A. Once in a while a Siamese kitten will develop crossed eyes as it matures. The condition of crossed eyes in Siamese is completely unrelated to crossed eyes in humans. The cause is different. It occurs because the albinism genetics which produce the Siamese coat color pattern also, from time to time, cause some of the nerves in the eye to fail to develop completely; also, the genes cause the optic nerves in the Siamese to be "wired" differently than those of a normal cat. As the cat struggles to focus, the eyes will cross (and remain that way). It is genetic, but NOT hereditary parent to child. That is, you can have a cross-eyed parent with all perfectly straight-eyed kittens, or vice versa. Because it is a function of the developing optic nerves, it will not show up in a young kitten. It can start showing up at about four months or later, so the breeder can send a kitten away who has perfectly straight eyes, born to straight-eyed parents, and later that kitten may developed crossed eyes.

From an article on the web site of the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska at Fairbanks:
Coat color isn't the only thing affected by the more recessive members of the albino family of genes. Siamese cats have a reputation for being cross-eyed, and the peculiar organization of their visual nervous system may be the reason. In a normal cat, nerves from each eye go to both sides of the brain. In a cat with two Siamese genes, the nerves from the right eye go primarily to the left side of the brain, and those from the left eye go primarily to the right side of the brain. This anomaly probably causes the cross-eyed appearance of many Siamese cats. Judging from their jumping performance, however, their depth perception is good, so they are somehow compensating for their abnormality.
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF8/836.html

From an article on the web site of the Siamese Cat Society of New South Wales:
Crossed eyes are due to the partial albinism of the Siamese gene causing irregular nerve connections between the eyes and their controlling muscles, producing crossed eyes and double vision: the cat squints to compensate for this.
http://www.siamesecatsociety.org.au/albinogene.html

A: I feed all of my cats mostly raw meats that I grind and mix myself. I use the recipe and suggestions at www.catnutrition.org, modified to suit my cats. There is also a lot of good information available at http://www.rawfedcats.org/practicalguide.htm (these people prefer to avoid grinding and mixing, instead feeding the cat as naturally as possible).

I know that most kitten purchasers will not want to begin raw feeding, so I alternate the raw food with grain-free canned foods to make sure the kittens learn to eat the canned food; they also have a mix of grain-free dry foods available free choice. The best alternatives or supplements to raw food are canned foods with no grain, and, as a supplement and not the main source of protein, a good dry food with no grain in it. A list of recommended products is below.

Cats are obligatory carnivores, needing meat as their primary source of protein. Most commercial cat food has had grain added to raise the protein content and to make the food easier to process. Cats eating primarily these grain-filled foods are showing up at vets' offices with degenerative, dietary-related diseases in much larger numbers than fifty years ago: diabetes, congestive heart failure, feline urological syndrome in males, obesity and related arterial blockages. For more information on feeding cats a high-meat-protein diet for their health, I recommend the book Your Cat: Simple New Secrets to a Longer, Stronger Life, by Elizabeth Hodgkins, DVM, Esq.

Wet foods with no grain:
1. Wellness canned foods (look for yellow "grain-free" triangle on label)
2. Wellness Core canned varieties (all of these are grain-free)
3. Evo/Innova canned foods
4. Taste of the Wild canned foods

I use primarily Wellness canned grain-free varieties.

Dry foods with no grain:
1. Evo/Innova
2. Wellness Core
3. Taste of the Wild

I mix these, dusting the mix with powdered taurine to address any possible deficiency of this essential nutrient.

A: The litters I recommend are clumping litters containing no sodium bentonite, which is known to be dangerous to young kittens. It can be ingested as they lick it from their fur and can cause fatal blockages in the intestines. I also avoid scented litters of any kind, as most cats find these difficult to tolerate and will avoid the litter box if scents are used. A list of recommended products is below.

• Swheat Scoop (wheat, medium small granules, clumps HARD, sometimes sticks to bottom of pan, not much odor except an occasional wet wheat smell)
• World's Best Cat Litter (corn, medium small granules, clumps HARD, occasional wet corn smell)
• Nature's Miracle (corn with pine and enzymes added, medium small soft granules comfortable on cat's feet, clumps well, pine scent which humans do not find unpleasant, but cats may find a little strong)
• Cat's Pride (clay, small granules comfortable on cat's feet, clumps HARD, sometimes sticks to bottom of pan, not much odor)
• Arm & Hammer Essentials (corn and baking soda, small granules comfortable on cat's feet, clumps HARD, no sodium bentonite, hardly any odor)

I use a mix of the Swheat Scoop, World's Best, and Nature's Miracle. The combination prevents any odor problems, provides good clumping without sticking to the bottom of the pan, gives a comfortable surface to walk on, cuts the scent of the pine to a manageable level, and is MUCH cheaper than Nature's Miracle used alone. I use two scoops of Swheat Scoop and two scoops of World's Best to one scoop of Nature's Miracle.

A: Siamese point colors are caused by the colorpoint gene and its modifications. Temperature-sensitive alleles in this gene create points in Siamese and Tonkinese, and sepia coloring in Burmese and Tonkinese.

Only four colors have been identified:

• Seal point (BBDD, the dominant color)
• Blue point (BBdd, a genetic dilute of seal point)
• Chocolate (bbDD, a genetic variant of seal point)
• Lilac (bbdd, a genetic dilute of chocolate point)

To illustrate this, Jennifer Wilson of Fairydust Siamese has produced photographs of her kittens labeled with the different point colors. Point Colors Illustrated These cats are show-style Siamese, but the color genetics are the same as for traditional and classic Siamese. The same four colors are found in Burmese and Tonkinese, but are called different names, such as "platinum" for the color known as "lilac" in Siamese.

When other point colors and patterns, such as lynx point or flame point, are seen in a Siamese, they indicate the presence of one or more non-Siamese ancestors. The Traditional Cat Association, Inc. (TCA), the Cat Fanciers Association (CFA), and several other purebred cat registries will therefore register such cats as Colorpoint Shorthairs rather than Siamese. Some British and European registries class such cats as Siamese, as seen in the breed standard for the Thai cat in The International Cat Association (TICA), which permits cats resembling Siamese of the classic and traditional types to be registered as Thai cats with the presence of colorpoint shorthair ancestors.

A: Nine different genetic combinations of the four main colors may be produced. If the genetic makeup of the parents has been properly identified, a Siamese color probability chart may be used to plan for kittens of specific point colors. Here is a one-page chart showing the possible genetic combinations, supplemented by nine separate charts showing the probabilities of each color for each mating of sire and dam from each of the nine genetic combinations. Siamese Color Probability Chart

Although Colorado law mandates that no cat or dog may be sold younger than eight weeks old, that is still really too young for the kitten to reach the optimum level of physical and emotional maturity. Here's a link to an article by a breeder which explains the situation very well. How Young is Too Young?

Also, it is a fallacy that older kittens do not bond well with people. In fact, as they become a little older, they are less dependent on their mothers and littermates, and so tend to bond very well. We know of a case of a five-month-old formerly feral kitten who was placed with an elderly couple in the Denver area. The kitten immediately bonded very strongly with the old gentleman and promptly took to napping in his beard! She remained extremely attached to both of the old folks for the rest of their lives.