Health & Testing

At Lunar Fields we take health very seriously. All our breeding cats are tested with DNA and get regular ultrasounds for their heart and kidneys.

This lowers the risk of hereditary problems significantly – but of course no test can ever guarantee that a cat will never get sick.

💖 What it does mean: your kitten comes from carefully tested parents, with the best possible start in life.

When you want a little more information, google then for HCM/PKD/CIN.
However, we can give you a little bit of info in our own words on this page.

Testing parents

DNA tests

Testing the parents is an important part of breeding. We test the DNA of the breeding cats, so we know if they can give a defect/decease to the kittens. Now to understand this: if both parents are free, kittens are free. If one of the parents is a ”carrier”, and the other free, the kittens will not be affected, but can carry it. Those combinations are ‘okay’. By using carriers (very carefully!) you can still use very good Ragdolls for breeding, instead of excluding all of them immediately. But if the parents are both carriers or actually affected, those cats should be restricted from breeding. DNA testing alone is NOT enough.

Ultrasounds

For PKD/HCM/CIN (heart and kidneys) you can also make a yearly or 2-yearly ultrasound. PKD is a dominant gene and to prevent this, we use DNA-testing. PKD usually affects a cat on a later age, the cystes in the kidneys grow bigger and multiply by age – they say from about 10 months old the ultrasound is very reliable and doesn’t need to be repeated (in normal cases). But since they can be very small (the cystes), a professional is needed to preform these ultrasounds.

CIN (Chronic interstitial nephritis) is a different kidney decease, people usually call it ”shrinking-kidneys”. Cats can get CIN without it being hereditary as well. They can see signs of it on an ultrasound as well.

HCM (Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy), is a heart disease where the heart muscle thickens, making it harder for the heart to pump blood effectively. HCM can be hereditary, but doesn’t have to be. Even if the ultrasound was okay, that still can mean the cat carries the gene for the defect – they discovered a couple genes but there are probably a lot more that aren’t discovered yet (in humans there are more than 450 mutations in 24 genes connected to different kinds of HCM). Also a cat that has the gene, doesn’t mean it will get HCM. An ultrasound to check the heart is needed every year or two.

The problem is that a cat can get issues with his heart and kidneys even without it being heritary, and that it can also show up at a much later age (when the cat already has offspring, and their offspring as well).

Conclusion
Breeders do their best to prevent unhealthy cats from being bred. Still, there is always a small risk: even with great test results, a cat may develop something later.

✅ Testing is essential, and every breeder should do it.
❗ But kitten buyers need to remember: testing is not a guarantee, only a significant risk reduction.

We do our very best – and that’s exactly what you should expect from any responsible cattery: DNA testing AND ultrasound examinations.