Breeding

We live in Wiltshire with easy access to the M4 & M5. Our breeders prefix is Bagpuss and we specialize in achieving very spotty silver spotted British shorthairs!

There are several organizations that register pedigree cats in Britain, we are members of EveryCatUK and all our cats are registered with them. We believe ECUK to be a very good organization that has the welfare of cats as their priority.

We also are members of the Feline Advisory Bureau, which is a registered charity whose aim is to find cures for feline diseases, and educate the general public in the health and care of cats.

We are members of:

The Southern British Shorthair Cat Club

The Bengal Cat Club of Great Britain

The Bengal Cat Club

We have 8 cats in our family at present:

Silver Spotted British Shorthairs:

Premier Eurokats Silver Cracker - Born on 2nd October 1997, he is our show winning gentle giant neuter and looks after all our other cats. This is Crackers web site!

International Champion Bagpuss Silver Sweet Pea (Sweep) - Born 15th January 1999, Sweep was our stud boy, and has just been retired to live a life of luxury. He is also the spottiest cat we have ever seen! He has won every show he has entered so far including Best Cat in show as voted for by the public at the Cat Association Cat of the Year Show in 2003.

Bagpuss Silver Snowdrop - Born 3rd August 1999, a very little girl but she has fantastic big round black spots on a very pale silver background. Snowdrop is also retired now, after having one litter of perfect kittens.

Bagpuss Silver Snowshoes Born 3rd August 1999, he is Snowdrops litter mate and is a big boy. He showed a great deal of potential as a baby and is probably our best show cat. However, Snowshoes was not happy with showing or being entire and has hence been neutered and does not attend shows.

Champion Kresta Silver Felicity Born 22nd May 2000. We brought Poppy in as she has a completely different pedigree to our line and was intentionally chosen to compliment Sweep. She is a big girl and has lovely type and markings. She is retired now after 3 litters of exeptional babies

Bagpuss Silver Nutmeg Born December 2003. Meg is one of Connies first and Sweep's last litter. We will be breeding from her next year and can't wait to see the next generation of Bagpies!!!

Brown Spotted British Shorthairs:

Lerin Concerto Connie is our primary British Queen, she had her first litter in December 2003 to Sweep and the kittens show great potential. We will be showing Connie in 2004.

Brown (black) Spotted Bengals:

Llandar Rossetta Born 19th March 1999, Carrie is our only Bengal and our only Bengal breeding queen. Carrie retired last year after two wonderful silver Hybrid litters - the first Silver Bengals in the UK!!! She has a stunning coat full of rufus and glitter and she is covered in large distinctive rosettes. Both of Carries litters were beautifully glittered, rosetted and had excellent Bengal type.

We have been breeding since autumn 1997, but already we are becoming quite established. Four of our cats have won all their open classes at every show we have attended. One of our little ones - Einstein - was the first Bagpuss to do Whiska's adverts, resulting in an overnight explosion of the popularity of British Silvers in the UK. Einy now lives with his pet Angie in Devon. Since then, Sweep, Snowdrop and Poppy have all taken part in Whiskas commercials.

We breed on a small scale, giving us time to show all the love and care we need to, to our 'family of cats' and all the kittens we breed. Our kittens are all home reared - when I say this I really mean it, they are not kept in isolation in the house, they are part of the family, and eat, sleep and play with our other cats as soon as they are old enough. We believe our kittens will be more able to cope with life's changes (such as another cat being introduced later) better than those cats kept in isolation with their mum, and having no experience of interacting with others.

We choose our mating very carefully taking into account all possible factors, thus we are able to ensure a very high standard of the breed. This is apparent in our success so far.

ABOUT THE BRITISH SHORTHAIR

The British Shorthair is a strong, powerfully built cat, with a thick glossy coat and beautiful big eyes. They are very robust, enjoying good health and a long life. The silvers' personality has the best of both worlds; independent and quite happy to do their own thing, but at the same time they enjoy company and a good cuddle!

We chose the British Shorthair as they are one of the breeds that has had the least amount of meddling in their breeding, ensuring that they look natural and they have no major faults or diseases pertinent to the breed. We adhere to the breed standards and completely disagree with introducing any change that is, or could become extreme. For example, some breeders are mating their British to Persians in order to flatten the British cats face. In our opinion this is totally unacceptable, and will only serve to cause serious health problems to the cats that have the misfortune to own a flat face. This is not a natural feature of the cat, they need shape to the face for a number of health and related reasons.

ABOUT THE BENGAL

Bengals also have no meddling in their breeding, mainly because they are such a new breed. Carrie's great, great grandparents are wild cats in Asia!!!!! The Bengal came about during scientific research into finding a cure for feline leukaemia. Asian leopard cats were mated to domestic shorthairs in order to see if the wild cats immunity to the disease could be transferred to domestic cats. Unfortunately this is not the case, and Bengals need vaccinating against leukaemia just the same as every other cat.

The markings on the spotted Bengal are the same as those on the spotted British, however, the gene for spots in the two breeds is different. Bengals are a lot finer boned than the British, but they are just as robust!! Their coat is like silk and very soft to the touch. Their personalities are very instinctual and everything is done with great enthusiasm!

As the breed is so new they are given different status with registering bodies depending on which generation they are.

An F1 is the offspring of an Asian leopard cat and a domestic cat

an F2 is the offspring of 2 F1's and so on.

For showing purposes only F4's or later generations are recognised, in most organisations. Also, it is recommended that F1, 2 or 3 should not be sold as pets as they are too close to their wild parentage and will not have the necessary skills to integrate into a domestic situation.

ABOUT OUR CATS AND KITTENS

All our cats are house cats, and all our kittens are also sold as house cats. We have built a run in the garden so that our cats can go out in safety, and we also take them into the rest of the garden on their harnesses. We completely disagree with those that say cats should be let out as that is what they do naturally. Unfortunately our country's cats do not live in a 'natural' environment, their natural environment would not be populated with cities, transport and people, it would be countryside, valleys, etc. There are threats to them from all kinds of sources; cars, trains, unkind people who would deliberately harm them, and those that take life threatening measures to keep them out of their gardens, to name but a few. The cats is no more equipped to deal with this kind of hazard than, for example, a child or a dog . Also, there is the issue that we as owners are being irresponsible towards our neighbours by letting our cats roam. If a neighbours' dog kept coming into your garden, you would be the first one to go to the owner and ask them to keep their pet under proper control, why should the cat be different. We have developed the cat to be a domestic companion, so it is our responsibility to keep them safe from the man made hazards we have also created.

We do think that if you are taking on a cat that already has an established access to the outdoors it would be cruel to deny that, but a cat that has not roamed outside cannot miss what it has never known.

You must remember that a house cat will need more stimulation than one that can find such activities outside. We encourage our cats to stalk and hunt their toys! This behaviour is instinctual and important to the cat. You cannot stop them from acting on their instincts. The best you can do for them is to help them develop their skills within the home so that they are confident and happy in their abilities as a cat. You wouldn't expect a child to always sit still and never speak unless spoken to, never to develop themselves and explore what they are about, bringing a child up like this could result in a socially deficient person, and one that is full of self doubt. Cats, obviously, do not think as people, but they too can be subject to the equivalent of some of the problems we would experience if not brought up properly.

We feed all our cats as natural a diet as is possible. We think everyone should enjoy their food, and cats are no exception. They have Hill's Science Plan left down all the time, this is a dry scientifically produced food that contains everything a cat needs to stay healthy and survive. They could live on this food and nothing else, but it would be very boring! So, they also eat 3 meals a day (more for kittens) of fresh juicy meat!! They love raw beef and lamb, cooked chicken, turkey, and pork, and tuna in spring water, or other cooked fish. We don't feed cat food often as we believe this to be the equivalent of fast food for humans! Yes, you can live on it, but it won't do your body any good, and lets face it, cat food is hardly a tasty meal. There are more sensible reasons for us not feeding our cats cat food, than it being boring and these are listed below.

1. Cats are carnivores - THAT MEANS they MUST EAT MEAT TO LIVE.

A cat requires 38% protein in their diet or they will die, you MUST NOT feed your cat a vegetarian diet. The type of protein a cat requires is ONLY found in meat, not vegetarian equivalents.

Cat food contains on average between 8% and 12% protein, which means you cat will have to eat more cat food than fresh meat to get the 38% protein that they need to live.

2. Cats cannot clean their own teeth, they rely on the food they eat to scrape against their teeth thus cleaning them. Chewing on toys etc also helps to clean the teeth. By the time they are 3 years old, the majority of cats will have severe tooth and gum problems. Most of these problems are caused by feeding cat food. As it is mushy it clings to the teeth rather than scraping against them. Over time tartar builds up and in turn causes gingivitis and gum disease resulting in a large number of cats having teeth removed. To have such problems at 3 is disgraceful, imagine how much worse they will be by the time they reach 10!

mail us here for any enquiries cracker@crackerpuss.co.uk