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Our family always
had a cat - usually a calico longhair, so it was inevitable
that when I started to breed pedigrees I started with a tortie
and white Persian, and focused on breeding bicolours. In
1998, I saw my first chocolate Persian and fell instantly in
love with this stunning and unusual
colour.
My first attempts
at chocolate bicolours were less than successful. The quality
of chocolates needed to drastically improve if I was to get
anywhere.
The gene pool for
chocolates in New Zealand is very small - even world wide it
is very restricted. Pedigree research soon shows that very
many chocolate cats go back to the same cats and the same
bloodlines are repeated over and over. It is very hard to
improve the type with such a small baseline.
So, a large part
of the focus for my programme has been widening my gene pool
base, collecting my chocolate genes from as many different
bloodlines as possible, and then outcrossing with the very
best Persian cats I can, to improve the type with every
generation. Recently, it has become possible to DNA test for
the chocolate gene which is a huge step forward for all
chocolate breeders.
In the last few
years I have imported several cats that have each had a very
positive impact on my breeding programme, and are starting to
also influence the overall quality of the chocolate cats in
New Zealand.
I must pay
special tribute to my first import - NZ Ch Pirayas Lav Me Do,
(pet name, Krona) a beautiful lilacpoint boy from Sweden, with
wonderful USA and European lines behind him. See Krona
and some of my other special past cats on the
GALLERY page. Sadly, we lost Krona to cancer in April
2006. But, his legacy lives on in his daughters,
granddaughters and grandsons that show his own special look,
- very round heads, little ears and big round wide spaced
eyes.
My Exotic
programme runs alongside my Persian programme, but while the
two breeds are inter-matable I keep a very clear distinction
between them. All the cats featured on my Persian pages are
pure Persian with no Exotic behind them.
I aim to produce
healthy happy kittens with a sweet open expression, that can
more than hold their own on the show bench, but that are also
loving and affectionate companion pets.
I have spent the
last few years working on improving the type on my solid
chocolates, with the aim of returning to my first
love - the bicolours. The new generation of ROSIMORN
chocolate bicolours are underway! See them on
my
PERSIAN and EXOTIC
pages, and on the showbench next
season.
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