more clear.
Ugh? Try. That's all I'm asking.