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Making the decision about showing your cat in competition probably needs to be done before you even buy your cat or kitten. Not all cats are suitable for competition. Many have minor flaws that make them unworthy of winning any prize. And these flaws are often not things you can change about your cats.
If you think you might be interested in showing a cat in competition, it’s best to keep that in mind when buying your cats. You’ll want to stay away from kennels and pet shops. You won’t find your champion there. Your best bet will be to buy a cat from a breeder. You should expect to pay quite a bit more for a show quality cat than you would for a pet cat.
You’ll look for different qualities in a pet cat than you would in a show cat. Cats make good pets if they have a good personality and demeanor. Cats that make good competition cats are good specimens with good pedigrees. You should look for a show cat that has a good solid ancestry. You want a cat that is pedigree in the breed you’re interested in. You should find out what exactly a pedigree cat looks like, what the body is like, and what its characteristics are. Then you want to go find as close to a perfect match with that pedigree standard as possible. Cats that have flaws won’t catch the judges’ eyes, and thus, won’t be good show cats.
When you’re choosing a kitten from the pedigree litter, there are certain things you’ll want to look for. Newborn kittens are normally darker in color than they will be when they grow up, so you’ll want to keep that in mind when searching through the kitten pile. Also, it’s good to keep in mind that just because a kitten seems to be over- or under-developed at eight or 12 weeks old, it doesn’t necessarily mean that cat won’t be the pick of the litter by the time it’s fully grown. Bone structure and weight aren’t thing you should really be overly concerned about when choosing a kitten.
However, there are many qualities of the pedigree that will show up at an early age. You should thoroughly know what a pedigree of that cat type looks like. Inspect the kittens, looking for the ones that most closely match the pedigree standard.
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