Doing some real soulsearching regarding my breeding program.

I have one GC Queen who has produced one litter so far and has one on the way. The best kitten, type speaking, she produced in her last litter was born with a hernia and I placed her in a pet home (her name is Zahra). Zahra did extremely well in her one show as an open, earning her 6 premier winners ribbons and even finaling in one ring against all champions. A judge even asked me why I spayed her as she was obviously better than the kitten I kept back. The kitten I sent East was second best of the litter and earned her CH just after turning 8 months old. She is now producing her first littter.

The kitten I kept, Safiya, now 11 months, has obvious tarnish and earned her winners ribbons but did not final once in two shows. She hates showing, hissing at the other cats and even at the judges. She is absolutely my favourite cat of all time, however, I love her more than any cat I have ever owned.

I am purchasing a smoke GC female from back East and she will either come bred or I will breed her as soon as she is settled in. Skylark is due April 2nd and I am expecting between 4 to 6 kittens based on an ultrasound. So I will have 2 litters fairly close together.

My plan was to bring Safiya with me back East and leave her to be bred. I am really debating it right now. A judge told me she is definitely breeding material and the right stud will correct her shortcomings. But, maybe I should see what Skylark produces and if a very good female is produced, I should spay Safiya to be either my housepet or if she changes her mind about showing, a premier. I'm thinking that I need to breed the very best of what I have, and not the third best in the hopes of getting something better.

A lot of people are suggesting I breed Safiya, and I am just looking for other advice.

One other issue is the market for Maus on this coast. I had no trouble placing my kittens from the last litter and I have an active waitlist of 12 people right now. I don't want to flood the market with kittens, especially since Sky seems to have large litters. Her daughter produced 6 kittens last week, so Safiya is likely to produce a large litter as well (for a mau).

I actualy believe that I am doing some good, breeding over here on the West Coast of Canada. We have no great breeders promoting our breed, and my benching area is always one of the most visited by spectators. the difficulty of course is finding outside cats to increase the gene pool in my program. I am having to travel to the East Coast to pick up cats or breed to studs. My mentors do not ship unaccompanied and that is OK with me. I am just trying to decide what will be best for my program.

After doing some talking with my mentors I have some other options and things to think about. Will wait til my new kits are solidly on the ground and see what happens.

I think Safiya may have made up my mind for me. Two days after I posted she decided to go into full blown heat. It's disconcerting watching (and hearing) my 11 month old kitten call and roll around on the floor. Oh well, kitties have to grow up.

I was hoping to wait a bit longer, but if she is going to be cycling in and out of heat I should either breed her or spay her soon. A lot of people are suggesting I breed her for a male (hopefully) to use in my program. And then spay her. She'll always have a home with me.

Yes, I'd like to retire my boy, and I am getting Safiya bred to a stud with a lot of new blood. I'm also bringing in an outcross female that I will be able to use with my current stud plus a stud from Safiya with. I'd only like to have one or maybe two boys at any one time, and I need to be careful with the linebreeding.

I have been busy with Kintraks, entering in pedigrees to calculate COI percentages. I was lucky to find Tsekani, a nice Mau who is almost an 100% outcross to my mentors lines. Obviously the match worked as well as Sky and his offspring are doing well for themselves.