15.06.07
My comment on the VOX report "Wildes Kinderzimmer" No. 23
Birman kittens/wobbly babies
Perhaps you saw the report too, and were just as shocked as I was at how much these babies trembled and wobbled.
That is why I am writing these lines...... wobbling in Birman kittens only occurs in isolated cases; as far as I know, it is a neurological problem that varies in severity and is genetic in origin.
The TV report made it sound as if "wobbly babies" were an everyday problem in Birman breeding and as if this wobbling were simply due to a harmless vitamin B deficiency.
I must strongly protest against this statement.
"Wobbly babies are certainly not an everyday problem in Birman breeding, but rather isolated cases. When wobbly babies are born, the pedigrees should be researched, and if wobbly babies occur repeatedly, a responsible breeder should not repeat the mating and should, if necessary, retire the parents from breeding.
Nor should a vitamin deficiency occur in a long-established, experienced cattery, since breeders in particular should feed their cats a good, balanced diet.
If it were a vitamin deficiency, then in my view all the kittens in a litter would be affected. Of course vitamin B is the nerve vitamin, I do not dispute that, but its absorption and use are not linked to daylight or sunshine; that is a different vitamin, namely vitamin D!
In 14 years of cat breeding, with 34 litters and 112 kittens in total, I have had only two kittens that wobbled, in my Z litter and my second B litter. In these little ones the wobbling was nowhere near as extreme and disappeared without any vitamin B at 7-8 weeks. The parents of these two kittens are no longer used for breeding.
The whole purpose of breeding is to improve the breed and to eliminate genetic defects.
Sonja Wirsing, June 2007