Egyptian Mau?

[mccemom]

Since bluekat asked me what breed I am considering and I am trying to find out everything I possibly can on them, I am considering the Egyptian Mau. Why? Here are my reasons so far:

Length of coat: Hubby insists on no long-hairs! (I really love Somalis and Birmans.)

Colors: I want a breed that has just a few colors so I can really concentrate on making those PERFECT.

Spots: My family and I all LOVE the exotic look of the spotted cats. My favorite cats looks-wise in the short-hair catagory are the maus, ocis, bengals and abys.

Eye color: I LOVE those green eyes!!! My sweet Guin has gorgeous green eyes.

Disposition: I am wanting to find a fairly highly-active cat, while not being destructive. Not too vocal, but not quiet either. I love the abys, the siamese and other oriental breeds for their loving devotion and their high-activity level, but I read the abys tend to have small, all-male litters I've and the oriental breeds are SO vocal! I wish I knew more about the mau's disposition from someone that has experience with them.

Size: Not too big.

Health: From my research, the maus seem to be healthy cats with a long life-expectancy and not any serious health issues associated with their breed.

Average Litter Size: I read they have an average litter size of 6 kittens. That seems just right for me. Not too few, since I won't be keeping too many breeding females (probably no more than 3). Also not too large litters to have to worry about too many kittens to hand-feed and find homes for either (Orientals being heard of having as many as 14!). I wanted an average of 4-6 per litter.

Rare: I wanted a breed that wasn't really common. Something a bit rare. The only problem I am running into on this is that information on the maus is very limited and I cannot find any books written specifically for this breed.

CFA: I also wanted a breed that is accepted by the CFA and to be able to show them in the CFA cat shows.

I've been reading every website I can get my hands on about these cats. Does anyone here have any experience with them or any recommendations on how I can learn more about them? Thank you!

 

[Anne]

I have no personal experience with them but they do seem very striking.

Here is our Egyptian Mau links page:
http://www.thecatsite.com/links/egy.html

 

[bigpurrs]

Hi Shauna,

I have no experiance with the Mau or Ocicat, but I have met a few abbys and a Bengal at the show hall.

the Abbysians are really elegant cats with a very special look, the ticked coats are very special, and since an Israeli breeder is breeding them in the silver veriety I must say that I find them even more striking with the silver under coat. its a pitty that CFA accepts them only in the non-silver versians. another thing I really like about abbys is their temper!

I was a steward at a certain show and I actually got to handle these cats. not just that they were so elegant but so well behaved... and still active and curious about everything... just love them.

the Bengal female I met really had something wild in her. she was also well behaved and I had the chance to handle her too. you can actually feel the wild vibes in these cats. and thats what makes them so wonderful. she made sounds I dont think I have ever heard from a domestic, but the body is more stocky than the abbys. her pattern were of the marbeled type and this is a really striking pattern. I really wish I could see a snow bengal, I find this breed extremely interesting. would probably be my second choice after persians (which I breed), allthough so very different from the so long domesticated laid back persian.

I can give you a few advice before deciding about a breed. if you have the possibility to go to a show, meet some of the cats in person and get a real feel of the breeds in question before you hop in the water and get one, its best.
meeting the cats, visiting shows and catteries is so very important in taking such decisions. if you go to a Mau cattery you will be able to learn about the real difficulties in breeding these cats and have a long talk to the breeder about the breed. it would give you a much better perspective of the breed and its breeding.

one last thing, dont make the fact that the breed comes in few colors a real consideration. it is completely ok to breed a multiple color breed and still specialize in a very certain color or group of colors (if you like spots and patterns I guess tabbies would be your choice). but I would ask if the breed breeding emphesis is on color or on body type. its very important to know what breeders try to improve in a breed, it gives you a good idea of what makes this breed unique.

Best of Luck
Alon