Indian Spring Cats Burmese and Tonkinese Kittens, domestic and imported
Dr. Douglas Schar
Located near Washington, DC
To contact us, scroll down to the contact form or email ddsindc@gmail.com
OUR THING
Breeding for Health and Personality
Heathy cats with great personalities. I fell in love with Burmese cats and their dog-like personalities long ago. When the breed faced extinction due to inbreeding, I decided to do something about it. I did a deep dive into how American Burmese were originally made and aimed at recreating the breed. This actually required a lot of research. I ended up importing Burmese cats from Thailand to start a healthy American Burmese breed. I continue to import cats from Thailand and to keep my line healthy. We are entirely focused on making the healthiest Burmese cats with the best personalities. That's our thing: health and personality through science and research.
New Article
Fixing the Burmese Breed
Feline researchers and Veterinarians alike are aware that the Burmese breed is dangerously inbred and this inbreeding is causing life long illnesses and short life spans. They have said, Burmese breeders need to outcross to unrelated cats urgently.
Here is my thought. Don't think too hard on how to outcross. Recreate the breed in the same manner in which it was created.
Sadly, most people do not know a lot about the origins of the Burmese breed. This is unfortunate, because if you want to fix the problems with the Burmese breed, American or European, it would be helpful to know something about how the breed came into existence in the first place. If you know the formula that was used to make the breed, you can use that same formula to remake the breed. It is only logical.
The Burmese breed came into existence when an avid thinker, John Cheeseman Thompson, decided that there was another cat coat gene floating around Thailand besides the Siamese gene. He had seen Siamese cats in Thailand but had also seen a darker variant. He had it in his mind that this darker variant was actually a different gene to the Siamese gene. Thompson was a spy, naval psychiatrist and avid animal biologist. He was able to grab one of the darker cats from the Malay Peninsula, a cat named Wong Mau, and brought her to San Francisco. He retired from the navy and decided to test out his theory that there were at least two unique cat mutation genes in Thailand. To test his theory, he mated Wong Mau to a Siamese stud. Then he bred the darker kittens to their darker mother, and the result was dark kittens (Burmese), intermediate kittens (Tonkinese), and Siamese kittens. The darker kittens, when bred to darker kittens, bred true. They consistently produced solid brown cats.
His little experiment resulted in the Burmese breed of cat. All American Burmese cats descend from Wong Mau and Tai Mau. ALL. That is a little scary when you realize the breed was started with two cats and all American Burmese cats trace their ancestry back to two cats. But, that's another story. After Thompson died, the results of his experiment were published. Below you will find the article published about his experiment and you will see the origins of the Burmese breed.
Any breeder interested in correcting the defects found in the Burmese breed today, or any consumer interested in getting a Burmese cat, should read the article below which details HOW the breed was made. The formula is there. The original formula can be used today to fix the inbreeding problems within the Burmese today - use imported Siamese, Tonkinese, and Burmese cats from Thailand in your breeding program!
My primary house cat was Bruce Lee II. He was my last pure American Burmese cat and as can be expected from these sadly inbred creatures, he got sick when he was 9 and struggled to make it to 12. I have lived through an inbred American Burmese cat slowing dying. It was horrible. Living through Bruce's death was no fun for him and was a daily horror show for me. No cat and no cat owner should have to go through what Bruce and I went through. This is the reason I created a breeding program designed to make healthy long lived Burmese. I have imported over 40 cats from Thailand to make healthy Burmese. With any luck, it has worked.
I have followed the formula laid out in the experiment that created the breed in the first place. The creators of the breed left their recipe behind in a journal article. You will find the article below.
In Memorium: Bruce Lee ii
Bruce Lee II: Worlds Best Cat
Bruce Lee II was my primary house cat for 12 years. He was my last pure American Burmese cat and as can be expected from these sadly inbred creatures, he got sick when he was 9 and barely made it to 12. I have lived through an inbred American Burmese dying and it is the reason I created a breeding program designed to make healthy long lived Burmese. I have imported over 40 cats from Thailand to make healthy Burmese. With any luck, it has worked. Because living through Bruce's endless illnesses was no fun for him.
He was one fabulous cat. When he was a kitten he taught himself how to use the people toilet and never used a litter box. However, he was very private about bathroom time. I never caught him in the act, but, as he did not master flushing the toilet, I would know when he had been to the bathroom. In the last year of his life I managed to catch him using the toilet. He was so mad, he jumped off the toilet and just scowled at me as he marched off in total disgust. Anyhow, here you can see Bruce Lee II, using the people toilet. He is probably in cat heaven sending me daggers for exposing his private time to the general public, but, people should know what they get when they get a Burmese cat!
We Moved!
We Moved ... Indian Spring Cats is No Longer at Indian Springs!
Breaking News. We have moved. We are still in Virginia, not far from Washington, DC, just a few counties over. Still accessible to National Airport and Dulles Airport, and by car, from 95, 66, and 70!