Foreword: Bringing in foundation cats from unknown background can present a GREAT risk to the health of your cattery. Blood tests and stool samples for dangerous diseases are often not reliable. Foundation Breeding is very hard, costly and stressful and NOT suitable for many. When looking for foundation Maine Coon cats, it might be best to use one of the established foundation catteries. This can save you a lot of hardship in the long run. Please beware that there are presently several backyard breeders working with new foundation. Do yourself a favor and don't buy from them just to get a cheap deal on a cat from New England!

Even though foundation breeding is a big task, there is no need to be afraid. Old time foundation people had a mentor called *learn as you go*. We presently have a strong support group of honest and determined people who are willing to help. If done with caution, foundation breeding can be just as much fun as breeding in general. However, before looking into foundation breeding, it might be a good idea to ask your self the following questions:

Do I know the standard of the Maine Coon breed well enough and do I have a good *feel* for this breed? Do I know what I am aiming for? Do I have at least 5 years of show- and breeding experience? Do I have the financial capacity and the room to create new lines? Am I willing to pay for many health tests, vet visits and a whole bunch of registrations? Am I prepared to end up with only ONE out of 4 or even only ONE out of 10 foundation cats after spending all my time and about $ 10.000 to 15.000 per line? Am I willing to sell most of my pet kittens *way* below cost during the testing phase of my new line? Do I like to raise kittens just for the fun of it - no matter if they turn out or not? Am I mentally stable enough to cope with many downfalls and problems with registries? Am I willing to take risks? Am I able to stand the pressure and take criticism at cat shows for not producing top show? Am I prepared to either not show my Maine Coons - or if - then in HHP class for a few years? Am I willing to work with other breeders and be totally honest and transparent with them? Do I have a source of help when times get tough so I won't lose focus? Do I have a passion for Maine Coons? Do I have a vision for the future of this breed? If you can answer all those questions with yes, then foundation breeding might be the thing for you.

Most associations make things difficult for foundation breeders and some have tightened their rules even more these days. Even though the motives might be to stop backyard breeders, this could eventually backfire on us as breeders, on the breed itself and also on the associations. If we close the doors for new foundation cats, soon there won't be many cats left in our breed to be registered and shown because there will be no breed - and if then this breed will be desperately weakened. Who will bring in the money for the associations then? The only registry that still has its studbooks open is the American Cat Association. ACA is a very friendly and helpful association and makes things really easy for us. Some believe that it's almost too easy to register with ACA because they go so much on a trust basis. However, registering cats is really ONLY possible on a trust basis. If people want to cheat, they will cheat, no matter how tight the rules are.

Please note that rules in associations can change overnight. If you want the rules for registration of foundation cats to change, you need to get involved in the association you are dealing with. Often the people responsible for registration of foundation cats are not educated and wrong decisions are made because of lack of knowledge. The author won't take responsibility for the correctness of the following information:

The first step is to register your cattery with ACA. An F1 or F2 foundation Maine Coon can presently only be registered with ACA. If a breeder knows none of the parents or only one parent the cat can only be registered as an F1. Color must be known, knowledge of birth date is not necessary. If both parents are known, the cat can be registered as F2 with ACA. You will need to put the color of both parents down. The birth date of the parents is not necessary in order to register an F2. At F3 or third generation it is advisable to double register them with ACA and TICA or/and CFF for recording, simply because it will be easier to be accepted by other associations if the cat is registered with TICA for instance. Some associations, including ACA, issue a pedigree when we present them with 3 generations of ancestry. ACA does not issue a pedigree that is higher than third generation. CFF presently requires ACA registration papers of two F2 parents to register an F3 offspring/litter. An F3 Maine Coon can presently be shown in CFF. Tica will require an ACA or CFF certified 3 generation pedigree from ACA or the cat needs to be seen by two judges. CCA has so far accepted a handwritten pedigree from the breeder for F3 registration, without the cat being seen by a judge. At F4 a cat can be registered and shown in TICA and at the same time registered and shown in CCA, registered and shown with ACFA and AACE. CFF and ACFA are planning to merge soon. It will be interesting to see what this means for the registration of foundation cats. It is advisable to double-register your cats in at least two associations if you can, just to be on the safe side. CFA will take them at F5 for recording. An F6 finally has full status in CFA which means it can be registered and shown in CFA.

It should be mentioned that it is a lot of fun to show a foundation cat in HHP class. It gives us an opportunity to promote foundation breeding and to make people aware of the fact that cats from foundation programs can actually look quite decent and have wonderful temperaments. Sadly, most associations require proof of spaying/neutering at the early age of 8 months for all cats shown in HHP class . Of course foundation cats cannot be neutered at such early age because they need to be used for breeding. Our goal is that an exception will be made in the future for Maine Coon Household pets if shown by a foundation breeder.

There is a difference between working with cats with outcrossed pedigrees, that are part foundation and actually bringing in completely different lines into the breed. Real foundation breeders start from scratch. They actually find new cats that so resemble the Maine Coon breed and register them in order to breed them to other full foundation cats, part foundations or pedigreed cats with common lines. Those new cats should have many traits of the breed but don't need to be perfect. They often lack in type, size and coat quality. These weaknesses can be balanced out over time. There is plenty of time to fix up type until we reach higher generations. Beauty faults like slightly kinked tails and lockets are not too worry some in early generations if the cat is otherwise very valuable. They will eventually breed themselves out through the outcrossing process. Many show lines carry kinks and lockets by the way.

Foundation cats can be found in private homes, on farms, at the humane society or in the wild. Keep your eyes open and eventually a cat with good traits might cross your way. Perhaps ask your vet to be on the outlook for you also. If cats can be obtained from a private home, sometimes valuable information about origin can be obtained. It is advisable to find out as much as possible about ages and colors of ancestors, known diseases, previous litter sizes and temperaments of parents and perhaps grandparents. It is hard to judge temperament in farm cats because often they have not been handled during kittenhood. Cats from shelters bare a much greater risk for diseases than cats from private homes. They often carry viral infections and can transmit kennel cough to your cattery. Cats from shelter in big cities also bear a greater risk that they might be related to pedigreed Maine Coon cats. Cats from farms have a higher risk to be inbred. Most times they carry external and internal parasites whom they often seem to be able to live with, but can still infect others. To be quite frank, health wise cats from farms scare me less than cats from other catteries. However, bringing in foundation cats from unknown background can present a GREAT risk to the health of our cattery. Blood tests are often not reliable. Even with the best isolation methods, your own cattery will be at risk for a while. Viruses are very sneaky and a single touch of a doorknob can pass the virus on to your other cats.

Try this: You get your first F1 foundation kitty from a farm or a private home. You pay the people $ 50 for food and raising the babies. By the time you paid all the health tests including CBC, three Felv/Fiv tests, 5 stool samples, vet-checkups, preventative medicine, HCM, PKD, HD, PL testing etc., registration and high quality food, you are looking at around $ 1000 per cat, BEFORE this cat is actually being used. This does not account for the general costs of replacing cat furniture and heating a cattery and such. Now the cat has babies with another F1 that has cost you the same money. After raising the parents and their litter, we are at around 3000 dollars. Now you give the kitties away to pet homes for price of spay/neutering and vaccinations. You will use the parents another time, perhaps each with a different partner. Include all the driving, phoning, toys, material for quarantine buildings, food, litter and more vet care, we are easily at $ 5000 - WITHOUT ANY money coming in. Then F2 babies will be kept and parents will be spayed/neutered. Now the same fun begins with the offspring. Testing, feeding, vaccinating, toys, meds, registering and so on. When we reach F4, a total of $ 15.000 to $ 20.000 will have easily slipped out of our pockets. If several serious health- or temperament problems arise we get most of the offspring - or in worst case scenario - all of them spayed and start from scratch. This is an extreme example but not so far fetched. So now you know why you will need to charge breeder price later on for your breeding kittens? Good for you :-)) .

Much controversy has been going on over the past years on the *true* origin of the Maine Coon cat. Most people believe it can only be the East coast, which includes Maine and border lining states. Not all foundation breeders agree on the issue of origin. According to some breeders in Maine, true Maine Coons can still be found occasionally at the East Coast - and only there. Others believe that foundation stock can be found anywhere in North America and Canada. They agree that the "seashell and fisherman thing" happened over 100 years ago, and in the meantime, original Maine Coon cats that lived outside, have mated with all kinds of domestic cats, people have moved and taken their cats with them. Cats have been sold all over the place and it is very likely that matings could have occurred anywhere and with whomever. By the way, the state of Maine was simply the first state where our breed was registered.

No matter where we go nowadays, the original Maine Coon cat (if there ever was one) will most likely be diluted down, simply because cats aren't too picky when they are in heat. Considering the present situation of our breed, many of us have no choice but to work with what we have available here and now. The Maine Coon breed is a natural breed. Purebred longhaired cats that came to our country at many different shores had mated with all kinds of DSH and DLH outside cats. If the cat can *walk the walk and talk the talk*, it should to be registered as a Maine Coon. But.........beware of breeders who use foundation breeding as a market niche!

Yes and no. Concerns have been raised on the use of farm cats in a foundation program. Reality is that often farm cats are much healthier than cats that are artificially bred and kept indoors. Natural selection has taken place and only the healthiest and strongest survive the harsh North American and Canadian winters over the years. The spread of diseases in farm cats is actually smaller than in catteries. This is due to the fact that they have more fresh air and sunlight available, don't live in enclosed spaces and don't share litter boxes and food dishes. Against common belief, many farmers are aware of and have witnessed the bad side effects of too much inbreeding. After all they need their cats to keep away mice and rats and a sick cat won't do its job very well. So, many farmers bring in fresh blood by trading unrelated kittens with friends from other (non-neighboring) farms. Some farm cats are taken care of well and are being fed, others have to rely solely on rodents. If rodent supply on the farm is sufficient, the farm cats lack nothing - in the contrary! However, it is advisable to get a kitten at young age and feed it high quality food if you are worried that the cats on the farm are not cared for. This can especially be the case in late fall or very eary spring litters.

Most farm cats have a certain amount of inbreeding, so there can be problems with inflamed gums, misalignment of eyes, crocked teeth and such - not always though. They can sometimes struggle with a somewhat deprived immune system, just like our pedigreed cats. However, even a farm cat that has been inbred over a few generations, still presents a good outcross to our existing lines because it carries a long invisible pedigree behind it. Also, if a group of farm cats has stayed healthy over many years and litters are still large and perfectly formed - despite of the inbreeding - then this is a good sign that we are dealing with a good line with great vigor and not many genetic problems. Then some of our research has automatically been accomplished - in a natural way. By the way, it takes longer than we think to make a cat genetically homozygous in every way. It is possible to get farm cats that are not very inbred, if we do our research and get on the farmers' nerves long enough to give us much information. Looks wise, I personally prefer an adult to a kitten because *what you see is what you get*.

Try to be very selective in the choice of your foundation stock. Not every longhaired cat with a good type will make a good foundation cat! Looks are not everything. An F2 cat should already be somewhat reasonably looking. An F1 can allow itself a little bit more faults. Only chose cats that appear to be very healthy. No matter where our foundation cats come from, they all need to undergo various health tests and an isolation period of at least 3 months, better longer. A sick cat sometimes does not look sick!! If you think you have isolated long enough, add another 3 weeks to it. The things we are the most concerned about in foundation cats are different URI viruses, Felv/Fiv, fleas, ear mites, internal parasites, Panleukopenia, Rabies and fungal infections. Things like ringworm for instance often do not show up until after 4 weeks of quarantine. Under no circumstances let the cat have access to any living space of your family and other cats until all preventative procedures have been performed. It is better to be overly cautious than later suffer the consequences.

On the day of arrival preventative bathing with flea shampoo is required, followed by bathing every other day for five consecutive days with fungal shampoo, preferably containing the ingredient Miconozole for possible Ringworm infection. Microtech shampoo has been recommended. Use preventative medicine for all known intestinal parasites. Apply Flea/Mite Control Medication (for example Revolution or Advantage) to the back of their neck and leave the cat in a kennel for 12 hours over night. Sometimes Revolution takes care of the fleas, but does not take care of the mites. Sometimes ear mites cannot be seen. Tresamine drops can be administered additionally for precaution.

URI viruses can be carried by the cat without her/him showing any symptoms. Sometimes these viruses are not shed before the cat is pregnant or lactating. There are blood tests available for Herpes. Panleukopenia is also a virus of concern in foundation cats. Your vet can send in 5 stool samples to the lab for five consecutive days, in order to find out if the cat is shedding this virus. Apparently, cats that have dealt with Panleukopenia in the past and overcome the virus, can still be contagious for up to 6 weeks after the infection.

Ringworm might be carried by the cat, even though it might not have any lesions of the skin. Do not touch the animal with bare hands until you are certain it does not carry fungal disease. Keep the cat in a very large kennel during days of bathing. Disinfect the kennel with bleach each time after bathing the cat to prevent re-infection. After the cat has been bathed for several days, it can be put into quarantine quarters. Fungal cultures are very inconclusive, so save yourself the money. It is much better to use preventative medicine. A product called Program (double dose of what is recommended for fleas!!) should be administered preventatively for ringworm - BEFORE the cat enters the quarantine quarters - no matter what the cultures show! This medicine will take a few days to come into effect and should be administered on a full stomach (twice in a row, one or two weeks apart) to be safe. Three months of Program will also prevent fleas from re-producing, in case the flea bath and Revolution did not fully take care of that problem.

As soon as possible the kitten/cat needs to be examined thoroughly by a licensed veterinarian. Quarantine at your vet is a possibility - at least for the first few weeks. A CBC Complete Blood Count can be performed to get *some* idea if the animal is fighting some kind of a disease. This blood test is very helpful by the way and can be performed on each kitten that is released into a breeder home also. If we get a kitten, the owners can be asked if they allow you to take the mother cat to the vet also. She can be tested for Felv/Fiv because the test is not at all secure in young kittens. Getting the mother cat tested will give you more security. She needs to be tested at least twice, better three times. The test for Felv/Fiv cannot be taken lightly. Often cats that carry the virus do not appear to be sick. Lateron her kitten(s) needs to be tested at 12 weeks and again 6 weeks later, preferably even a third time a month later. Please note that even a Felv/Fiv blood test can give a wrong result when the virus is sitting in the bone marrow and is "dormant". This is why long isolation time is so very important.

In case people are worried about Corona virus and believe that a Fip test will do them any good, they can also test for that. A preventative medicine to treat possible strains of Giardia or Coccidiosis is also recommended. Stool samples don't always show them even though they can be present. The products Appertex (Clazuril) and Albon (Sulfurmethoxine) seem to work best for Coccidiosis. Products called Flagyl (Metrinidazole) and Panacure (Febendazole) are the most recommended for Giardia, the latter being more effective and safer in pregnancy. These meds need to be given for prevention according to the advice of your vet. Panacure seems to be a quite efficient medicine for tapeworm and can at the same time free the cat of any possible giardia one-cellers. For giardia prevention it needs to be given for 5 days, not only 3 days like for tapes.

Rubber gloves, different shoes and clothes should be worn at all times in the quarantine quarters. Depending on the breeder's preference, various vaccinations are recommended during this isolation period also. Often we won't find out if the cat carries certain viruses until it is pregnant or has kittens because then the immunity of the mother cat goes down during stress. Isolation period is of personal preference like many other things. 3 months should be considered the very least. If the appropriate space is available, it is a good idea to keep newer foundation cats together in a separate building after the isolation period is finished. This could be done at least until time for breeding comes when they need to be in contact with others.

There are presently two goals among foundation breeders. One is to integrate new lines into the general gene pool and give our breed back its original strength and hardiness. Another is to create completely new lines and keep them free from the common lines being used. Sometimes a foundation cat is only used once to give a pedigreed line a "boost". Other times a whole new line is being created with several unrelated cats. It should be mentioned here also that not all foundation breeders are aiming for the type some of the associations are promoting. Some of us believe that cats we see at the show hall nowadays often do not conform to the standard of the Maine Coon breed anymore. So we try for the older, more traditional, moderate type. Others try to breed modern "Tica looking" cats with their foundation/show crosses and are quite successful in their undertaking.

The reason we keep some lines separate is to protect them from unsafe pedigrees. Both methods of breeding can be done at the same time by keeping one kitten in each litter reserved for pure foundation breeding. Even though most lines will eventually be integrated, we believe that through selective breeding new lines will be able to stand on their own as well, if necessary.

Not all your foundation cats will be the same generation. In some cats you might not know any of the parents or the mother only, in others you will know both parents. When you breed an F1 to an F2, kittens will be F2. When you breed an F2 to an F3, kittens will be F3. However, when you breed an F3 to and F3, kittens will finally be F4. It always goes by the lower number. Since most times the cats we intend to breed together, don't match in generation, it can take a long time to work ourselves up to F5 or F6. If you want to achieve a good type, you might have to go back one or two generations in each breeding. Breeding partners often cannot be chosen by generation.

Breeding practices are not much different from common breeding programs. It's very easy: Keep the typiest, healthiest, biggest with the best temperament always, ha! :-)). If you have an F1 with a poor, rough coat quality, breed it with a cat with mounds of soft and shaggy coat if you have one handy. If not, save it for the next generation and work on other traits. If a cat has small ears, use a breeding partner with big ears. If both early generation cats have small ears, but are otherwise very compatible, save ears for the next generation, etc. etc. Have patience. Don't get infected with the "hurry syndrome" to make great cats very fast. It will most likely not work.

You know there is only so much two cats can do in one breeding, especially when their parents and grandparents all looked so different from each other. Consistency will come over time. It can be achieved by mating unrelated cats together that carry the desirable genes homozygous. Cats can't fight off the rules of genetics, no matter from what lines they are.

Here is an example of an F3, basically almost full foundation breeding couple: The male has beautiful coat, nice color, good muzzle, nice nose line, pretty good head for F3, big, well set eyes, good size and weight (12 pounds at 11 months), medium length body and tail - and wonderful temperament - super cuddly and outgoing. He *kind of* looks like a Maine Coon already. It's all relative of course.

The F3 female has huge and tall ears (not perfectly shaped, but humongous, sufficient weight and size for early generations (8 p at 10 MO), big eyes, long body and tail. She has gentle and sweet temperament but is a bit shy with strangers. She has two traits you NEED so badly in foundation and that is the big ears and the relatively large size. But....she has a crocked profile and still has that "domestic cat" look in her. And the worst of all: BOTH cats have no chin!!

Well, this is what you could expect from this breeding for the next generation: A better coat, better nose line, bigger and tighter ears, more outgoing temperament - MAY BE ALL IN ONE KITTEN??. What you will probably not get is: CHINS!! and that is an *outsch*, especially if you are very involved in the show world. That is almost the biggest sin under the heavens. So what do you do? Breed them both to show cats to improve their type? This would be one way of eliminating the problem. This is what most people would do and this is perfectly fine. But if you are one of those breeders who are trying to create completely new lines for the breed, what have you gained? You probably get a few kids in the litter with OK chins to make you happy. However, your pedigree will be half the outcross value than it was before.

The other option would be to bite your teeth and go ahead with the breeding (with a vision in mind). Keep the kid with the "best" chin possible, THEN look for a male with a good chin and an outcrossed pedigree. After two generations some good chins will be carried with double alleles. Even if the F5 kittens won't have a really big and boxy chin, it will still be of good breeding quality for many. By the time you reach F6 some of the babies will hopefully be of good quality. Remember that in the olden days it often took much more than 5 generations to produce good looking Maine Coons.

This example should not be understood as a suggestion to just breed faulty cats together or to do breedings with cats with the same weaknesses. However, this is sometimes the way things are, if we like it or not. We seem to be able to swallow a bad pattern or cobby body easier than a weak chin. And YES, all three can be equally easy /hard bred in or out, all depending on how traits are carried - and what colony of cats we are working with. It is actually deceiving to say some recessive traits are harder to breed in than others. This would speak against what we have learned from genetics books. This breeding example is applicable if you intend to breed foundation/part foundation cat to foundation/part foundation cat. If you breed foundation to show cats, different criteria will be used and your range and time frame you allow yourself to accomplish certain things will probably be tighter and shorter. The offspring should look much better - much quicker.

It might help you if you try to see the cats you work with as puzzle pieces instead of looking at them too much as the cat as a whole. Yes they should have that "Maine Coon look" in their face. But in the beginning it is advisable to visualize the outcome without being so caught up on their faults. Instead look at the things they can improve with each other. And if there are several of them, it might be worth a try. Then if the breeding won't work, we can breed them to a different partner. And then to another one. There really is no rush in this. We don't need to accomplish the perfect product by tomorrow. There are several people out there now who are willing to work on some things. We keep forgetting that we are "working" with foundation.

Try to use foundations with very gentle and social temperament only. If you are willing to make compromises, here is one thing you should not: Character. If a cat from the wild is being used and you are not sure if her temperament will pass on, breed her and if her kittens don't have good temperament, get mother cat and babies spayed and here ends the line. Seriously! If a cat has a kink and is otherwise useful for the program, breed her with a cat that is known not to carry this trait and use offspring with no tail faults. The same works for lockets or a broken mackerel pattern. Some things might stay in the line and this will give others something to work with. Try to remember that ALL species carry undesirable genes and some beauty faults will probably show up eventually - even if they are only minor.

It is not easy to breed in size right from the beginning since most foundation cats don't come as 20 pounders - sadly. Very few foundation lines can add bulk. However, even though most people love large cats, it is the over sizing that has brought us many symptomatic health problems. The thought of this might help you to overcome the urge to compete with others in weight and size. Try to get away from judging a good Maine Coon by pounds for a while. Aim for a good size, but explain to people that if they want to include foundation, they need to be willing to *downsize* a bit.

Take it easy and try to have fun. Enjoy the kittens to the fullest if you have the time. And remember - after all they are cats and not people. So try to keep a healthy perspective. But remember, if you are using a cat for foundation breeding, you are the one who is ultimately responsible for the welfare of this cat - no matter where this cat was obtained. If the cat was an outside cat, given to you by a farmer who takes good care of his/her cats, bring the cat back to the farm when you are done breeding with it. Farm live is probably the happiest and healthiest life for this cat. If the cat was obtained from a private home or shelter, you need to find a good pet home for this cat after you are done breeding with it.

Take your job serious but don't get too worked up about it all. Remember that there is family and friends to take care of and cats cannot always consume all your thoughts and time. If cat breeding is taken too seriously, we get stressed out and it can easily become an unbearable burden. Getting priorities straight is very important when doing foundation breeding in order to stay clear minded and focused. Allow yourself to make mistakes, but be aware that you have been given a great responsibility and you will be accountable for much.

You will probably find that you can raise your litters without too many antibiotics and other medication when you do outcross breeding. Kittens usually have a strong immune system and diseases rarely become chronic. They get sick too of course. Try to keep the numbers of your cats down if you can which will help a great deal to fight immune related diseases. And- very important - keep them in small groups. It is also crucial to work with others. Building up new lines on our own is almost impossible unless we have nothing else to do in life than breeding cats. Instead of keeping two or three kittens in a litter, we can instead only keep one and send the other to a friend.

If you can, try to keep your numbers (Clones, Top Two, Three, Five) and the inbreeding percentage down. Remember that people still need something to work with when your cats enter the general gene pool. Aiming for a foundation content of at least 25, better 50 % at F4 is very reasonable. Most people don't want F2 or F3 cats and the work is up to us to bring them up to F4 or F5. So, it is our responsibility to maintain a good outcross percentage. Like previously mentioned, try to forget about perfection in type during the first generations. The lines are by far more important.

There will be plenty of time to work on a longer nose or a brighter color. For many years you will crave for a nice warm Brown or Silver Classic Tabby. In the meantime, learn to develop a passion for many high white or pale orange mackerel tabby baby kittens - don't gag please! Try to build your house first and paint it afterwards. Try for a good frame. Don't worry about lynx tips or super tight ears. They will be easy to breed in as soon as a show cat is bred to your outcross. Some full foundation cats even have lynx tippings by the way :0). Try to work on a strong body, a good head, ear set and a strong muzzle and most of all - on a sound character. You will find that in each generation more desirable traits can be brought in. This is why you will need either a lot of cats or some friends to work with.

Kittens from very outcrossed, early generation litters will often look very different from each other and only one or two in each litter might be of breeding quality. Once your cat will be crossed to a show cat by somebody who is buying outcross from you, you will be amazed how quickly the remaining traits like body length or a tighter ear set can be added. For now, try to concentrate mostly on your lines, health and character and resist the temptation to prove to others that you actually CAN breed really good looking cats. You WILL eventually.

Even though most people believe that incest will give us clarity about recessive genes, such test periods will, in reality, only give us very vague and incomplete information. Usually new foundation cats have a genotype that is unknown to us. Unknown genotype means we don't know if they are carriers or not. Carriers for what? We don't really know what we are looking for in a new foundation cat, right? In other words, there is no way for us to calculate how many kittens would be needed to obtain conclusive results for *anything*. This is when inbreeding tests come into effect. Since we cannot tell the likeliness of foundation cats for certain recessives, we might have to produce many, many inbred litters to find out more about a new line. This could very well mean close to 100 kittens or even more.

What about the ethical side of long test breeding periods? If we breed full brother and sister over several generations, we automatically make the t- and b- cells in the kittens equal to some extent. Since these cells are responsible to recognize and fight disease, the general immunity of the animal would decrease accordingly. Some old time breeders of our breed have done many inbreeding tests to find out about hidden colors or to improve type. (it should be mentioned here that the better way to find out about masking factor would have been to cross the foundation cat to a Siamese cat instead of to it's brother - but that's besides the point.) Produced were often chronic snifflers with sensitive tummies that had to be kept in an almost sterile environment to stay somewhat healthy. This type of breeding experiment, if done over several generations, will likely bring to life a good number of babies that stand a good chance to die of early age cancer, have terrible gums and teeth, develop all sorts of allergies and/or become chronic URI carriers - and all this simply because they have a weak immune system. Did you know that schizophrenic and irritable behavior can also be a side effect of inbreeding depression? It seems to be overlooked that the new owners of our "by products" will have to pay for all the medical care, in case the test breeding period did effect the immune system of the kittens. In the midst of our projects - most times with the best intentions, I agree - we tend to forget sometimes that this is not only about pedigrees and genetics. Considering that pet homes are usually the best living environment for our babies, would this be fair towards both the owner and the little creature?

Here it should also be mentioned that embryos with heavy defects often get absorbed and are not being born. Our only evidence would then be a smaller litter size. Absorbed and stillborn kittens are very common in inbred litters. Were the "invisible" absorbed kittens the ones with the pectus? Would the two stillborn kittens in our litter have developed a kink tail at 5 months of age - who knows? -- Have we not brought in the new foundation line in order to get fresh blood into the breed -- only to end up in the same pattern that we are actually trying to get away from? It should also be mentioned that some foundation cat colonies already have a certain amount of inbreeding. They really should not be inbred anymore.

If a breeder wants to find out if the foundation cat carries a certain simple recessive gene he/she could breed that cat to a “known carrier” cat. In this case about 16 kittens would have to be produced to be about 99 % sure that the foundation cat does not carry this specific genetic fault. These kittens would NOT have to be inbred. We would then run into the problem with the affected gene pool. After our “16 kittens testing phase” is over, we will logically mix our new line with common show lines and integrate the fresh blood into the general gene pool. Since all purebred species are relatively inbred (line bred) already, many of them actually DO carry the same genetic defects. This means that the offspring of the "tested line" will be bred back into the affected gene pool and the problem will probably pop up again after two generations. Then what have we gained? Shall we perhaps go ahead and produce another 16 kittens with a known carrier at the next generation - and the next generation?

What about the "7 kitten method"? Some people say that test breedings would make more sense if one partner carries the undesirable gene homozygous. This cat then would only have to produce 7 kittens to be about 99 % sure that the other breeding partner is clear of this specific gene. Here is another question: If that cat carries the gene homozygous it would logically also display it (have the problem), right? Now if the genetic fault is severe, would we want to produce several litters with such cat just to find out if our new foundation cat carries the same gene? If - on the other hand- the genetic fault is not severe and we just want to find out about an undesirable beauty fault like lockets or a kink tails, then the 7 kitten method would surely have been useful - if - yes IF it wasn't for all those lovely polygenes!

Even though new foundation lines are thoroughly screened and tried out by a responsible foundation breeder, we cannot guarantee these lines to be free from genetic faults. As a matter of fact, no living being is free from genetic faults. People who like to start with "clean foundation stock" need to realize that there simply IS no clean foundation stock. All cats and all lines carry unwanted recessives. There are no clean lines and there are no perfect cats. If we would do inbreeding tests in our current show lines - followed by selection, how many cats would be left in our breeding programs? If we know the answer then why in the world would we even consider test breeding our foundation cats? It seems as if this method would be a step backwards - we would almost be trying to breed for the undesired instead of directly breeding for the DESIRED characteristics.

Here is another thought for people who still think they know their proven show lines and are only concerned about all the terrible faults a foundation cat might carry: Inbreeding tests with one parent being new foundation and the other parent a full pedigreed cat would give us no more evidence about the "cleanness" of our new line than it would give us evidence about the "cleanness" of our old line. Why? Because the recessive genes would have to be carried by both breeding partners, in order for them to be displayed in the offspring. In other words, if a problem pops up, the new line would not have brought anything undesirable into our breeding program that we don't already have.

Often breeders include one outcrossed cat into a cattery, consisting of an average of 5 to 15 or more cats with tightly bred pedigrees. This new outcross then has the task to balance out genetic defects that have manifested themselves over many years. It usually doesn't work that way. It takes time to breed away from things. We are deceiving ourselves if we think we can speed things up with inbreeding tests. If we do them anyhow, we can be almost certain that our inbreeding tests WILL bring us problems because our foundation cats do carry undesirable genes just like every other cat - no need to test breed! What do we do when we find out? Get everything spayed and neutered and start from scratch? And then if another problem arises in our next new line (which will most likely happen, and if it's only from all the inbreeding tests :-), shall we then discontinue that line also? Or do we keep the offspring for breeding and hide complications from others, just to offer them what they expect from us - "clean" foundation? Why inbreed to find out what everybody should expect regardless?

Summary: Defective recessive genes can only be eliminated to some extent, no matter if and no matter how many test breedings are being performed. This is true for ALL Maine Coon cats. Our hope is to bring in unrelated new blood lines and breed these to our common show lines. These cats can bring new problems into our old lines just as much as our old lines can give additional problems to our new foundation cats. However, problems with genetic faults can be minimized or even corrected over a few generations - as long as we stay away from inbreeding. A recessive gene can only become a problem if both parents carry the gene. The chances that two cats carry the same genes are much smaller if they are unrelated. If a problem arises, we can deal with it then and there. A combination of TOS (Testing for genetic diseases, Outcrossing and Selecting) is not the answer to all health concerns. Yet, outcrossing is definitely the most efficient way to reduce immune related problems. Outcrossing combined with testing and selecting is also to some extent an effective tool to fight problems with genetic diseases. Had we avoided to breed with a too limited gene pool from the beginning, we wouldn't have to pay for expensive HCM and HD tests today - simply because these problems would not exist to such an overwhelming extent. Many of us strive for good health, but we will never fully succeed in our goals and visions. Even with the best intentions, breeding will remain a gamble and a lot of work. We continue to pray and hope for the best. Though hope can be frail it springs eternally..........

It would be advisable to keep several males and females from the first litters or place some of them with close breeder friends. It is recommended to keep a boy as a back up for a girl you want to keep. Quite a few females are being lost to pyometra (infection of the uterus). However, if only one kitten has good quality, don't keep the others just to keep something from each litter. Re-breed the cat to a different male and see how they turn out.

Keeping close contact to the new owners of our babies is a must. We can find out if our kittens have become hardy and healthy adults with a good immune system and if they have developed a gentle, social and loving character. Pictures can be kept on file to evaluate how the type, coat and size has developed over the generations. If we place breeding cats after we are done with them, we can also ask the owners if they would agree to test them for HCM, PKD and HD at an older age - at the cost of our cattery.

Good question. This really depends on the situation. Some F1 and F2 cats get used more often than others. What comes into play here is the health history we have on them, how they fit into a group, whether they suffer as whole males or females or how they produce for instance. If an F2 girl makes nice babies and is a superb mother, it should be used with different partners to get a larger pool from such cat. We often don't get the parents spayed and neutered once they have given us offspring. This is the reason why it rather takes 5 to 8 years to work up a new line to fourth generation (F4). If the quality of the early foundation cats is only mediocre but has valuable attributes in regards to size or character we keep better offspring and might only use them once. If they are quite good looking and are happy breeders that produce nicely, we use them more often. I personally like to work with early generation cats for a period of time to find out more about them and to have more offspring available to fall back on at a later date. Often in early foundation litters there are only one or two kittens per litter that can be used for breeding.

If you think 8 month is early for your girls to come into heat, try 4 1/2 or 5 months with some foundation girls :-(. So, let's say you are trying to keep a pedigreed Maine Coon cat whole until age 10 or 12 months that comes into heat already at 8 months - you probably won't be able to keep a foundation cat unbred longer than 8 months at the most, if it already had it's first heat at 5 months. This can of course also happen with cats from common lines, but is rather the exception than the rule. Even though most breeders try hard to keep their girls unbred until they turn at least one year old, this is almost never possible with foundation cats.

Since we try to improve type in each generation, foundation breeders often have a different concept of breeding. Cats get bred early, have babies two or three times and retire early. Usually, foundation males mature much quicker than males from common pedigreed lines. The reason for early maturity in foundation cats could be that their natural instincts are still stronger. These instincts can get lost through too much inbreeding. Another reason for this early maturity is that often some of the ancestors of our foundation cats were shorthaired. Most shorthaired breeds are known to mature quicker than longhaired breeds. You will not find a lot of infertile females when working with foundation - as long as you breed them when they need to be bred. The males often just "look at them" and they find themselves pregnant. If you are reading this and are not a foundation breeder, try not to judge people who are giving you this information from experience. We have lost many new lines because we tried to hard to be "ethical breeders". Now we know that if we want to do foundation breeding properly, we sometimes need to apply different breeding techniques than with our regular Maine Coon cats - to BE good breeders.

If you don't own a gentle and competent teaser tom (a neutered male who breeds girls, but can't make them pregnant), you need to get these females bred at early age to prevent pyometra . It is up to each breeder's judgment what is the most reasonable thing to do for each situation. Yes, you could give the pill, just like in your pedigreed cats, but your new foundation cat is often irreplaceable and everything should be done to save its precious new line. Giving the pill at the wrong time (for example to suppress a heat)can cause pyometra as well by the way. When working with foundation, sometimes we need to let nature take it's course and forget about the things we have learned and things we *call* ethical. If their body is capable of going into heat, it will most likely also be ready to have kittens. Ask yourself the question what is better for a queen - to cycle herself to death or to have a healthy litter at young age? A young queen will probably have a small litter. We have seen many foundation cats raise their litters at early age with no problems whatsoever.

The Maine Coon breed is a natural breed. It is commonly believed that Maine Coons originated from Angora cats that were brought to the shores of North America and Canada by seamen - mated with Domestic long- or short haired cats - most of them plain *barn cats* - and nothing but. Longhaired cats that looked a certain way were collected by people and registered as Maine Coon cats. Or should we ask ourselves if God issues pedigrees?

Some people smile about the fact that most cats in our old pedigreed lines were actually not even found in Maine, but other states of America, which theoretically would make them rather Alley coons than Maine Coons. If we really go by the book and consider how many breeders in the early days have bred Persians or Abyssinians etc. into their lines, what does this tell us about the purity of our breed that we are so terribly proud of?

Domestic longhaired cats that have the traits of the Maine Coon breed are still allowed to be crossed into the gene pool. Be confident about your foundation cats. If a cat so resembles the breed and has registration papers, that is all that counts for now. It is very important to keep everything on file and in order. Pictures and information of each new cat and/or line will be of great benefit for future projects. Try to keep things very organized and try to stay honest and transparent in every way. The past has shown us that it never pays to cheat on pedigrees.

For people who work with early generations: When pet people come to your house and you feel insecure about looks of your kittens, offer them as buddies with your pedigreed kittens. Many people would like to buy two kittens but don't have the funds. Don't be shy to tell people about your program with foundation cats. Don't try to hide that you are bringing in cats that were found in the area. You will be surprised how many people will actually comment you for your work. The more you are open about what you are doing, the more people will become aware of the need of foundation work and the less people will judge you for creating a "mixed breed" -- you are not!! Tell them about your goals and they catch the fire. They will most likely love to support you in your efforts by taking babies from your foundation projects. Also, quite a few people don't care if the cat does not look perfect. What most people want is a loving and healthy pet with fluffy fur and reasonably good type. And if it looks kind of like a Coon cat and costs less, that's just great! They will be happy to get a registered cat for less money.

However, when the testing period is over and things are going well, do not let people intimidate you and try to tell you that your cats are not worth anything. As soon as a reasonable standard is achieved and a line has been worked with for a while, you can ask normal pet/breeder/show kitten price with confidence. The generation does not matter so much in your decision, but rather the quality of the kitten and how much work you have put into your project over the years. For example, a person who buys a kitten from an established foundation line and crosses the kitten with his/her own show lines should have no problem selling the offspring for regular price. The kittens aren't considered foundation project kittens at this stage.

Early foundation cats from new lines should be considered as projects only. It is not wise for foundation breeders to sell kittens to other breeders for money right from start. There are of course no strict guidelines how much work a foundation breeder has to put into a new line before the offspring is being sold on the public breeder market. Each person has it's own level of comfort ability with this issue. Also, some foundation cats can provide us with a better health and temperament history than others. A few litters of trial breeding can only show us very little when it comes to hidden recessives. These matings cannot guarantee us that there won't be any problems down the road. There are, however, a lot of things we can say about the cats and their lines if we evaluate them for a few years. Our observations will be good and bad - this is perfectly normal. There can be genetic things that show up in only 3 litters and people are thankful that we can give them the information in regards to possible genetic problems that they have to consider in their breeding decisions.

The trend has been recently to sell kittens from first time litters of a completely new line to breeders. Sometimes not enough time is spent on new lines. We say we guarantee our kittens. What exactly do we guarantee? What do we have to provide for information about a new line in regards to strengths and weaknesses if the parents were just obtained from a farm or shelter not too long ago? We call it working with foundation. Ought we not be the ones who should be working first of all? Other breeders deserve some information before they put out huge amounts of money, especially in a foreign currency. Otherwise we might just as well send them a cat directly from the humane society and be done with it. -- Good thing takes time folks. There are no short cuts. It should be mentioned here, however, that sometimes the health history of an F2 cat can be the same of even of greater value than the health history of an F cat, depending on how long a breeder has worked with an early generation line.

There is a difference if we share our new lines freely with other foundation breeder friends or if we sell them publicly on the breeder market. The difference is that when we trade, we send a cat out for trial. The other breeder offers his or her help to be our project extension. If the cat does not work out, it gets spayed and we are owed nothing. If it proves itself, we get something back. If, on the other hand, the kitten is being sold, it automatically becomes some sort of "merchandise", something we guarantee to be good. This is something, in my eyes, that cannot be done from first or second time litters of a brand new line. This kind of conduct could also give foundation breeders and foundation work in general a bad name. If we want people to obtain outcross from us, it is so important to maintain a high standard - and if it is only for the sake of the breed.

Here is one of my own experiences: One of our F2 girls had to have a C-Section in her first litter. Her mother did not need a C-Section in her two litters, her grandmother never had a C-Section. However, we didn't know much yet about the line of her father. We decided to re-breed this female once and see if she was OK the next time - otherwise she would have been spayed. But......before we wanted her children spreading in other peoples' breeding programs, we also waited for her daughters to have babies, in order to see if this is something that might be passed on. If it did pass on, then this line would have a problem with reproduction, which might be a too narrow birth canal. Had we had already sold kittens from this female on the public breeder market, and these girls would have had problems birthing, then we would have felt very bad that we did not wait.

When we talk about working with a new line, there are other factors besides health and temperament. We simply enjoy the pleasure to get to know something slowly. In this fast pace world where people want everything to succeed here and now, it is hard sometimes to just watch things grow and develop for a while. We like to run before we can walk. To "hide things in the shadow of our wings or under the wings of breeder friends" is definitely a protective behavior - and this is VERY GOOD! We want to be proud of what we have created. If we just let it go so soon, it does not really have the time to become part of us. Believe it or not, sentiments are also important when we make new lines. We include a part of ourselves into each and every kitten, it's like a piece of art that we work on. It's hard to explain. So, even if we can't finish the "project" by ourselves, even if we don't find out too many genetic faults in a line after two, three or four litters, we have poured our heart into it.

It will be exciting to see more and more people looking for outcross. We should be supportive towards them. Try not to develop an *us against them* attitude. Allow others to look for outcross even though they used to be against out crossing in the past. Remember how you started! After all, we are all in this together. A house divided in itself cannot stand. If you are a foundation breeder, people will need your lines. There is no need to hoard them but rather give freely to others and bless them. We hang on to cats and lines out of a feeling of protection and worry. These feelings are legitimate. But sometimes the real reason behind our or protectiveness is plain selfishness and greed. Being cautious with our lines is definitely a good thing in a sense that we don't want to throw pearls before swines, but it can also be to the point of being silly. Conditions in our contract are important but control in breeding agreements can also be overdone. If we work with new lines we have to learn to let go.

Be on guard when selling to other breeders. Don't get tickled when well known breeders show interest in your lines. Don't bend the rules for important people. Another thing to be aware of is that, in Europe especially, it is slowly becoming a trend to have at least one cat with foundation. Sometimes the motives are not to help the breed but to make money with rare lines. The black market is growing immensely. Watch out for people who see foundation cats as a market niche. Be very careful whom you trust with your lines. Build relationships with people and in the meanwhile test their motives. If they come to you saying they have NO problems in their breeding program at all but want to buy foundation, there is usually something fishy. Transparency is crucial if people start out crossing. Very few people can destroy your work in no time. This is why it is so important to only sell to breeders you can trust. If there are only a few of your cats in the gene pool, a line can be terminated very easily if the wrong cats get crossed in and then all the hard work was in vain. Imagine that.......

Try to release more cats into the gene pool than you think is necessary. In the past, a new line hardly ever used to make it into the general gene pool. Often lines got lost before they could be of use to the breed as a whole. This is changing now as people are slowly adapting to a new philosophy in breeding. Make sure the new foundation line gets bred to many different other lines before you get your early generation cats spayed and neutered. We shouldn't be afraid to flood the gene pool yet for a long time. It's better not to retire cats from breeding until we know for sure that there are enough cats out there breeding and until enough reliable offspring has been produced. Don't let people pressure you into giving them exclusive breeding rights on lines or breeding cats. Placing only one cat of your new line in one country will fulfill exactly ONE purpose and that is to enable that particular purchaser to make money on your expense. People who are concerned that too many foundation cats of one particular line enter their country are often in reality only concerned about being the only ones in the area who can provide others with that specific line. Chose the people you work with by our own ethical values instead of geographic origin. There are hundreds and thousands of cats out there that desperately need to be outcrossed. There aren't enough breeders yet to provide the outcross that is needed. The foundation cat ads one more ancestor to their gene pool - a gene pool that has doubled up on ancestors hundreds of times in the past. Breeding cats is a hobby and not a business!

If breeders don't share the values that are important to you, don't sign a contract with them. Too many headaches on the line. I personally prefer to sell my kittens to show breeders before selling them to other outcross breeders. Foundation cats are rare and there is a bigger need for outcross in show breeder circles than in outcross breeder circles. I want my cats to be used mainly to freshen up the existing lines in our breed.

The first years of foundation breeding might not be a feast but will for sure be a famine. But a new foundation line will eventually experience a break through where more consistency in type, size and coat is reached. I have worked with a lot of foundation lines and cats over the past years and have finally experienced such a breakthrough with some of these new lines. I can tell you it felt like such a release! I presently still work with some early generation cats and probably will continue to do so until the associations close the doors on us. Some of the new foundation projects are pictured in this article. They have become a new adventure with a vision that gets constantly revised - probably another story down the road......

The nice thing in breeding is that we as breeders and also our beloved breed can greatly benefit from changed views and attitudes. Fact is that we will never stop learning new theories. We will then respectively adjust our breeding programs to those newly learned theories. this is ESPECIALLY so important in foundation breeding. Some people might see this trait as "changing like the wind" or "we say one thing on one day and another thing the next day". In reality in breeding we must be flexible and keep an open mind always or we will become rigid and unproductive. The minute we think we know it all we find out we know nothing.

Sometimes our vision is the only thing that keeps us going. In those times we try to be thankful for what we have, forget about the things we lose along the way and move on. It is important not to lose focus during our times of burden and not to forget why we are doing this. It is to bring new life and strength to the Maine Coon breed. It CAN be to raise kittens for pure pleasure - so we can truly call it "the joy of foundation breeding."

Thank you Phyllis (Kumskaka/Praylyne Cattery) for all your help, love and support over the years. Thank you for getting me hocked on this thing called foundation breeding. If anybody knows the joys and hardships of working with new lines, it's you! Thank you Donna (Thunderpaws Cattery) for your transparency, your extended trust and for your ability to always keep a positive attitude. Thank you Sandy (Cooneyisle Cattery) for your correctness and integrity. You have a deep love for our breed. I miss working with you so much! Thank you Mary Jayne (Franmar Cattery) for getting me started here in Canada and teaching me so much about the good old Tati-Tan lines. Thank you Julie (Koontucky Cattery) for your wonderful humor and diplomacy. You have an incredible knowledge when it comes to breeding and feline medical care. Thank you Ulrika (Ylletrollets) for helping me judge my new lines and for your assistance in some of my writings. Thank you for your awesome database!! Thank you all for your wisdom, expertise and friendship. I couldn't do this without you guys!