SBEN Breeders Section

CHARTS & SURVEYS

Socialization of the Sphynx Cat

by Judy Webb Gunby

Available research on feline socialization has been based mostly on randomly bred cats in feral and other research colonies, but not in purebred catteries. The cattery feline, being a breed cat, is already predisposed genetically to the behavior that fits its standard. There-fore, we already know there is a genetic component in felines that influences just how well that particular kitten will be able to be socialized, and to what degree.

Human genetics has taught us much about the subject of genetic influences of behavior, particularly through studies of identical twins separated at birth. Science has shown similarities that are simply too close to write off as coincidence in these cases, such as personal preferences with regard to hair styles, commercial products used, and even career choices. These similarities reach beyond physical sameness, and show us much with regards to genetic influences. So, understanding genetic influence, we can look towards the breed cat falling into a type of category yet to be clearly defined. Surely they are not all related, but share very similar physical and behavioral characteristics. So just how much of the breed cat behavior is due to a combination of genetics, and how much is a reflection of socializa-tion. I think it is a combination of both.

In June of 2007, I attended the Winn Feline Foundation’s 29th Annual Feline Symposium on Feline Health, in Austin, Texas. Among the topics of discussion was the socialization of kittens. Before attending this conference, I was not aware that there are only a few critical weeks with which to socialize kittens. So it was no surprise that the most important thing I brought home with me from this conference was the fact that from 3-9 weeks of a kitten’s age, human contact and handling is critical to proper socialization of the feline. Every breeder should understand the various stages kittens go through during their early development from birth to 14 weeks of age. The following guideline will show just what the kitten experiences during this time

3 weeks ......... acknowledges handling by humans, showing awareness in the gaze and attention to the human voice.

4 weeks ......... social play with littermates begins

5 weeks ......... predatory-type behavior begins, like pouncing, and crouching

6 weeks ......... object and gross motor skills become more fine-tuned.

6-7 weeks ...... adult–like movement or locomotion begins

9-14 weeks .... social play peaks.

14-16 weeks .. aggressive play begins, which can include biting and scratching fellow littermates.

Although the former appears to be a simple guide, I have found it to be a very accurate measure of the stages of kitten development in the cases of most all my kittens. Interactions with humans, littermates, and with the queen, are extremely important to kittens. Also, the owner’s personal relationship with the queen is extremely important, as the kittens see reactions of their mother to human contact, and sense her anxiety, as well as her contentment. If the queen is relaxed and has a feeling of comfort and love, then the kittens will usually follow her lead.

One should always keep in mind that socialization is not about play, rather about learning what it is to be a cat, and what it is to be a cat in a human home. In that home they will learn about other species – dogs, birds, other adult cats, and the world around them. All this is learned in a very short time period. Therefore, it is important to appreciate why the time frame between 3-9 weeks of age is critical for proper socialization.

When does a kitten become a kitten?

From the time of conception until birth (approx. 63 days), enormous changes take place very rapidly in the fetus. Trimesters of pregnancy that humans experience as 3 months, are accomplished in merely 3 weeks for kittens. Kittens are born with eyes closed, weighing only approximately 3% of their adult body weight, which they will achieve in around 8-10 months.

Kittens are born with an acute sense of touch and smell, but poor hearing for the first week of life. However, by the time a kitten reaches 3 weeks of age, she becomes keenly aware of her surroundings, as both her ability to see and hear now play a major role in her developing behavior. “Overall, visual acuity improves 16-fold between two and 10 weeks after birth,” according to Patrick Bateson, Professor of Animal Behavior at the University of Cambridge. This may account for it being crucial to feline development to have integrated all learning experiences during this time period with human interaction and tactile contact for proper socialization. Each kitten’s impression of security, love, and attachment to humans during this time will remain with the kitten for life and are vitally important to her social development.

How should I play with my kittens?

Kittens should be taught that hands are not for playing, but for holding, petting, and feeding. In my opinion, this is one of the biggest mistakes people make, as it encourages mouthing of fingers, and even playful biting. And, as the kittens grow and start teething, using objects like plastic straws, and various cat toys that are safe enough for them to have, gives them a good opportunity to chew on their prize when they capture it in play!

Does the mother affect the ability of the kittens to become socialized?

I have always held to the ideology that cats are territorial when they feel it is appropriate, fearful when they feel it necessary, and antisocial when they have not been properly socialized. In my experience, a well socialized queen will be more likely to produce well socialized kittens. If a queen is secure in her kittening area, and she feels her environment is not threatening, the kittens will feed off this condition. If your queen has issues with any of the above, is nervous, or feels threatened, it may be useful for the experienced breeder to breed two queens at once, so you can remove the kittens from the problem queen over to the well socialized one. A queen that has not been properly socialized from birth may resort to behaviors that are not entirely her fault, taking into account of course, that some cats just sing to their own tune no matter what you do or don’t do. The most extreme behavior I have heard of is when a queen eats her young. While this behavior is unthinkable to humans, it can be a primitive way of protection from the unknown. Any queen that exhibits this behavior should be spayed and placed in a pet home unless a breeder is willing to hand-feed the young, or transfer their care to another, more socialized, queen. The question of genetic influence in these cases is an unknown. Aside from whether a breeder feels behavior may or may not be inherited, a diligent breeder should do all she can do to socialize her kittens. Ultimately, the life, welfare, and future happiness of each individual kitten in a litter lies in the hands of the breeder, and not the queen. Every breeder should know her queen well enough to make decisions based on what is best for everyone concerned.

Each situation calls for a fresh view. You certainly cannot presume one thing will happen just because it happened before, or that a litter out of one queen will produce the same results every time. But you do have some control over the miraculously developing personalities in each litter. After all, even when misbehaving, a generally well-tempered, loving Sphynx is irresistible!!!

Sources: Patrick Bateson is Professor in the Sub-Department of Animal Behaviour at the University of Cambridge, and Provost of King's College, Cambridge. His books include Measuring Behaviour (1986 and 1993) and Design for Life, Mate Choice (1983) and Development and Integration of Behavior (1991).

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Feline Color: The Albino Series

by Paul Patton

No matter what name we give to these colors, i.e. pointed, Burmese, mink, sepia, etc, they are all created by one series of alleles and that series is the Albino.

This series of five alleles, located at a single locus*, includes: 'C' which is dominant and produces the full expression of coat color; 'cb' which produces the Burmese colors and is co-dominant with the Siamese and dominant to the remaining alleles; 'cs' which produces the Siamese colors and is co-dominant with the Burmese allele and dominant to the remaining alleles; 'ca' which pro-duces a blue-eyed albino which is recessive to the prior alleles and dominant to the final allele; and 'c' which produces the true pink-eyed albino which is recessive to all the alleles.

(Author's Note: I have left the 'ca' and 'c' alleles out of the color breeding charts below. *In the fields of genetics, a locus (plural loci) is a fixed position on a chromosome that may be occupied by one or more genes. A variant of the DNA sequence at a given locus is called an allele.)

When combining the alleles:

cbcb – Sepia or Burmese colors; cbcs – Mink or Tonkinese colors; cscs – Pointed or Siamese colors. Also, as one has to distinguish between the normal solid color and the solid Burmese colors, the term Sepia is used to distinguish the solid Bur-mese colors. The chart below just refers to the pattern designation, but applies to ALL colors.
The are some differences between registry bodies concerning the naming of the particular color and pattern combina-tions, so one has to be knowledgeable in the naming protocol for their particular organization. As an example Sable is used by CFA to designate B-cbcb D- and TICA describes the color/as Seal Sepia.

cbcb – Sepia or Burmese colors; cbcs – Mink or Tonkinese colors; cscs – Pointed or Siamese colors. Also, as one has to distinguish between the normal solid color and the solid Burmese colors, the term Sepia is used to distinguish the solid Bur-mese colors. The chart below just refers to the pattern designation, but applies to ALL colors.
The are some differences between registry bodies concerning the naming of the particular color and pattern combina-tions, so one has to be knowledgeable in the naming protocol for their particular organization. As an example Sable is used by CFA to designate B-cbcb D- and TICA describes the color/as Seal Sepia.



One other quick note: since these alleles occupy the same loci, you cannot have a cat that carries mink. Simply because mink requires both the cb and the cs and both cannot be carried recessively.

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In Living Color

by Mary Perfitt-Nelson

We are all posing artists. We yearn to create living wonder; ineffable beauty; extraordinary features that leave us mesmerized and in awe. We want to be moved by the cats we help bring into the world.
We each have our preferences. Brightly painted, non-thermal (self-involved) calicos and lumbering, colossal-headed males covered in wrinkles bring me to my knees. Most of us are “all elbows” with a paintbrush, but it sure enriches our lives to be part of creating moving, breathing art.
What are we looking for when we examine the litters we helped create? Who stays and who is fortunate to escape the life of a Queen or Sire? Does our focus change over time? It should.
Growth requires change and flat learning curves are to be avoided in life, generally. Without the experience to know what you are looking at, novice breeders may often lean toward the concrete and well-defined: color and pattern. What you see is what you get and the descriptions are carefully written everywhere.
Black is, well…black. Experienced breeders don’t necessarily have a monopoly on knowledge, but they are increasingly precise in articulating what they are after. They know what they want and the desire goes well-beyond color, spending the majority of their breeding career virtually obsessing on everything BUT color. They’d happily tell you about it if you have an hour or so.

Compared to color, other factors on breed standards are nebulous. The words paint impressionistic, blurry pictures. Interpretation is subjectively left to the beholder. Exactly what is: “slight to moderate?” What is weight that is “surprising?” Those unable to moderate their own lives are looking for obvious 90 degree angles. Others may be convinced they have moderate when, after a couple of glasses of wine, thought they felt some kind of bump on the nose bridge of their prize cat. If the ride down the bridge is short, it doesn’t matter, I say!

Einstein said: “That’s relativity” meaning your views depend on who you are and the glasses you wear. We will never understand more than our experience dictates. Our first kits most certainly had surprising weight and a slight to moderate stop. It wasn’t until we were four years in that we realized what some of these terms really meant. Bring in solid genetics and lots of luck and experience becomes an invaluable, irreplaceable way to truly know what it means to be surprised by weight!

Color is worth nothing in the standards of the majority of major cat associations or, at max, 2% of overall points. Small potatoes. And eye color isn’t even afforded an honorable mention! Yet one cruise through the lists and web-sites and ye will find that color is quite often given an im-pressive amount of attention…emphasis on often. And people are willing to pay through the nose for the right eye color.

Most of us have had a fetish of one kind or another. I still get excited when a calico comes through the birthing canal. I was subconsciously brainwashed by the first kit born in my home and am willingly enslaved.
Breeders also appear willing to charge more for certain colors/patterns and eyes. The same version of supply and demand that caused the US credit crisis mind you. Young, naïve and enthusiastic breeders willing to give a kidney for blue eyes (and sometimes very poor type) with breeding rights to keep the frivolous merry-go-round twirling. They might even pay thousands with a kitten back to prolong the shenanigans.
The truth is; focusing on color is a sphynx breeder’s faux pas. New breeders learn through trial and error (usually through a rogue post) that it isn’t en vogue to breed for color. It is shunned... whispered about in closed circles, and those with personal preferences learn to keep them to themselves or risk a scarlet “C” stamped on their forehead.
Why is it that skin or eye color is considered more su-perficial than any other superficial trait? Tall ears? Massive paws? Wrinkles? It’s all the same shallow bag of marbles, isn’t it?
Life is life………why would we place value on one superficial trait over another. And can’t we get “type” with a blue-eyed cat? Certainly; but plan on several years and multiple generations to get there, if ever.

The reason for this focus away from color is simple: our breed is in its infancy and our cats come in every possi-ble color. The paint is irrelevant. Focusing on color and pattern can rob attention that should be allocated for more important things, like:

• Health. Blue eyes don’t look vibrant on a cat with a weak immune system.
  
• Temperament. A calico that can’t be touched is a cat you can’t handle. And they pass this on.
  
• Or ears. All associations give premium points to ears correctly placed and optimally tall and wide. A lovely color with funky ears makes you squeamishly dizzy.
  
• Profile/Head and Body eye color can be related to length/width of head and profile and overall body shape. Can you say Siamese?

Working through our growing pains, we must get cohesive about type while simultaneously keeping the breed physically viable through stellar immune systems and agreeable temperaments to match. That is where the focus needs to be. We mustn’t get distracted by anything else. We specialize in Sphynx, not color. We are a head and skin breed. And judges are color blind, hopefully. We should be, too.

If you focus on anything but temperament and health, you too may be lured into a trap wherein you may compromise what is important for what is not. And it may cost you a purrty penny, too. Passing up a perfect match for your family to get a specific sex or color or pattern won’t be wise in the long haul. I secretly prayed for a kid with red hair, but certainly love my toe-headed offspring no less because they failed to inherit the right genes! Sure we have our favorite colors, but harmony in the home and cattery trumps any paint job.

Building a breeding program and choosing cats is akin to building or buying a house. Before you start hunting, be sure you know your priorities. Realtors would caution you not to be fooled by a pretty shade of paint if the house is built of cards. Check the furnace. Check the roof. Make sure you won’t need to rewire and that there are no leaks. You might take a lesson from the three little pigs that learned the hard way that building a house out of straw was a costly, dead-end road. Once they were able to get the foundation right, they undoubtedly painted their curly tails off in fabulous shades of calico without worrying about the big bad wolf.

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