On this page we tell you a little something about the following: 

• Cattery du Hovali and the people behind it

• Our cattery policy and kittens

  • British Shorthair virus

  • The Selkirk Rex

  • Character and health

  • Not a kittenmill

  • Kittens and their new owners

  • How the cats live

  • Showing

Cattery du Hovali

Here a little something about me: Raymond  Hovens, made in 1972. Next to cats I love driving my bike, on the picture right of the text I'm standing next to my pride and joy: my Honda Shadow VT600 '93. I also love to windsurf, eventhough I lack time and wind most of the time! I work as a productmanager at a medical devices company. I also love food (lots and tasty) and an occasional drink (wine).

Cattery policy

This next section is about our cattery policy.

British Shorthair virus

We are fans and breeders of the British Shorthairs & Selkirk Rex catbreeds. 

In 1999 we bought our first British Shorthair after saving up for a while. After so many enthoustiastic stories of other breeders we started showing and started thinking about a first litter. The British Shorthair virus caught on to us and we're never gonna get rid of it. Because we wanted to breed in a official matter we registered our cattery with 'Sociëteit van Kattenliefhebbers Neocat' (the dutch Cat Fanciers Society).

It doesn't seem like a long time, but we believe that the amount of years one is breeding doesn't equal the knowledge you gather or the intention with which one breeds. There are enough breeders who have been breeding for ages, but still don't know about genetics or still don't test their cats on hereditary diseases. 

TheSelkirk Rex

Charakter and health

We breed for character and good health. And because health is very important to us, we deflea, deworm our cats regularly, they are tested for Felv and Fiv before mating, they are tested for HCM yearly, and once for PKD (both hereditary diseases), they are vaccinated yearly and they are supervised by our vet drs. Emil Visnaric of Dierenkliniek Walenburg in Rotterdam.

We always advise buyers to buy a kitten from tested parents (HCM, PKD, Felv and Fiv).

You always should ask to see the parents testresults. A breeder who only breeds with (negative) tested cats, won't have anything to hide! When one encounters a kitten from not-tested parents, the only advise we will give is to 'walk away', eventhough the kitten is 'SO Cute'.

It's not our goal to just breed showcats. Neither do all our cats/kittens need to become breeding cats. Our cats and kittens are first always our beloved children and are part of our family. If they qualify for breeding or showing is secudary.
For the British Shorthairs we don't make price differences in show/breeding kittens or kittens who don't qualify (usless there is a great fault). It's up to you whether or not you want to show or breed or not. We will, on the other hand, be very honest with you whether a kitten is (potentially) qualified to be shown or bred. And off course we adjust our kitten prices to the country we ship to and shipping costs aren't included in the kittenprice. With the Selkirk Rex we do have different prices, the kittens who are sold as house pets are sold for a different (lower) price than the ones who are sold for showing and breeding. The price depends on quality of type and curl.

What is stated above doesn't mean we're just doing something while breeding. Every step we take is weight out and thought through. Our goal is to contribute to the breeds we love. And if that will take years to accomplish, then so be it. We rather take it slow, than fly the fast track.

Not a kittenmill

Our girls/queens are not used as kitten producing factories and only will give birth to a litter once every one and half or 2 years (a litter is very straining on the mother). That's why most of the time we only have 1 to 3 litters a year. 

Rearing a litter is not something to go lightely about. It may happen that the first nights and days you have to bottlefeed the babies every two hours. We both work, but it's no problem for us to take leave for this. There's always some one home around the time we expect a litter.

In general you're up and about for several months for a litter. Finding a mate, go take a look at him, waiting for the queen to go into heat, take the queen to the chosen stud, getting her again. Making sure that she's pregnant without problems. The delivery of the babies, rearing them for 13 to 14 weeks. Breeding is more than 'putting a stud with a queen, equals kittens'. It's not all fun and games, it can go wrong. Sometimes people don't understand this. 

If people buy a kitten with us and want to start breeding, we are always prepared to support them. We think this is important. It's not that we decide for them, they have a mind of their own! Even people who don't have a kitten from us, can ask us for advice. We have a lot of breeder friends behind us, so we know how valuable they are. Together you know more than on your own.

Kittens and their new owners

Our kittens are allowed to leave our house around 13-14 weeks old.

• they are dewormed three times,

• deflead twice,

• vaccinated twice,

• chipped with an identificationchip and twice seen by our vet, they are sold with contract of sales, pedigree, testresults of parents/grandparents, european animal passport and ownerships form and are delivered by ourselves (within reason) together with lots of extra's for kitten and new owner and food for the first few weeks. We do ship abroad (we have two girls in the United States - which we brought there ourselves, we also have kittens in the UK, Sweden, Brazil and Belgium), but not after really gotten to know the new owners. For the girls in the US, we had been emailing for over two years!!!

In fact we don't have rather heavy demands to which a new owner must apply. Off course you must be interested in what is happining to your potential new familymember and therefore we prefer you visiting us several times (from the time the kittens are 4 weeks old). This way we can see if a chosen kittens likes you aswell. And off course we have to think positive of you aswell. You're never obligated to take a kitten after you've visited us (maybe you just didn't like or connect with the kitten or maybe you didn't like us). 

For our British Shorthair kittens we don't ask for a deposit. For our Selkirk Rex kittens we ask for a deposit of 1/3 of the sales price. When a British Shorthair or Selkirk Rex kitten will be moving abroad we will ask for a deposit of 1/3 of the sales price. 

When we have kittens that are available, they will be mentioned as "available" on our site. When you contact us for an available kitten it will change to "option". Then after you've visited us it becomes "reserved". When you have decided you want to give a forever home to that kitten or when a deposit has been recieved the kitten is "sold".

We understand you would like to visit several catteries in your search for a new familymember. This is no problem for us. We (and other breeders) just don't want you to visit us all on the same day. You never know what you bring to a different cattery unintentionally.

In our cattery we mainly breed the following colors:

Blue, Lilac, Black Silver Tabby and Black Golden Tabby. Sometimes we will have other colors in our litters. But we focus on the ones we mentioned.

How the cats live

All our cats (so even the boys) live inside our house. Our kittens are born and raised inside our living room. We wouldn't want to see it any other way!

The cats besides running around the house have their own run in our garden. It's still not finished completely, but you can see some pictures below (for more pictures, you can take a look here). They love it and even with bad weather you can find them outside.

Showing

Sometimes (sometimes often, sometimes not) we show some of our cats. It's great if you win your titles, but it's not the most important for us. We love chatting to breeder friends. Most of us live scattered all over the country or even outside the Netherlands. A show is a great way to get together and swap news.  Off course we are very proud when we hear from a judge that we've bred a good example of the breed and even prouder when we're on stage accepting an award. But as a good breeder you know yourself what the good or bad points of your cats are. And off course a cat with a lot of titles isn't worth more, than one with none at all. Per judge the preffered look can be different. There is a standard, but it's always subjectable to personal interpretations.  We only show our cats who don't mind being shown. Nothing is more tiring than showing a cat that's ill tempered. And the cat might end up sulking days after.

Off course you're always welcome to visit our house/cattery in Spijkenisse, The Netherlands, even when we don't have kittens.

Bye and maybe see you later,

Raymond and Geneviève