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The FURRY TRUTH about Siberian Cats April 11, 2010

Posted by makingyourdashcount in Uncategorized.
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It’s been about a year since my utter frustration with Siberian cat breeders advertising that their cats were low shedding animals, because this was not our experience.

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Chloe, who is about 6.5 years old and 12 lbs., sheds a mountain of fur, as evidenced in the photo.  This is about one year’s worth of fur collected from daily brushings.  If you are considering a Siberian, which we consider to be an AMAZING breed of cat,  also know that whether or  not you  brush your baby daily this fur will not only end up everywhere in your house, but you will also be cleaning up daily hairballs.  (Chloe still gets hairballs, especially twice a year during her fall and spring molts.)

So why adopt a Siberian if they are so fur intense and hairball prone?

Although not all Siberians are created equal, as a breed they produce less of the allergen inciting protein, FEL d 1, that humans cannot tolerate.  Because of our daughter’s allergies, we had pretty much given up ever getting a cat.  When we found out about this breed, it was as if all of our cat dreams came true.  Now Chloe is an integral part of our family. Even when she sleeps with our daughter, there are no reactions.

Talk about playful!   Even at 6.5, Chloe plays hide and seek, chase and other games that most relegate to dogs.  When she was younger, she would fetch and slide down inclined planes with glee, although it has been quite awhile since we have tried either of these.

The doorbell rings and Chloe is front and center seeing who it is.  Everyone is a new best friend, even the pizza guy!

Animal Planet explored siberians on one of their shows. Search animal planet siberian on youtube and you might find their clip (They moved the link that I used to  list here.  I was happy that Cats 101 was truthful about the Siberian coat and shedding, because it was the first time that I had actually seen that.  They did a nice job in summing up the wonders of the Siberian breed.