If you're trying to find a kitten from a reputable breeder, understanding their terminology will help you find exactly what you're looking for.
When discussing cats and kittens with your perspective breeder, it helps to understand some of the more common terms that they use to describe their breeding practice. Good communication with your breeder is important and will help establish a good relationship with them from the start. It will also help you know which breeder is the right one for you!
A
- Altered – A cat who has been altered has been spayed or neutered
B
- Bloodline – Your kitten’s family tree
- Breeder - Someone who breeds and raises purebred cats and kittens
- Breeders - Cats or kittens who are purchased specifically for breeding
- Breeding Rights - Rights sold by the breeder allowing you to breed your cat and register their litters
C
- Cageless – Catteries who do not cage their cats or kittens
- Cattery – A place where cats are bred and raised
- Champion – A cat that has won a certain number of points at cat shows
- Closed Cattery – A cattery that doesn’t take in cats that are not part of their cattery (for boarding or stud services, for example) and doesn’t take their cats out of their cattery, even for showing.
D
- Dam – Kitten’s mother (also called a Queen)
- Dilute – Lighter or recessive colors
H
- Hybrid – A mix of two different breeds of cat
- Hybrid Vigor – Some believe that mixing two different breeds of cats creates healthier kittens.
I
- Intact – A cat that has not been altered (spayed or neutered)
K
- Kitten – A kitten is considered a kitten up to 8 months old
L
- Litter – All the kittens from one birth
N
- Neuter – Refers to an altered (or fixed) male
- Not for Breeding – If you do not obtain breeding rights from the breeder, your kitten will be marked “Not for Breeding,” and the registry organization will not register the cat’s future litters.
O
- Orphaned – Kittens whose queen does not feed or care for them
P
- Papers – Your kitten’s registration forms
- Parasite – Refers to internal and external pests like fleas, mites, or worms
- Pedigree – A certificate listing your cat’s bloodline
- Pet or Pet Quality – Meaning the kitten is sold as a pet only and is not to be used for breeding
- Purebred – Cats with only the same breed cat (or allowable outcrosses) in their bloodline or pedigree
- Premier – An altered (spayed or neutered) cat that is registered
Q
- Queen – Kitten’s mother (also called Dam), or an unaltered female breeding cat
R
- Registration – A certificate from a cat registry organization that includes the cat’s name and their owner’s name
- Registry – Cat organizations that register purebred cats
S
- Sire – Kitten’s father (also referred to as Stud, Tom or King by some breeders)
- Socialization – Refers to how kittens are raised and what stimuli they have been introduced to as kittens (children and dogs, for example)
- Spay – Refers to an altered (or “fixed” female)
- Spraying – When a male cat “sprays” urine to mark his territory or attract females
- Standard – Each breed has a “standard” of what they should look like.
- Stud – An unaltered male breeding cat
T
- Transfer – A change of a cat’s ownership
U
- Underfoot – Kittens who are raised in a home as part of a family
V
- Vaccination – Set of shots given to prevent illness
W
- Whole – A cat that is not spayed or neutered
The copyright of the article Feline and Cattery Terminology in Cats is owned by Darlene Cheek. Permission to republish Feline and Cattery Terminology in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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