Expert: Marcia Owen - 8/11/2009

Question
QUESTION: im planning to buy my very first female persian cat by mid october this year and maybe breed her onwards, but there are few things that i want to know before i do so and here are my questions:

whats the difference between a doll face and a semi flat persian?

aside from cat foods in pet stores, what kitchen foods can i offer them?

what is the ideal age to breed persian cats?

thanks you...

ANSWER: A doll faced persian is on with a more 'open' or normal cat face.  It has a nose.  The semi flat persian has very little nose and as the description says, is flat.  The flat faced persians do tend to have more difficulty in feeding and you have to be very careful that the cat has large nostrils otherwise breathing difficulties can also happen.

When it comes to feeding, you need to keep in mind the need to provide a balanced diet which your cat will get from the commercial cat foods whereas home made foods may risk being deficient in some essential nutrients.  Most home made diets are comprised of raw foods.

Cats should be bred from one year old and in my opinion no later than 3 years old.  Every cat will mature at its own rate so there is no hard and fast rule here.

Marcia

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Good day to you Marcia, i have a follow up questions more on persian breeding...

If i mate a flat male to a doll face female, what would i get? Is it flat, extreme flat, semi or doll face?

During birth, How do i cut umbilical cord if she won't do it.. Is my presence needed anyway?

And about feeding a flat face, maybe there's a trick to it to avoid difficulty in breathing... What are the best commercial food for flats anyway maybe there's a specific brand formulated only for flats...

Thank you and have a nice day...


Rocky  

Answer
Dear Rocky

Thank you for your email.

In my experience of flat faced persians mated to doll face, you will get more of a doll face.  The flat face is very hard to maintain and breeders have to work very hard with selective breeding to keep that look.

Normally a cat will chew the umbilical cord but not having bred Persians I am not sure how capable a flat faced Persian would be so if you do need to do that, then I would make sure your hands are washed and then take the cord between your finger nails and pull gently towards the kitten until it breaks.  That is by far the best and more natural way to do it.  And yes I would suggest that you do try to be with your girl when she kittens as you never know when something may go wrong and yu need to get a cat to the vet. Better to be safe than sorry.

As to feeding, I would suggest that you contact a Persian breed club.  I did have one flat faced persian to stay and had to cut the food up into very small pieces as the cat had difficult picking the food up and tended to lick it up.  A specialist breed club should be able to help you on feeding

Regards

Marcia.