Dwarfism

In our gallery you can see pictures and movies of affected kittens. Please note that all pictures must not to be used without the owners approval. The link to the gallery is here >>

The advice of the SRC is;

• Avoid breeding two cats that might be carriers of the gene.
• Be moderate when selling cats for breeding that might be carriers, before a DNA-test is available.
• If possible, do mating that are free from possible carriers on both the male and females side occasionally.
• If you sell a kitten for breeding that might carry this gene – be careful to inform the buyer of the situation, and let them know that they should not mate the cat with another potential carrier. You should inform even if the breeder don’t have cats from the same linage today, otherwise there is a great risk that they unknowingly buy more cats from the same lines. This advice also applies to sales abroad. Some breeders have even added a paragraph in their contracts about this.
• If you sold a cat for breeding, before this issue was known, that might be a potential carrier – get in touch with the buyer, inform them about the problem and refer them to SRC:s breeding advice.
• Keep sending in tips, information and observations – even regarding the developments of siblings to the affected kittens!

The cat is ES*Patriarca Gucci*. She is born 2001 and is present at leas once in both mothers and fathers side in the pedigree of all affected kittens. Be careful and check your pedigrees further back than 2001 when searching for her.

* The cat’s name is published with the owners approval.

During the mapping we have found three cats born of Seierø’s Prima Donna (Gucci’s daughter) whose lines have not produced any dwarf kittens that we know about today in Swedish catterys. This despite of being exposed to repeated matings with confirmed carriers and/or with carriers nearby in matings since 2010. The three cats are Hvenhildas Rufus, Hvenhildas Rakel and Hvenhildas Ulrik. Based on the information that are available today, SRC make the assessment that these three cats and their offsprings may pose a low risk for dwarfism in combinations where Gucci is duplicated. Please notice though that there are other active breeding lines in Sweden and abroad after Prima Donna that cannot be considered low risk lines.

We want to emphasize that this is a problem that only affects the breeders’ work. If you own or think about buying a pet ragdoll with Gucci in the pedigree, you do not have to worry. Only those kittens that are dwarf kittens are affected by the gene. The affected kittens are discovered several weeks before delivery, but do not hesitate to ask your breeder or us at SRC for advice if there is something you are unsure about.

The current pedigree line with Gucci has become popular due to the fact that there are plenty of friendly and good looking ragdolls in this line.

This cat is present in the pedigree of almost half of the number of registered ragdoll litters in SVERAK 2016. It is a common bloodline that many Swedish breeders  have in their lines today. To completely remove so many healthy cats from the breeding population would be devastating to the breed.

Project Dwarfism focuses on the ~45 kittens affected by dwarfism where a clear connection between symptoms, appearance and pedigree can be distinguished. It is important to know that dwarfism can affect all breeds and for many different reasons, but in these kittens, there has been a clear common inheritance pattern detected through mapping. That’s why SLU took an interest in our problem and is currently working to try to get a DNA-test for this type of dwarfism.

The SRC has neither the resources nor the competence to evaluate any connection with other dwarfs. At this time, we only report results that come directly from SLU.