So, would you like to breed?

Are you considering to breed devons?
This is a very difficult choice. Well, at least it would have to be a difficult one.
Breeding it's not something you can take easily.
You may think breeding is an easy and remunerative hobby, but breeding is many things, but for sure it is not easy or remunerative (if you do it in the right way and for the right reasons).
First of all you have to consider why you would like to breed, what to expect and not to expect, and how much you are ready to spend for it (in terms of time and money).
The only good reason to start breeding is passion and love for a certain breed.
But this is not enough to make of you a good breeder.
If you are so passionated of the devon rex breed to consider start breeding you have to think if you have enough time, the time to study the breed and the health issues, the time to keep your cats in a clean enviroment, and to provide all of them enough love, the time to help your queen when the delivering time will come, the time to hand feed the kittens if your queen will have no milk or if anything else will happen, the time to find good homes for your kittens and be available for the new owners questions or problems, the time to attend cat shows.
You have to consider if you have the money to buy your first breeding devons and the money to attend cat shows to learn more about the stardard and have a good evaluation of your devons faults and qualities. Then anything is more expansive than a vet bill...

You don't have to think about breeding like joy and happyness all the time. All breeders soon or later have to pass through very difficult moments, when a kitten or adult is lost or when your expectations are disattended.

You don't have to expect to earn money.
All the money you will earn selling your kittens will be used to feed and keep clean the devons, to buy cat stuff, to buy new breeding devons, to pay the vet bills, to attend the cat shows. You will be lucky if all the expenses will be paid with the money you earn.

If you want to be a breeder you must be a good one, this is the only way to help the breed you love to improve in both type and health.
You need to study a lot and attend many cat shows to understand if you are in front of a typey devon or not. You have to study a lot to know enough about the health topics and genetics.
You have to study a lot to try to take the right choices in your breeding program.
You need to know what a responsible breeder is and do all you can to be one of those responsible breeders.
Only this way you will help the breed you love so much.

The very important questions you have to ask yourself are just a few, but will decide of your future !
- Why would you like to Breed?
- Do you have enough time to study and keep good care of your cats and future kittens?
- Do you have enough money to start?
- Do you want to be a resposible breeder?
If your answer to all of these questions is "yes, I want to breed"... then the hardest part has to begin ;-)

So have you chosen to breed?

If this is your choice you may wonder what to do at this point !
Well, there are many things to start with :-)
In order to breed devons you need to have a clear idea about HOW a devon rex must look. And the only way to "have a good eye" on the devon type is to attend cat shows. Looking carefully at what judges consider a fault and what is considered suitable if compared to the devon rex standard. A good start would be to contact a breeder for a show alter devon. And then show him in premiership going to cat shows, talking with judges, coming in touch with other devon breeders and learning all you can.
You need also to learn about genetics and health topics. The best way to do it is to be part of the devon rex and health/genetics discussion lists and buy good feline genetics/health books, to start you can also give a look to the genetics and health section of this website.

A few books you can find on Amazon.com:
The Robinson's genetics for cat breeders and veterinarians
(a must have in my opinion)
The cat who cried for help
(About your cats psychology)
The complete idiot's guide to a healthy cat
(Everything about cat-health topics explained a very easy way)

In the discussion lists you will meet other experienced breeders willing to share their knowledges and hopefully you will start to talk about devons and let the other breeders know you.

The Planet Devon group
The Fanciers Health group

When you will feel well about the devon type and the basic knowledgments it will be time to look for a show/breeding devon.
Planet Devon is the best web resource for people looking for a devon rex kitten.
If you are going to breed you must have very clear in your mind what your breeding program will be and what your goals will be.
I think that contacting a few breeders is much better than writing to all breeders worldwide asking for a kitten !
If you have a breeding program and clear ideas you also have clear enough in your mind the look of the devons you would like.
I f you attended a good number of shows, posted on the devon rex lists and demostrated to be a newbie ready to learn and put effords in the devon rex community, some breeders would keep in touch with you helping you to find a show/breeding kitten.
It will take some time to find your first devons ! It will take a lot due to breeders waiting lists and it will take a lot if you want a devon with a certain look.

At this point you will know enough about the devon rex breed and what to expect while breeding (even if surprises are always there waiting for you) and you will have at home your first couple.

If you are lucky everything will go well, your kittens will become adults, you will breed them and a bunch of healthy typey kittens will born. Well... I would like to find a breeder who had this happen at the first litters!
There are a few lucky ones, but the first breeding experiences are always difficult.
Theory is not like practice !
It may happens to have a queen who doesn't like your stud. Or a queen who developes pyometra (an uterus infection) after a few heats without being bred.
If the breeding is successful you can have a variety of problems during the queen pregnancy, and many more at delivering.
Something really important is you to be present at the delivering time.
Never think that your queen can do it herself because she is a cat. YES, she can do it herself if everything will go well. But what if she will not be able to deliver a kitten because too big? What if she will bleed to much?
And even if the queen will easily deliver all her kittens what if a kitten will breath amniotic liquid and born not breathing? Your presence will mean life for that kitten. Your absence will mean death.
Leaving your queen alone during a deliver can mean to find a well cleaned happy litter nursing their smiling mum. But can also mean to find dead kittens or even a dead queen. Excpecially at the first litter you never know how things can go.
The more common problems a queen can meet during breeding/pregnancy/delivering are pyometra, a quite common uterus infection, infertility, abort, diffculties in delivering, bleeding... if you want to know more about all this you can buy Dr Susan Little Cd-rom about cats reproduction (that is really great), or you can visit the links above.
The level of acknowlegments you will have will make a great difference. A difference in how quicky you will find solutions to problems, a difference in how safe your queen deliver will be and a difference in the chances your kittens will have to survive.
The health and devon rex discussion lists will be always ready to help and provide useful suggestions on how deal with situations, even if phoning your vet is often a good solution!

Here are infos about common problems when breeding cats.

Hand feeding (tube-feeding)
It may happen your queen will not have milk, or being not able to nurse the kittens for a while. At this point hand feeding will be the only way you have to keep your kittens gaining weight. If you will have a very weak kitten, not even able to suck from the bottle, then tube-feeding is the only way you have to feed the kitten.
http://www.cfainc.org/articles/tube-feeding.html
http://geocities.com/catdatandl/ENG_tubefeed.html
http://www.hayaji.com/faqTube.html

Raising kittens
http://www.cfainc.org/articles/kittening.html

Feline reproduction
You will need to know a lot about this !
Give a look to the health section of this website for some links to start from.

URI
It may happen your kittens will be affected by a light, mild or sever form of URI while growing up. You can find infos about the more common URI infections and how to prevent them with intranasals on the health section of this website.

Kittens development calendar
http://www.dataweb.nl/~sham/misc8.html

BloodGroups
Cats have bloodgourps! The more common one is the A bloodgroup, then there is B and very rare is AB.
When breeding A studs to B queens happens that queens pass A bloodgroup antibodies via their milk to their kittens. If a kitten with A bloodgroup nurses from a B mother will probably die or have severe health problems. Hand feeding the kittens for the first 16-24 hours prevents this from happening.
http://www.winnfelinehealth.org/reports/blood-type.html

Other useful links...

Do you want to breed?
http://www.petplace.com/articles/artShow.asp?artID=3285

Vaccination protocol for catteries
http://www.winnfelinehealth.org/health/vaccination-protocol-catteries.html

Sexing a kitten
http://www.vetinfo.com/csexcat.html

How young to give away kittens
http://www.breedlist.com/faq/young.html