We have Kittens!                                                                 1/1/2011

Wildthing is proud to announce our first litter. Wildthing Ochre Dawn has delivered a healthy lovely litter of three kittens from Aramis for her first birth. We have two boys and one girl, two of these kittens will be looking for good homes.

Introducing our new babies:

Wildthing Liquorice Sticks - Black and Silver Spotted Boy

Wildthing Cookies and Cream - Chocolate and Silver Spotted Boy

Wildthing Ginger Kisses - Cinnamon Spotted Girl

The kittens are happy, healthy, energetic little darlings ready to go and find new adventures beyond our walls.

Kitten Requirements

Kitten Environment

Kittens and cats have a few needs that must be met in their new homes. They are:

- Scratching post

Cats have claws that grow continually and they need access to a scratching post to grind down the claw or else they can suffer overgrowth - and your furniture can suffer scratching! The instinct to claw items to keep their claws healthy is ingrained and can't be trained out. All cats need access to a scratching post in every area they will be confined.

- Confinment

Cats are small creatures and are not safe in outdoor environments. Other creatures smaller than they such as birds and native mammals are also not safe from unrestrained cats. Ocicats are born explorers and will examine any territory available to them - they will not stay in your backyard! The outside also presents opportunity for pests, parasites, and dangerous creatures such as snakes, ticks and vicious dogs to hurt cats. To protect our little babies and your (quite expensive) beloved pet from the worst case scenario we only sell into homes who will keep all their cats indoors. This stricture seems harsh to some but in Australia we have by far the largest number of small native mammals vulnerable to cats and the safety of our fauna is very important, especially in urban areas. Cats can be outdoors on a leash (ocicats train to the leash very easily), in a backyard with supervision, or in an escape proof cat run. We can supply the contact details of professional cat run builders on request. Our cats are very happy to stay indoors with companionship!

- Companionship

Ocicats are highly social animals and demand their owners attention and involvement in household activities. They can become unhappy and needy if they aren't given enough attention and active playtime. We recommend and prefer that our cats either to go multi-cat homes or leave ours in pairs. If you want a single cat please be prepared to give it the time and attention that will be required to keep it content - this may be a considerable amount. Remember that most kittens will never have been apart from their mother or lacked other cats including siblings to play with, or breeders home in their lives - transitioning to a new home alone can be very difficult. There are a range of strategies available to settle new cats. Most involve lots of time and attention given to making the cat feel at home and secure.

Kitten Guarantee


At Wildthing only breed with top quality breeding stock. Our breeding cats are either genetically tested to exclude known breed faults or in the process of being tested. We test our cats on a regular basis for common parasites found at up to 80% of catteries and are parasite free. We also have regular vet checkups for our breeding stock for heart, lung and eye health.

Our cats are kept 100% indoors or in covered cat runs meaning their exposure to pests and disease is almost non-existant. We don't need to treat our cats for fleas because they have none and aren't exposed to carriers. Worms are also a virtual unknown for our cats but we worm kittens before leaving just to ensure they are free from this pest. The care and attention paid to the genetic health of our cats is a matter of pride for Wildthing and we guarantee that any kitten from our home will be happy and healthy in yours. If you are not completely satisfied with your kitten purchase we offer help with fixing teething issues and ultimately will accept an unsatisfactory cat back any time in the first year and replace it with a new kitten from a subsequent litter. We have no interest in leaving a cat with an owner who doesn't find it completely captivating!

Return Guarantee

Wildthing are committed to the ongoing health and welfare of every animal we breed. We love to keep up with our pet owners and to read updates on our kittens lives with their new families. We are ultimately responsible for any animal we create and if at any time in the future you become unable to care for your pet we will accept our grown up baby back and find it a good new home. This service is offered free but if we incur costs in picking the animal up or transporting it to our home there may be an arrangement necessary to cover the outlay.

Kitten Care


Diet: Our cats and kittens are fed a diet of raw meat (kangaroo, beef brawn and chicken mince) morning and evening and have dry kitten biscuits available to snack on 24 hrs a day. We find that our cats allowed to graze manage their intake and weight and do not become overweight. Cats fed restricted quantities at restricted times tend to obsess over food and be pushed into a gorge and starve pattern which is unhealthy in humans and cats alike.

Dental Health: Twice a week each cat is given a raw chicken neck to maintain dental health. The small round bones in the neck clean the cats teeth, scratch off tartar, and exercise the cats mouth and neck muscles. The cats also love them! Poor teeth and dental problems are a major cause of ill health in ageing cats. Cats as young as four years of age can require expensive veterinary treatment to remove dying teeth if their dental health is not properly managed.

Coat: Ocicats have a shiny, close coat that requires very little maintenance. We don't wash our cats unless they fall into something they shouldn't! We do add a few drops of fish oil into their food a few times a week to promote a healthy coat shine. During the shedding period in spring/summer a rubber mitt brush used on each cat every second day is a great way to prevent hair ending up on your furniture and clothes.

Vaccinations: Ocicat kittens leave Wildthing vaccinated at 10 and 12 weeks with an F3 vaccination protecting against three diseases - the Cat Herpes virus (Feline Rhinotracheitis [FR]), Feline Calicivirus [FCV] and the Panleukopaenia virus (sometimes called feline Parvo). If a kitten owner wishes to take a kitten at 10 weeks a vaccination bond of $50 will be taken which will be refunded when the kitten is vaccinated by the owners vet. This is to ensure that the kitten receives the minimum two vaccinations required to protect it against disease.

Claw Maintenance: Our kittens are accustomed to their claws being clipped weekly. We clip claws to prevent the kittens injuring each other or our babies during rough play and also to ensure they are used to the procedure which is required at cat shows. Rough scratch boards and scratching posts are available for use.

Planned Litters

Wildthing are registered with NSW CFA and comply with industry codes of practice specifying our breeding girls will not have more than two litters a year. As we have limited litters planned for the rest of this year it is advisable to join the waiting list for one of our kittens. We will not have extra litters once the planned litters are all reserved or sold.

The following matings are planned for later in the year:

  Wildthing Ochre Dawn      and      Maghreb's Cristiano (Sweden) of Asmara

       

                                                                                                 Cristianos Pedigree

ICC of mating: 23.4%    (What is ICC?)      Test Mating with ICC calculation

Expected colours:

Chocolate and Chocolate Silver

Tawny and Black and Silver

Chance of: Cinnamon and Cinnamon Silver


  Ozspots Spirit of Australia of Wildthing      and      Asmara OCI Alastair

       

                                                                                                 Alastairs Pedigree

ICC of mating: 20.7%    (What is ICC?)      Test Mating with ICC calculation

Expected colours:

Chocolate

Tawny

Possibility of: Cinnamon

Inbreeding Coefficient Explained

ICC stands for 'Inbreeding Coefficient Complete' and is a measure of the the degree of inbreeding in a cat or kitten. It can be calculated back a short distance into a cats pedigree or calculated as far back in the pedigree as records have been kept.

Genes are inherited in pairs, one from each parent. In the offspring of unrelated parents the inherited genes in each pair are usually different from each other or hetrozygous. Parent cats from similar backgrounds are likely to have similar genes. If those cats are mated, the offspring will inherit some genes which end up the same as the other gene in their pair, or homozygous.

The ICC calculates the probability that a gene pairing is homozygous by measuring the relationship between the parents. An ICC of 100% would mean that for every gene inherited from the mother, an identical gene was inherited from the father. This is a dangerous situation as any genetic disease or problem being passed from one parent (which would usually be "fixed" by a different healthy paired gene from the other parent) would have full unrestrained expression in the cat.

Ocicats are a relatively new breed having their origins in the 1950s. The gene pool comes from a fairly small number of cats in the USA around this time with new genes being donated from Abysinnian outcrcosses since then. There is an inbreeding coefficient measurable in all ocicats today and better breeders strive to ensure the ICC is kept as low as possible in the matings they allow and the cats they use for breeding.

To keep our bloodlines as genetically healthy as possible we breed to keep the ICC at a minimum. This means aiming for an ICC in any pairing around 20% and attempting to keep the ICC below 25% at all times.

As the Ocicat is a rare breed in Australia this is a difficult undertaking and means responsible Ocicat breeders with the best interest of the breed at heart are working closely together to ensure we have different bloodlines to use in matings with each other and will not end up all having too closely related cats in the future to keep the Ocicat as a viable breed in this country. You and future Ocicats are the winners who benefit from our cooperation and hard work!

We have Kittens!                                                            07/02/2011

Wildthing is proud to announce our second litter. Ozspots Spirit of Australia of Wildthing has delivered a healthy lovely litter of five kittens from Aramis for her second birth. We have four boys and one girl, all of these kittens will be looking for good homes and will be ready to go at the end of April.

Introducing our new babies:

Wildthing Smartie - Tawny Spotted Girl

Wildthing Rum Ball - Tawny Spotted Boy (dark face + ear tufts)

Wildthing Freckle Face - Tawny Spotted Boy (dark face)

Wildthing Dark Truffle - Tawny Spotted Boy

Wildthing Malteaser - Cinnamon Spotted Boy