Many people wish to get a cat for house, for their family. Others are more interested in selection work. But everybody wants to get first of all a healthy animal.
We'd like to warn children and their parents from buying animals on a Pet market. Not only because instead of a pedigree animal they may sell you not purebred one - these also have a right to live. More important is that there is a big danger to buy an ill animal.
1. Many kittens are far from being able to bear many hours at the open air, especially in winter.
2. There's a real opportunity that they were brought already sick. Customers, going by and striking an ill animal may infect a healthy one.
Remember that little kittens are very difficult to be cured and some diseases, such as ringworm, toxoplasmosis, echinococcosis and leptospirosis are dangerous for children too.
When you get a purebred animal in a club an expert may help you to choose a kitten. But most people buy common kitties. What should they do?
REMEMBER THE FOLLOWING RULES.
1. One should get an animal from house where mother-cat lives. Make sure that this cat is healthy, if its' kittens are accustomed to toilet and if kittens have had any contacts with other animals. Club animals should be supplied with a certificate of birth or a pedigree.
2. One should take an animal when it is more than two months old.
3. Make sure that a kitten is taught to eat on one's own. Carefully examine a kitten.
4. A healthy one should have the following look: eyes don't suppurate, nose doesn't run, ears are clear, no bold spots and scrubs on the body, the belly is not inflated and no bad odor in mouth.
5. If you quire a kitten for selection, then make sure it has no any defects: tail vertebrae have no bents, except for cases when the breed requires this. The bite must be correct; male-kitten has both testicles.
Translated by Tatiana Karpova (Moscow)
(MSU, Biology faculture, Dep. zoology and ecology).