British Shorthairs

Ridgeview
Cattery

Scottish Folds

Who are we?

Ridgeview came about due to my love for British Shorthairs and Scottish Folds. I have always been extremely interested in animal genetics and grew up on farms with many animals, I was born and raised vegetarian due to my families love and respect of animals. I have never eaten meat to this day and animal health and wellbeing is my passion. I fell in love with British Shorthairs and I have studied their history, genetics and type for a long time and finally decided to register a cattery. The prefix Ridgeview was chosen as we live on a large Ridge with beautiful views. I am a small hobby based registered breeder that only has kittens available occasionally as when I breed a litter it is in the hope to breed a show quality kitten to show and carry on the linage. Any kittens I have that I don't keep are often sold or given to family and friends in the same hobby as I am in. I sometimes have kittens available but don't have a waiting list as I simple don't breed enough kittens to need it.

Having close friends in the Veterinary industry in the past has helped me enormously learning about feline genetics and colour inheritances, blood groupings and blood incompatibilities etc, The variety of colours, being dominant or recessive and different traits has given me a wonderful insight and knowledge as to what we are breeding and aiming to breed. Not only this but also the enormous amount of diseases specific to felines and how to best avoid these and even prevent them.

Why we are Different from many other Cat Breeders:

At Ridgeview you wont find our mother cats in cages, you wont find them in big sheds, you wont find them in another room separated from our family, you will find them in our home.

Firstly our cats are our beloved pets, we adore them all! Our mothers birth and raise their babies at our feet, they are handled by our four small noisy children and are used to dogs and machines, vacuums and mops and common household noise, our kittens are confident, well socialsed and very good with children of all ages. Our kittens are also raised to co exist with our dogs and share our home with our big dogs who also equally enjoy the cats company. the kittens are socialised with out dogs from birth.

Genetic Testing and More

At Ridgeview ALL our cats are DNA screened for genetic health.

ALL our cats have been screened for genetic diseases including PKD (Polycystic Kidney Disease), Neimann-Pick Disease Type C, Familial Episodic Hypokaleamic Polymyopothy, Glycogen Stoage Disease Type IV, Gangliosidosis Type 1 and 2, Progressive Retinal Atrophy, Pyruvate Kinase Deficiency, Mucopolysaccharadosis and all are Blood Grouped.

We have also undertaken further blood tests and swabs to ensure your new kitten/cat is free from and has tested negative to FIV as well as FelV (Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) is a lentivirus that affects cats worldwide. From 2.5% up to 4.4% of cats worldwide are infected with FIV. FIV differs taxonomically from the other feline retrovirus, feline leukemia virus (FeLV) and is more closely related to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

If we are testing for one thing lets test for everything!

I only ever want to breed happy, healthy and genetically sound animals.

That means you are assured that you are purchasing a healthy new family pet. I have a strong working relationship with Orivet our Genetic vet specialists.

We have very strict quarantine procedures when we bring in another kitten or cat to our home, they are not allowed near the other cats until quarantine period is upheld and all their blood results have come back clear.

For this reason we do not allow an open cattery policy here, as we have invested far to much to allow a disease or virus to be brought into our cattery, some of these diseases and viruses can travel on shoes, car tyres and on human skin. I have very strict health regulations here for the sake of all our cats and new kittens. So please dont be offended that we do not allows visitors into our home.

Please if you buy a kitten make sure the breeder is a FELV AND FIV free cattery ask for certificates and make sure the cats are ALL tested for genetic diseases you will save yourself thousands in vet bills and alot of heartache.

The Colours of Our Rainbow family

When people think of British Shorthairs they imagine the typical original Blue British Shorthairs.

British Shorthairs today are bred in a variety of colours and patterns including and not limited to; Solid colours, Blue, Lilac, Cream, Black, Chocolate, White. Also very popular now are the Bi Colours, Blue and White, Lilac and White etc.

At Ridgeview we focus on solid colours and Bi Colours, specializing in Blue, Black, Lilac, Cream, and Blue Cream. And also more recently have introduced a beautiful Classic Silver Tabby line.

In our Scottish we have all the above colours in solid and Bi colours as well as the beautiful black/ brown Tabby.

Scottish Folds just like the British come in a cariety of colour and patterns.

Excitingly I have recently purchased a girl from Latvia who carries a colour know as Cinnamon. This colour is still very rare in Australian British Shorthairs, we hope this will allow for beautiful new options for our rainbow family. STAY TUNED!

Brits + Scotts and the mix=.......

To help those who are not aware of some of the genetics and breeding practices with these two breeds here is a basic overview.

To breed British Shorthairs you cross a British Shorthair to a British Shorthair, ok so you know that!

To breed Scottish Folds you must cross a Scottish fold to a British Shorthair or a Scottish Shorthair (straight eared) This cross results in approximately 50% of the litter being Scottish Folds and 50% being straight eared, these beautiful straight eared Scottish cats are the a breed of their own known as Scottish Shorthairs,

They are a delightful mix of both the British and the Scottish Fold who look just like the British Shorthair, with the Scottish personality.