Sexual Maturity on Persians

Just wanted to know at what age are most female and male persians ready to have babies (not just physically ready but also emotionally and without the risk of complications either at delivery, during pregnancy or after delivery).

I believe it is around a year to a year and a half, but they can get pregnant as young as 5 months. You are not planning on breeding your persian are you? If she is not registered and canot be registered and you don't know her genetic history, you really shouldn't breed her. Please have her spayed, it can be done at 8-12 weeks old.

Originally Posted by ricardo222222

Just wanted to know at what age are most female and male persians ready to have babies (not just physically ready but also emotionally and without the risk of complications either at delivery, during pregnancy or after delivery).

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Ricardo....I don't understand why you are interested in breeding your Persian when you did not receive any papers indicating that 1. she is indeed a purebred and 2. that she has breeding rights. I would also recommend that you have her spayed. If you are interested in breeding persians, then you should work with an existing breeder who can sell you a breeding rights persian. It will cost you more, but the kittens will be able to be pedigreed. I would recommend you find a persian breeder as a mentor.

Katie

Well, where I live a lot of people want persians anot so expensive so if I breed my persian I'll sell the babies at about $300, which is affordable to a lot of people who don't want a pedigreed expensive one

You cannot/should not breed her unless you know she is purebred and you have no way of knowing? So how can you rightfully charge $300 for a cat you cannot prove is purebred, is unregistered, and that you know nothing of her past? That is unethical. You don't breed to make money, you breed because you have an excellent, perfect genetically healthy cat whom you have record of past generations and know what illnesses run in her family. If you have no way of knowing, you are doing nothing but backyard breeding that is something this forum is trying to stop because it is unethical and irresponsible.

Plus where are you going to get the male from to breed her with? No one with a stud persian male is going to allow you to breed them without being registered, having papers, etc. There are plenty of really great, known persian breeders on this forum and in the world. Tell your friends to contact one of them or rescue a homeless persian, there are purebred rescues all over the place. Please do not start backyard breeding your cat without any breeding knowledge and no cattery or even a registered cat.

Originally Posted by ricardo222222

Well, where I live a lot of people want persians anot so expensive so if I breed my persian I'll sell the babies at about $300, which is affordable to a lot of people who don't want a pedigreed expensive one

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It is really important that you do not do this. If you don't understand why, please take the time to carefully investigate this situation.

And please don't feel defensive about this! We all have to start somewhere, and I guess you probably just don't know everything that you need to to realise why this is such a very bad idea.

If you look into it, I'm certain that you will understand.

You know, I was just thinking about it too and if I was in the same situation, not knowing anything about breeding and the ethics of it, just seeing it as "hey I have a persian, supposedly purebred, why not breed her and make some money if my friends want one?" I might be thinking along the same lines too. Putting myself in your shoes, you have no idea probably why this is such a bad idea and what the heck we are all talking about right?

Please please just listen, no judgements, no criticism, just please read this and see if you can understand where we are coming from here in our fight to stop this kind of breeding.

So I am going to apologize for being rude if I was and tell you that, yes it may seem like a cool deal, make some money. But you have to look at it from the point of view of the real Persian breeders who have studied their breed for years and put a lot of work and time and money into it. They built up their catteries and put their name out there and aquired the best of their breed to continue on with their breeding programs. They put a lot of time into making sure they have the perfect quality personality and health wise of their cats before they allow them to breed. And most importantly they study the actual breeding itself, knowing what age is best, what qualities to look for in a stud etc.

Do you see what I am getting at? Breeding is a huge responsibility and committment. A LOT of money goes into it. I really suggest you find some purebred persians in a rescue who are desperate for home. Encourage your friends to look there. Meanwhile, study the Persian breed and the act of breeding and know everything there is to know about it. Then purchase a quality, registered Persian and begin your breeding career. Study with a mentor whom you can learn from and ask questions and who can help you along.

Know this, breeders do not make any money. With the vet bills, quality food and just keeping the cattery up and running, a lot of money goes into that.

Please rethink breeding your non registered, not even guarenteed to be purebred Persian cat and learn more about breeding first. We are trying to look out for you here and don't want you to become a backyard breeder and become one of the breeders who give accomplished well known breeders a bad name.

No hard feelings because like I said, before I knew anything about cats and the overpopulation problems due to backyard breeders and mills, I can honestly see where you are coming from. It does sound like an easy way to make some money and of course you love your cat and think she is the best of the best!! We all do. That doesn't mean they should all be bred especially when there are tons more purebred in rescues that are desperate for homes.

Most of the persian breeders I know, their cats are "late bloomers" - some have males that are not interested in breeding till 2 yrs old. Most are around a year, but unless you are improving the breed and not breeding just cause its a persian (have to have quality and proven in the show ring IMO) then your cats should be neutered/spayed.

I'm sure there are 5-6 month old persians capable of breeding but its certainly not a good idea to let them breed/get pregnant at so young of an age.

Breeding your persian for money is the WRONG reason. I would never ever spend $300 for a pet persian with no papers. What happens if your persian only has one kitten? Or needs a c-section (many persian do!) or complications? Your intentions are putting you in the backyard breeders catagory - NOT a good caring breeder!

Well, I followed your advice and she's now with the vet, she'll stay overnight and maybe 1 or 2 days more. She's just 9 weeks but the vet agreed to do the procedure. What's a c-section and what are the complications that can occur during pregnancy, deliver and afterwards? And what's the problem of a persian having only one kitten?
Thanks for your advice and I hope the operation goes well

It really isn't a problem to have that small of a litter but I think what people were getting at is that if you have a lot of friends who want one and she only has one, are you going to go and keep letting her get pregnant continuously until all your friends have a persian kitten?

That is great that you decided to go ahead and spay her. It is much better for her health that way. A c-section would be if there is a complication with the babies being born and you would have to rush her to the ER vet and they cut her stomach open and remove the babies that way. Other complications could be if the babies are born with a disease and the mother could kill them, or reject them and you would have to bottle feed and hand raise them yourself. That means feed every 2 hours and stimulate them to go to the bathroom yourself into a towel or something. You would also have to litter train them all your self too. There are a lot of things that could possibly go horribly wrong, but they may all go well too, that is why it is really important to know your cats entire family genetic history before breeding her in case there are some diseases that run in the family ot complications, etc.

Originally Posted by ricardo222222

Well, I followed your advice and she's now with the vet, she'll stay overnight and maybe 1 or 2 days more. She's just 9 weeks but the vet agreed to do the procedure. What's a c-section and what are the complications that can occur during pregnancy, deliver and afterwards? And what's the problem of a persian having only one kitten?
Thanks for your advice and I hope the operation goes well

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Well done! I'll keep her in my thoughts. Let us know how the op goes.

I'll keep you poted, meanwhile I'm looking into getting a persian with breeding rights and papers

Why don't you just look into a purebred Persian rescue? That would keep everyone happy and satisfy your friends needs to have a purebred Persian. There are Persians being put to sleep out there because people keep breeding them who don't really know how.

If you do want to breed them, that's fine, but it would be a few years down the road here. Not as soon as you can find one. You have a lot of reading and studying to do first and find a mentor to help out out.

It is extremely easy to breed cats. In fact, anyone with an intact whole male and an intact whole female can accomplish it.

But the other participants in this thread are right in their answers to you, Ricardo. There is more -- so much more -- to breeding than simply throwing a couple of cats together and having a litter.

"Breeding" (the word itself) as defined means to inseminate or impregnate; mate with. However, in order to be an ethical "Breeder" one must be able to develop new or improved strains in (organisms), chiefly through controlled mating and selection of offspring for desirable traits.

It can take any number of years for a person to know what those "desirable traits" even are in any given breed. There are goals to set and priorities to address. There must be concrete answers to questions you don't even know enough about animal husbandry to ask yet. There is a large (~very large~) financial obligation involved. It is not, as many people commonly call it, a "hobby". It is a full-time, all day, every day devotion. It cannot be something one does to make money or simply to produce kittens because you know people who would take them. You have to know every little detail about the chosen breed and you have to have more than a basic understanding of and skill with animal care. Even if you only have two breeding adults, let's say a male and his female, and you only produce one average litter of 4 to 6 per year, you are only actively "breeding" for about a week to 10 days a year. The rest of the time you are cleaning, feeding and otherwise caring for cats. Things must be kept spotlessly clean and there are times (many times) when you must effectively segregate the cats in order to prevent an unplanned mating. That can be time-consuming, extremely expensive and wickedly problematic when you breed cats in a home-environment.

So, as you can see, anyone can breed cats. But it takes a lot more than just allowing cats to have a litter to be a Breeder. The way I choose to see it is that no one here is suggesting that you shouldn't aspire to become a good, responsible, ethical breeder if you choose to do so. But what has been recommended is that you not breed ANY cats until you can do what's necessary to become the best breeder you can be. Just like any other advocation, that takes training, education, lots of money and most importantly, time. Please reconsider beginning to breed at all until you have made yourself into what you need to be.

I like the sound of post #12 - but please if you do purchase a female with breeding rights make sure you're breeding for the right reasons and not just to provide people with a cheap pet.

I'm a Persian breeder and our Persian females are ready to have kittens from six months onwards (not allowed to have them until nine months though!)

The males however sometimes don't breed until they're about three years old.

That's first hand from a Persian breeder.