My kitten Hope

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

VERY nice

I love that length of body and nice long tail. Profile is nice and straight - exactly what you want.

Excellant refinement. Now the trick is to keep the refinement and put muscle on the body so its tight and not mushy feeling. Get her to run up and down steps or tree house. If you have a laser pen, use that

She should do well in shows or breeder.


I know what you mean on the "harder" part for pictures. Why do you think I have about 90 photos of Charlie that I've taken since end of December

He moves too fast.

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Thanks for the compliments!

I play with the kitties with their Da Bird toy and I know bought a laser pointer from eBay. I will set a time to play with Hopey (and Mica of course) everyday consistently. She has a healthy appetite. I am trying to get her used to being held by different people because I want to show her in TICA. I'll keep working on the pictures.

Originally Posted by Abymummy

This is a "slinky"!!!!

I hope her ear points grow in nicely.

Will you be showing her?

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Yes I will be showing her with TICA, do you guys have any advice about that? How do I get her used to the idea? Put her in her carrier and increase the time in there slowly? Anything else I should prepare her for?

Thank you so much for all the expert advice Abysmummy and GK.

Anne I love your Tolly, could you pm me his breeder (out of curiosity--wondering if I know them).

o my what a cutie u have there Congrats on ur new edition

I'm in love!

AWW thanks you guys for all the compliments I love TCS!

Any criticisms also welcome, I will have to get used to hearing them in shows.

The best thing to do is to get her used to others holding her and teach them to stretch her out. Also I let them stand on a table (coffee table) and do what the judges would do to her - go over her head, body, standing on 2 legs and playing with feather toys to get her attention. Use feather toys, toys with balls/bells, string toys - a variety.

Thanks GK. Our coffee table is too small to stand on (I am assuming to simulate the stage and being higher up?) I wouldn't want to risk hurting ourselves and Hopey. I will have to think of a safer alternative.

She is good about letting me and DH examine her, must get other people to do this too, an stretch her out. She lets me brush her teeth everyday and we are working on getting her ok with her claws getting trimmed.

What about putting her in a pen? Can I get her used to that? 70% of the Siamese/Balinese kittens at the shows I have been to were not happy with being penned. The adults were fine, so I guess they get used to it.

Sorry for all my dumb questions!

Actually I've never had a problem with cages at the shows - they are not caged at home and they take them in stride. I just provide some small toys in the cage for them to play with while waiting.

Charlie doesn't like riding in the carrier. I think he'd like it better if he could ride OUTSIDE the carrier, but that's not happening

One thing - don't get too elaborate on cage curtains unless you have a sedate breed like a persian. Use simple curtains as the cats/kittens that are active will have a field day with fancy.

Charlie just had plain curtains and a towel and bed in the cage. He's a digger so I couldn't leave the litter pan in there all day - just offered it to him when he seemed to want to use it.

Besides them wanting out in the ring is a good thing as they will be active on the table and "show off" more to get the judge's attention while waiting. Charlie was like "I'm here" with paws out everytime the judge came near his cage with a feather when judging other kittens.

Hmm Show training...Now, GK and I disagree on some of this, I do admit.

My show kits start getting show caged/benched from about 3 months of age. We don't have that many shows here but it's good for them. I use the standard show cages even though I have the sturdi show tents. I cage each one individually next to each other and also next to mom (Reecie), dad (Stevie), aunty (Dodo) and uncle Lou simulating a show environment. Then I switch on the tv to either MTV or the disney channel for the noise and activity simulation.

I start off with about an hour or less, gradually working up to eight hours - yes, really. Some shows do drag on and on and I want the babies to get used to it! The sturdi tents are better but my thinking is that if they can get used to the open cage system (no show curtains), then it's better for them when they do go into the sturdi tents since the sturdi tents are enclosed.

Every day, the kits get trained on how judges would hold them and play with them. Unlike slinky's, Abys do not get stretched out to check for length so, I omit this! But I do do the profile check,the sit check, the stand check, the coat check and the tail and balls (where necessary) check.

As an occasional added bonus, I get my 4 year old nephew and 3 year old niece to 'manhandle' them so they get used to being handled. Every single visitor to my home gets a chance to hold and play with the kittens, alowing them to get used to a stranger's touch.

I sincerely hope this helps in your baby's show career!!!

Aby, while that may work on putting them in cages at home with other cats next to them - the only drawback is that your kittens are USED to all you cats anyway.

My problem was the females I showed didn't like the strange cats - at home they loved everyone My males never had a problem (but I only showed altered males to start - or as kittens before altering).

Most people with a few cats (not breeders) have no show type cages. Carriers don't work. I guess the closest they could use would be some kind of small open dog crate/cage.

At shows the judges tend to stretch almost every breed out to some extent. Even the rexes (cornish) which should really not be stretched like a simese as the spine is supposed to be arched

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

Aby, while that may work on putting them in cages at home with other cats next to them - the only drawback is that your kittens are USED to all you cats anyway.

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You're right about the babies being used to the other cats at home - I admit. But the reason why I do the show caging is not about having the cats next to them but about being caged in the first place!!!!

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

At shows the judges tend to stretch almost every breed out to some extent. Even the rexes (cornish) which should really not be stretched like a siamese as the spine is supposed to be arched

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Ok here, I have to say that in the few years I've been actively showing, not 1 judge has stretched out my abys. Maybe I'm just lucky so far. What they do do is stand test the abys very high tho.

Since we are talking about slinkys though, it would be safe to assume that the stretch test is a given!

Yeah I guess you are right - they make them stand/stretch on the table but not hold them in the air stretched

Thanks for the great advice GK and AM! I will start working on it