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Showing off our first litter of
Polydactyls!
My, what big feet
they have...
(none of these kittens are available) |
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Welcome to Meanu Cattery!
I
would like to teach you how to pronounce Meanu, are you
ready Me an U, easy right. Now on with the intro....
Meanu
is a combined effort to produce outstanding kittens and
cats. 2 catteries still separate but now combining
their knowledge and love for the Maine Coons to work
together in this effort. Rose’s Mysti Isle and
Stella’s R P Cathouse. How we got the name is another
story. But, if either one of us says the name we both
are right, think about it. |
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I
would like to show you
our first litter of polydactly kittens. They are out of Coonopry’s Shes Got the Look of Meanu (AKA Polly) and CH
Coonwyck’s Papollo of R P Cathouse.
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First a little why they need a special introduction:
Polly is a polydactyl, a cat with more toes than normal.
Poly Maine Coons have been around from the very
beginning of the breed and are often called
"mitten-foot" or "snowshoe" cats. Some of the most
famous Polydactyl cats are the Hemingway cats, but
they've been wandering the wilds of Maine since the
1800's and are a natural part of our beloved Maine Coon
Cat.
This
is an excellent article with lots of scientific
explanations about polydactylism and it's presence
in feline gene pools.
PawPeds - Polydactylism
I
have received permission to link Prairiebaby Cattery to
my site. Judith has been working with foundation lines
and Polydactyl lines for a long time. She is very
knowledgeable, and her site has a lot of good
information. This page
has some of her recent kittens, and if you scroll down
the page a bit you'll see general information about
polys and other links as well:
prairiebaby.ca/polydactyl |
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My girl Polly
has 7 toes on each front foot and 6 on each back
foot. I have loved the idea of having a poly
but never owned one before this lovely female. They
are no different than any other Maine Coon except the
extra toes. Polly is out of foundation lines and has
great boning which comes from the Polydactyl lines she
is out of. We brought Polly in to help keep that
boning in our cats. There are guide lines in breeding
a Polydactyl, first of which is never breed a Poly to
a Poly to avoid creating an excess of extra toes that
could make it difficult to walk normally. You do
not want to double up on the polydactyl gene at all,
but breeding a poly girl to a male with regular toes
is fine as there are natural limits to how many toes
the kittens can have. Polly had 5 kittens and only 3
had extra toes (all 6 front and back). The toes are
not webbed or joined; each toe is fully separate and
has its own claw, completely normal in every way. Two
of the kittens do not have any extra toes. The only
fault I can see in this litter is that they are all
females! LOL! But, this is fine with me. So I would
like you to meet Papollo and Polly’s girls!
I have to add now
R P Cathouse is now a true R P and what does R P stand
for? Rebel Paws!
(Sorry, Rose had to put that in.)
Note: these kittens are not available.
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Born
June 2, 2011
Sire: CH Coonwyck Papollo of R P Cathouse
Dam: Coonopry's She's Got the Look of Meanu
They had a total of 5 beautiful girls! All blue
patched tabbies with varying degrees of white...
Polydactyl cats are not recognized for Championship
status by CFA (meaning they can't be shown, but they
can be registered and regular footed offspring can be
shown) Polydactyl Maine Coons can be shown in
"new traits" class in TICA, and poly breeders hope for
the day they are eligible for Championship status in
that organization.
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to Right and Below are some
earlier pictures of this delightful and adorable
litter. Just click on picture to see full
size.... |
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As they matured, they just became
more lovely! Cutting toenails on this litter
seemed to take forever, and even though all Maine
Coons tend to use their front paws like hands, those
extra toes do make polys extra good at grabbing
things! |
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