Keeping a stud cat

The decision to keep a cat at stud should not be taken lightly. It is not for the beginner. Stud work is not easy; some queens can be extremely difficult to mate and supervising such matings can take a great deal of time and patience. If your cat is at public stud you will have the additional responsibility of looking after other people's cats.

Stud fees may seem expensive, however, if you buy your own stud, provide him with suitable quarters, heating, lighting, food, vaccinations and blood tests and then add up the cost, you will realise that stud keeping is an expensive exercise.

Before deciding to keep a stud, you must consider whether he will have enough work with just your own queens or whether you will accept outside queens; some studs are happy with very little work provided they have plenty of human company, but others are unhappy if they do not have regular work. A stud who does not get many queens to mate may become difficult to handle or may be very noisy and upset your neighbours. Studs of the more popular breeds will usually get more work than those of the more obscure breeds or colours, but the presence of other studs in the neighbourhood should also be considered; if your cat's Grand Champion sire lives only twenty miles away, your stud is unlikely to get much work if he is the same colour.

A stud cat can sire a large number of kittens, so it is important to ensure, as far as possible, that he is:

of good temperament
a good example of his breed, conforming well to the Standard of points, with no physical abnormalities ('veterinary defects'). A cat at public stud may not get much work unless he is successful on the show bench and, in any case, it does not help a breed if poor quality cats are bred from.
correctly bred, according to the Registration Policy for his breed
registered on the 'Active Register' with GCCF or, in the case of FIFe , not endorsed 'not for breeding'. Kittens sired by cats on the Non-Active Register, or who are endorsed 'not for breeding' cannot be registered.
as healthy as possible: do not be tempted to keep the smallest kitten just because he is of good 'type'.
free from hereditary defects: if there is a known hereditary breed problem for which it is possible to test, your cat should be tested as early as possible and certainly before he sires a litter. At present there are relatively few such tests available, but Korats should be tested for GM1/GM2 gangliosidosis, white cats of any breed should be tested for deafness and a cat of any breed in which Polycystic Kidney Disease is found should be scanned under the FAB/PKD scheme. Learn as much as possible about the other cats in the pedigree and their litter-mates. If, for instance, the sire has sired monorchid kittens there is a risk that your kitten will pass on this defect.

Before a cat can be used at stud he must have an official certificate of entirety; a veterinary surgeon must examine the cat, to make certain that he has two normal testicles, fully descended into the scrotum, and then complete a form which you will need to get from the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy Office. Without this certificate, none of his kittens can be registered.

As well as studying potential hereditary problems, you should also learn about coat and colour genetics. If you have a cat at public stud you will be expected to know what he could sire to any particular queen; in some cases this may be quite simple - Russian Blue mated to Russian Blue very rarely produces anything other than Russian Blue - but in the case of Asians or Orientals, with hundreds of different colour and pattern combinations available, it can be very complicated.

Other people keep cats at stud purely for use on their own queens. The breeder may wish to:

Stud cats will usually require their own accommodation as active males have a natural instinct to spray their territory with extremely strong smelling urine. As the stud may spend his entire life in the accommodation provided, it must be made as pleasant, interesting and comfortable as possible.

Stud accommodation varies from a converted room in the owner's house to purpose-built stud quarters in the garden. Each design must suit the individual circumstances but must provide adequate facilities. If an existing room or outbuilding is being converted, the size and site are fixed but the internal design can be altered. If a stud house is being built it should be planned in advance to be as near the ideal as possible. The accommodation must be designed to provide safety from injury and escape, and the entire premises must be constructed to facilitate meticulous cleaning.

The majority of cats at public stud are kept in their own separate stud house in the owner's garden.

where it is easy for you to observe. The cat will be happier if he can see you and converse with you when you are working in the house or garden.
within easy access; you will have to visit the stud at all hours and in any weather.
to gain maximum benefit from the sun, but be shaded at the height of the summer and have protection from the prevailing winds.
ideally with windows facing south-east or south-west; the view from them should be as interesting as possible to help relieve the boredom when the stud is alone.
far enough from other cat accommodation to be isolated; if a visiting queen introduces infection, this infection must be confined to the stud and not transmitted to your other cats.

be connected to the main electricity supply as this provides the best and safest form of lighting and heating.
be well lit. Matings will often take place in the evening and the stud and visiting queens must be checked last thing at night. If the lighting is inadequate it will not only be difficult to supervise the cats, but impossible to clean the quarters properly. The run should also be lit and it is helpful too if the pathway is lit to make visiting at night easier and safer.
be kept at a thermostatically controlled temperature, using safe electric heaters placed so the cats cannot injure themselves. The temperature will depend on the breed: Longhairs and British usually require a lower overall temperature but some like a warm spot in which to bask occasionally; Orientals and Siamese, however, usually prefer a higher ambient temperature, again with somewhere to bask. However, all cats are individuals and the temperature should be adjusted to suit their preferences and those of the visiting queens. All electric fittings must be inspected regularly to ensure that they are safe and not a fire hazard.
have good ventilation to minimise the risk of disease and to reduce stud odour. Fixed ventilators or extractor fans may be used; the windows may be made to open by varied amounts depending on the weather.
ideally be connected to a water supply to facilitate cleaning.
have good drainage for efficient cleaning of the outside run without soiling the surrounding ground.

A stud house should be at least 7' x 5' and must be high enough for people to walk in comfortably. However, a larger house is desirable in order to provide a comfortable exercise area indoors as well as out, but it must be remembered that the bigger the house, the higher the heating bills!

Many cat-house manufacturers specialise in the planning, construction and fitting of cat and stud accommodation. If you wish to design and build the accommodation yourself, you will find full details of design, construction and materials in the FAB Boarding Cattery Manual.

A cat in an outdoor stud house must have a run in which to take exercise and view the outside world; the size will depend on the space available but it must give ample room for the stud to exercise.

If possible, plant Buddleias near to the stud run so that the stud can watch the butterflies they attract; pruning the bushes at different times will help to spread the flowering season. Flowering climbers such as Clematis can be planted to climb over the run, but avoid vigorous climbers as they may pull the structure down.

a non-slip floor or be provided with a heavy mat so that the stud has a firm foothold when mating.
shelves of varying heights, ladders and scratching posts in both the stud house and the run, to provide interest and exercise. The shelves in the stud house must be wide enough for the stud to jump on to to get away from the queen after mating, with rounded corners to prevent injury, and be at a suitable height.
separate quarters for a visiting queen, big enough to provide a sleeping area and space for litter tray and feeding dishes as well as room to stretch; the queen should be able to see and smell the stud, but there should be some solid wall for her to hide behind if she wishes. A 3' high pen built within the stud house will provide adequate accommodation for a short stay and the pen roof will provide an extra shelf. A large house may be sub-divided to give a full height compartment if preferred whereas if a stud has few outside queens a folding kitten pen will be adequate.

As you will need to spend much time with the stud, a comfortable chair in the stud house is very useful but, as it will almost certainly be sprayed on, it must be easy to clean and disinfect. Many stud owners also install a radio, or even a TV for themselves and for the stud, but this must be positioned out of spraying reach. An intercom can be very useful so that the stud owner can hear and talk to the stud. Video cameras can also be used to keep watch on the stud; these are particularly useful for those studs who refuse to mate their queens while being watched. Again, all fittings must be out of spraying reach.

The safety of the stud and visiting queens from disease, injury or escape is of prime importance. If the garden is visited by neighbouring cats, it is advisable to install a second fence around the stud's run, with at least a 60cm gap between the two, to minimise the risk of disease spread from these cats to the stud, or to cover the outside of the run with solid transparent plastic up to about 4'. It is also necessary to prevent visiting cats from getting access to the roof of the run: quite apart from the disease risk, their presence will often annoy a stud cat.

It is essential to provide an escape run through which the stud house is entered, to make certain that neither stud or queen can slip through and escape when you enter.

The stud house, queen's quarters and run must all be inspected regularly; there must be no sharp corners, protruding nails or splinters on which the cats could injure themselves. It is equally important to check that all hinges, bolts, hooks or other closures are secure and in good condition, that all woodwork is sound and that all wire is in good condition and firmly fastened in place. Repairs must never be put off; a door or window that can come open in a high wind may allow a cat to escape into the run and a terrified cat can force apart a weak spot in the wire and escape. A visiting queen, especially, may then be impossible to catch.

The stud house and queen's pen must be easy to clean and disinfect; any torn flooring or coving must be replaced immediately. Separate cleaning equipment should be used to reduce the risk of disease spread; a hand-held vacuum cleaner is useful to remove loose hairs and cat litter from shelves before disinfection. Many studs like to mark their territory liberally: with such studs is it often more practical to keep the house tidy and basically clean every day, restricting the full scrubbing and disinfecting to once a week, as well as when a visiting queen is expected and immediately after she has left. The stud will then spray his favourite spots until he is happy with the results.

The run should also be easy to clean and disinfect, especially if visiting queens have access to it. A grass run with bushes, although more interesting for the stud, should only be used if he has no visiting queens.

All equipment must be easy to clean; disposable dishes and litter trays may be preferred, especially for visiting queens. If visiting queens are accepted, all items from the stud house should be cleaned separately from items used by other cats in order to minimise potential spread of disease. The stud's bed must be easy to wash, but many studs are not content until they have marked their bedding with urine and some appear to prefer the bed saturated; when presented with a clean one they will spray it liberally until they are satisfied and then settle down happily in the middle of the stinking soggy mess.

It is essential that the queen has a clean bed and, if the stud house itself is well heated, or overhead heating is provided, it is often better to use a cardboard box which can be discarded when the queen leaves; if a heated bed is used it must be easy to clean and disinfect. The queen may be given the blanket from her travelling box so that she has something familiar in her strange surroundings.

The stud must be in perfect health and if there is any doubt about this, all visiting queens must be refused; a cat which is slightly off colour may become sick while the visiting queen is present. A mild conjunctivitis may be passed on to the queen or may prove to be the first sign of a respiratory infection. A slight loose motion may be purely dietary but may turn out to be an enteric infection. The stud must also be wormed regularly and must, of course, be free of fleas, ear mites and ringworm.

He should be vaccinated regularly against feline infectious enteritis, (FIE or panleucopenia), respiratory virus infections and feline leukaemia (FeLV). It is also possible to vaccinate him against Chlamydophila disease. He should also be blood tested regularly for feline leukaemia and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV). His certificates should be available for inspection by the queen's owner.

Visiting queens should also be vaccinated up-to-date against FIE and respiratory viruses; some stud owners also require vaccinations against FeLV, but this should not be considered a substitute for testing. All boosters should have been done at least a week before the queen goes to stud, to minimise the stress and to ensure good protection, but some stud owners insist on a longer period. Most stud owners insists that visiting queens are blood tested for FeLV and FIV within the 24 hours before visiting the stud but these requirements vary; some accept tests up to a week before the visit, especially in areas where tests are more difficult to obtain.

Owners of visiting queens should always be told in advance what vaccinations and tests are required and should also be warned that the queen cannot be accepted unless she is in perfect health. Before being allowed near the stud's quarters, the visiting queen must first be examined thoroughly and all of her vaccination and test certificates should be checked. She should have clean ears, eyes, nose and rear end, and a clean coat with no sign of fleas, scabs or bald patches. If you have any doubts about her health you should refuse her, explaining that this is for the benefit of both stud and queen.

If any of your cats have had any infectious disease within the past month it is most unwise to accept any visiting queens, since some infection could be lingering and could be transmitted to the visitor, despite all efforts at isolation. Similarly, if the owner of the queen has had any infection in her cats within that period, the queen should be refused. Explain that a queen going to stud is under stress and that such stress could be enough to reveal a latent infection.

In addition to the vaccination and test certificates, a stud owner should also inspect the pedigree and registration papers of all visiting queens. These should show that the queen is registered on the Active register or not endorsed 'not for breeding', that her breeding conforms to the Registration Policy for her breed and that she is owned by the person who is bringing her to stud.

Any discrepancies in the paperwork should be discussed thoroughly with the queen's owner, and preferably confirmed in writing, before the queen is accepted for mating. A pet owner may wish to breed from a cat which has not been sold for breeding, purely to keep a kitten and give the rest of the litter to friends, but they should be made aware that the cat could have been placed on the Non-Active Register for very good reasons, such as genetic abnormalities in the litter-mates. A stud owner should, therefore, not accept such a queen for mating.

Full details of the queen should be written down as these will be required for the mating certificate. It is also advisable to keep a copy of the queen's pedigree: this will assist the stud owner to advise the queen's owner what colours and patterns of kittens may be expected.

Any terms and conditions attached to the mating must also be agreed in writing before the queen is accepted. The queen's owner must be told the stud fee for the mating and made aware that this does not guarantee that kittens will be produced, although most stud owners will offer a free return mating if no kittens are conceived.

When the queen is collected, her owner must be given a properly completed mating certificate and a copy of the stud's pedigree with all registration numbers and breed numbers.

Assuming that all is in order, the queen will be taken to the unit in her container. Never carry a queen in your arms and never permit the owner to do so. If the owner does not take it home, the queen's container should be kept away from the stud and from your other cats.

The stud should be restrained or shut out into his run while the queen is secured in her pen. Settling in times vary greatly; a maiden queen may not stir from her bed for up to eight hours, while an experienced one may do her best to seduce the stud within a few minutes. Some maiden queens may go off call for several days, especially if they are nervous. Great care is necessary in all instances, and normal practice is to mate a maiden queen with an experienced stud, or a mature and experienced queen with a young stud. It is not advisable to put two inexperienced cats together.

Once the queen has ventured to the dividing wire and begins 'crooning' to the stud and he is making little 'chirruping' sounds back, the stud owner should open the pen door so that the queen can join him in his quarters, or he join her in hers. An experienced stud will watch the queen carefully and usually wait for her to make the first approaches; should this be her first mating she will probably want to sniff around the stud's quarters before showing much interest in him. Having satisfied herself that all is well, she will then allow him to approach her.

It is essential for the stud owner to remain in attendance during mating as, even with a pair of experienced cats, foreplay, mating and separation can at times be quite violent. One of the reasons why the height and siting of the shelves is of utmost importance is because a queen after mating will turn and scratch the stud, so he must be able to jump up and get away from her. Following a successful mating, the queen may be returned to her unit - but only after she has passed the voluptuous rolling over stage that follows mating. To handle her too soon is to risk a nasty bite or scratch. The stud owner must keep complete records of all matings.

Although some stud owners will place a queen directly into a stud house, with no separate queen's quarters, this poses a risk to both queen and stud. A queen who is not ready to mate may attack the stud and cause serious damage before the cats can be separated - often at risk of severe injury to the stud owner. A stud who is rebuffed by a queen or simply does not fancy her may attack her instead of trying to mate her. As it is a stud owner's responsibility to minimise the risk of damage to both the stud cat and to visiting queens, separate queen's quarters should always be provided.

While there is no definite rule, most owners would expect to keep the queen at stud for three or four days. Whatever the period, the need for several consecutive matings is very important to ensure ovulation and conception. Once there have been at least three supervised matings, some stud owners will allow the stud and queen to run together, mating at will; although this will give the optimum chance of conception, whether or not it is permitted will depend on the temperament of the queen and stud and the wishes of both owners, since there is obviously a greater risk of damage to both cats. A few studs will refuse to mate queens while they are being watched; the stud owner can sometimes watch from a distance if there is sufficient window space, can listen from outside or even over an intercom, or can even watch via a video camera, but the queen's owner must be warned in advance that the matings will not be supervised.

Where a queen has had to travel a considerable distance, some stud owners may board her until it is clear that she is pregnant, provided that they have a spare house and run in which to keep her. Much depends on the temperament of the queen - a nervous cat may become more so if away from her owner for too long. Many queens are reluctant to eat when they first go to stud; you should ensure that they are offered the food that they are used to, which may not be what you keep for your own cats, but if this fails, entice them with delicacies. Every cat is different and must be treated accordingly. Successful handling of cats is an acquired art so that keeping a stud should not be embarked on without full knowledge of all it entails.

A cat who does not have visiting queens may not require such elaborate stud quarters. Indeed, if he is a youngster who is only being kept entire long enough to sire one or two litters, he may be able to live indoors as a pet with the other cats, although there is a risk that he may well mate a queen other than his intended spouse: cats are not averse to incest! Most studs do start to spray when they become adult and then require their own quarters, whether indoors or outside in a stud house, but a very few never learn this habit and may live indoors happily as part of the family.

Many studs who live outside are happier with feline company and live with a neuter except when they are actually mating a queen. Even cats which are at public stud may have a neuter for company if they do not have many visiting queens, but the companion must be removed to a separate house when a visitor does arrive.

Before keeping a stud you must consider what you will do when he is no longer required at stud.

Cats which are only kept at stud for a short period will usually settle happily in the household as pets after they have been neutered, especially if they have never had to live in their own separate quarters. However, studs who have lived in their own stud house for a while can become very territorial and some, despite being neutered, will never settle back into the household. If they are fairly young, some of these will settle if they are rehomed where there are no other cats, but some older studs may never be completely happy if they are removed from the premises in which they feel secure.

As it is often necessary to find a replacement stud before the original stud dies of old age, this can mean an increasing number of stud houses as time goes by.