Expert: Marcia Owen - 8/9/2008

Question
Hello,

I have been told that a common problem with breeding pedigree cats is that the kittens can have large heads, making the birth difficult and often ending in a c-section.

Is there any truth to this? Could you give me more info on this, or at least point me in the right direction to a website or something?

Thanks very much
H. Kendall

Answer
Hi Hannah

This in my experience and those of a lot of breeders is not the case.  If you breed like to like, i.e. Birman to Birman then the risk is negligible.  However if you were to mate a female Siamese to a Persian then there could be the chance of a problem as naturally the Persian head is a lot larger than a Siamese head.

I don't know of any websites that would give you information on this but I have been breeding Birmans, Burmese and Singapuras for over 30 years and the vast majority of my litters have been normal births.  I also run a Novice Breeder Advice Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NoviceBreederAdvice/ and have not noticed any correlation to pedigrees having large heads as the reason for c.sections.

Marcia.