Litter and Litter Boxes    We recommend the scoopable type litter.  The odor is virtually non-existent if the box is cleaned regularly (we recommend every morning and evening), and enough litter is kept in the box to keep everything covered. The directions on the litter will say to keep the litter at least 2 inches deep - we have found that 3 to 4 inches works much better. We remove the waste each morning and evening. It is also advisable to clean the box itself every couple of weeks or so. Dump the litter cleaned of waste) into a container or bag of some kind, and save it. Wash the box using Clorox, Parvocide, Nolvasan, or any other disinfectant cleaning agent. Chlorine bleach works very well in about a 20:1 dilution (20 parts water and 1 part bleach), since it kills bacteria, viruses, and fungus, and is inexpensive to use.

Scratching Posts  Your new cat or kitten has been trained to use scratching posts instead of furniture, but it would not take long at all for the cat to unlearn this. It's important for you to think for your cat on this score - the easier you make it for an animal to be a good pet, the better pet the animal will be. If your kitten or cat shows any interest in using a piece of furniture instead of a scratching post, there are steps you can take to change that behavior: put a scratching post right next to the target piece of furniture, gradually moving it to its permanent location; if you see the cat even looking like they are going to use the furniture, you must, in a loud and firm voice, say "NO!" - don't overly frighten the cat, just make the point; squirt the cat with a squirt gun when you see the behavior begin. Squirt guns are great discipline tools for cats - more later… Sometimes it's helpful to rub catnip all over the scratching post, or you can try fastening a dangling toy from the top of the post (a shoe lace works well, and is quite durable) to encourage use. It takes patience and consistence on your part to keep/instill good habits in your companion, but it is worth the effort!    

Bathing Your Cat  Bathing your cat on a regular basis helps keep their coat clean, shiny, and healthy, and also helps to reduce shedding. We recommend that you bathe your pet cat or kitten approximately every 2 weeks to once a month, and then blow dry the cat until completely dry to avoid a chill. We start bathing kittens between 4 and 6 weeks of age, so they get accustomed to bathing early in their life. We find that the kitchen sink is the easiest place to bathe our kitties, as it eliminates the constant bending over that happens using the bathtub. We start on the face, and simply use a wet washcloth to scrub, especially under the eyes. Unless your cat's face is really dirty, warm water will be sufficient for this step. For the rest of the body, wet the coat down, and then for the first soaping, use Dawn dishwashing liquid, mixed 50/50 with water -- it really does cut the grease! Work it into a good lather (not hard to do with Dawn!), and really work it into the coat, paying special attention to the areas that tend to be the greasiest: the belly, the chest, and the base of the tail. Then, rinse it out thoroughly -- this will take several minutes. For a final soaping,  use Suave Clarifying brand of human shampoo.  Wash & rinse using the same procedure. As a final step to make sure all the soap is out of the coat, use a couple of tablespoons of vinegar in a pitcher of water, and pour this mixture over the coat -- the vinegar will cut any remaining soap scum from the coat. Then, rinse thoroughly again to remove the vinegar. Once that's finished, you can wrap your cat up in a towel, and hold her for a few minutes -- this will help to absorb some of the excess water. We find that while the cat is wrapped in the towel is a really good time to clip claws. You can pull one leg at a time out from the towel to work on it. Clipping the claws at this point has two advantages: one - the cat is wrapped up and can't struggle too much; and two - the hair is wet, and it's much easier to see the claw to do the cutting. This is also a good time to clean your cats ears with a Q-tip. The same rules that apply to cleaning your own ears apply here - don't go too deeply into the ear. Clean the external ear gently as well. If you notice anything other than normal earwax - anything foul-smelling, wet, or icky - consult your veterinarian. For drying, any human hair dryer will work -- just make sure to use a very low heat setting or the no heat setting so that it will not burn or over heat the cat!  We do most of our drying with the cat in a carrier. If you have a hair dryer with a stand, simply set it up so that the air blows into the carrier. If not, we improvise by taking a jar or something similar and setting the handle of the hair dryer down into it. If it rattles around and makes a lot of noise, a kitchen towel around the handle of the hair dryer or the mouth of the jar will help. Once the cat is drying in the carrier, we pull them out every 10 minutes or so, and carefully run a comb through the hair that has started to dry -- this helps to separate the strands, which makes drying quicker. After the cat is mostly dry, you can remove it from the carrier and finish drying by hand -- areas such as the feet and belly are usually the last areas to dry. WARNING! When using a carrier to dry  the cat, make sure it has plenty of ventilation and use no or very low heat or your cat will over heat and die.    

Vet Care and Vaccinations A good vet is just as important to your cat or kitten as a good doctor is to you. If you live in the Metro Detroit area, and do not have a vet, we'll be happy to recommend one for you. If you don't live in the area, ask around. It's just like looking for a doctor or dentist - some are worthy of patient referrals, and some are not! You can find out a lot by talking to other people about their experiences with a certain vet. We highly recommend that the vet you choose be affiliated with an AAHA clinic. AAHA stands for American Animal Hospital Association, and is roughly equivalent to the AMA in human medicine. Not all veterinary clinics are AAHA clinics - call 1-800-252-2242 to find one near you. Vaccinations are something you and your vet will want to discuss, but it is very important to keep these current. The main vaccinations are FVRCP (upper respiratory, panleukopenia, and calici virus), and rabies. We routinely vaccinate for FVRCP and rabies. Also available is a vaccination for FIP and FeLV. We do NOT recommend these vaccinations - in fact, our contract states that if these vaccinations are given, all health guarantees are null and void. In studies, the FIP and FeLV vaccinations have not proven to be effective, and in many cases has made the cat more susceptible to the disease. Annual boosters have been the norm in veterinary medicine, but new studies suggest that a 3-year interval may be just as effective. Again, this is something to discuss with your vet - just be sure to keep your cat's vaccinations current, whichever method you may choose. 

 Feeding Your new kitten has been raised on Royal Canin dry kitten food and Max Cat canned kitten food. You can feed your kitten a couple of tablespoons of canned food each evening, increasing the amount somewhat as they grow larger. Once your kitten reaches the age of 1 year, you should transition the cat to the adult formula dry food - make sure to do this gradually, adding slightly more adult food to the kitten food each day until the transition is complete. By doing this slowly, you will minimize the chance of intestinal upsets and diarrhea. At this time, you can also transition away from canned food if you wish. Otherwise, switch to an adult formula canned food - just be sure to start slowly with it as well. Almost any brand will be fine, as long as it is a premium food.   We do NOT recommend any food you can purchase at a grocery store.  We do recommend the continued use of Royal Canin, either the Sensitive formula or the Persian formula, or another premium brand food such as Excell, Premium Edge, Nutro Max Cat, Quality Care Plus, Flint River Ranch, or any other PREMIUM food. The initial cost may seem to be a bit higher, but the benefits of good nutrition (a healthier animal, lower veterinary bills, etc.) far outweigh the small price difference.  Use a clean bowl for each meal, and put fresh water down at least once a day. The bowls should be as clean as those you would use for yourself. Dirt, dust, and hair will collect in the bowls during the day - you wouldn't want to eat or drink dirty food or water, and you shouldn't want your kitten to, either. Buy yourself some inexpensive bowls that you like that are just for the cat. The bowls should be ceramic or stainless steel, never plastic. Plastic can harbor bacteria and hold oils, which can cause feline acne. Ceramic and stainless steel bowls can be cleaned much better - bacteria loves cat food and water dishes. Clean cats are most likely to be healthy cats! As a special treat, we also keep a tube of Nutrical handy. This is simply a thick gel-like product that comes in a tube, and is a vitamin/mineral supplement. You can find it at any of the pet supply stores, or at your vets, or through the mail order catalogs. Almost all our cats seem to love the taste, and it makes a good reward for after bath times, or claw clipping, or the vets office. 

Nail Clipping Nail clipping is something that should be done every couple weeks. It is desirable from both the standpoint of furniture scratching, and from accidental scratches on you. Scissors designed for clipping claws do work the best - a human nail clipper can cause the nail to splinter and break, rather than a nice even cut. You can find nail clippers at all pet stores, and through the mail-order catalogs. At first, it will be easier to wait until your cat or kitten is sleepy or napping. Take the toe in your hand, and gently put just enough pressure on the toe to expose the nail. Just take off the very end of the nail. You don't want to cut up into the quick, because it will not only hurt the cat, but leave a wound where infections could be introduced. Remember, cats cover their waste in the litter box, and you don't want any open wounds on their feet! Frequent claw clipping will cause the quick to recede naturally, which makes the whole process easier. Not to mention that the cat knows the procedure is just part of the routine, and will accept the process with little objection.We do not recommend declawing or tendonectomy surgery, and feel that these should only be considered as an absolute last resort solution. The following statement is from the CFA Health Committee, made after extensive review of scientific articles, studies, and veterinary experience. "The Cat Fancier's Association recognizes that scratching is a natural behavior of cats and that cats may be defenseless without full use of their claws if, either intentionally or unintentionally, they go outdoors. Scratching damage to household furnishings can be minimized or avoided by routine clipping of the claws, the use of claw covers, and by redirecting the cat's activity to acceptable surfaces. CFA perceives the declawing of cats and the severing of digital tendons(tendonectomy) to be elective surgical procedures which are without benefit to the cat." www.declawing.com  Safety  The absolute most important thing you can do to insure you and your cat will have a long life together is to KEEP YOUR CAT INSIDE. There are many diseases in the outside environment, many of them becoming a problem in just the past decade. Parasites abound in the outdoors - fleas, tapeworms, lice. There are irresponsible pet owners, who allow their animals outside even if they know they're ill. Cars kill cats. Dogs kill cats. Raccoons, opossums, coyotes - the list goes on. THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR CAT IS KEEP IT INSIDE, away from the hazards and diseases outside. The cat you have just acquired has never been outside, and is content to stay warm and safe inside. Inside the house, think of a human toddler. That's just about the level of "child proofing" that is appropriate. Think for your cat - look around for things that could trap them, small spaces that they could get their heads stuck in, exposed electricals, open windows, loose screens, uncovered heat vents, rubber bands laying on the floor, etc. Puppies and kittens just love to chew! Kittens go through a second teething at about four to five months of age. Chewing can be easily dealt with by putting Grannick's Bitter Apple on whatever the cat or kitten chews. Available at pet stores, or through supply catalogs, it is a mixture of isopropyl alcohol and bitter essentials. It tastes really nasty, and your cat will hate it! There are different formulations depending on what you're trying to protect - wood, plants, etc. Choose the one that is appropriate, and the chewing should stop quickly. Many kittens like to chew on electric cords - Bitter Apple is a very effective way to stop this very dangerous behavior.  It's also a good idea to put away anything that is very delicate and breakable, at least during a kitten's early months. You want to keep your breakables safe, too! Again, this is an area where you have to think for your pet - give your kitten a chance to be a good pet, and put fragile things away for a little while. You'll be able to bring them back out when the kitten matures into a cat. Many common plants are HIGHLY toxic to cats, and highly tempting. If you have always enjoyed poinsettias at Christmas, you should know these beautiful plants are toxic to cats. So are philodendrons and ivy. You may want to remove some plants from your home, or change to some non-toxic plants, for the safety of your new kitten or cat.  Ask your veterinarian for information on other things that are toxic to cats. Cats have a very different physiology than humans; some things are harmless to humans, but toxic to cats, such as aspirin. Food can also be a problem - for instance, chocolate, if ingested iPKD:     A DNA test has become available to  Breeders which allows us to identify a gene which can cause a possible deadly form of Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD).  This gene can also be passed to offspring.  Most breeders have begun testing for this, others have not. Some breeders are being hit very hard with a high rate of positives coming back on their kitties. Others are luckier. There are two schools of thought among those testing their kitties. One is that all breeding adults testing positive MUST spay/neuter and never breed the kitten.  The other thought is to breed a positive to a negative and hope for a negative offspring thus not closing off our already tight gene pool.   I encourage anyone looking for  a "Persian" to first do their homework.  Also, when inquiring about a kitten  you may want to ask questions:    Ask the breeder if they are DNA testing for PKD. Do not accept the response that they have "scanned" their cats.   Scanning is out dated and not always accurate as it only indicates whether or not the kitty at the time of the scan is showing lesions on its kidneys.  If the breeder says that they have performed DNA tests on their breeders, ask to see a copy of the DNA reports on both parents of the kitten that you are interested in. Two negative adults CAN NOT produce positive offspring.  This issue has been very heartbreaking and costly for many breeders.  Testing for PKD is very expensive.  We are scrambling to do what we as breeders feel is best for our breeding programs, for the health of the kittens we sell to others as well as for the Persian Breed as a whole.  Please feel free to email or call me if you have any questions

Please note that Devanchire does not give refunds.  If you change your mind after payments has been accepted Devanchire will not give a refund of any monies received.  In good faith Devanchire will put monies toward a future purchase.