Are Siberian cat hypoallergenic?
The short answer is that a majority of Siberians have lower than average FelD1 allergen making them a perfect match for many allergy sufferers. Please keep reading for the long answer!
Hypoallergenic qualities and how they work
The evidence is now irrefutable, some Siberians are hypoallergenic and some allergy sufferer will have no reaction to them. But unfortunately the whole subject is not as straight forward as it appears: please note the words "some" coming back twice in that first sentence! The truth is that allergen level will vary from one Siberian to the next and even within the same litter, from one sibling to the next. The same is true for people, some will react to a tiny dose of Feld1, others can tolerate a medium level of it and some others are actually not reacting to the FelD1 at all but to a different feline allergen altogether and will react regardless of Feld1 level. So you can see how quickly the discussion gets complex!
According to kittentesting.com the basics of how the hypoallergenic qualities are transferred to the offsprings are as follow:
- When 2 normal (meaning high) allergen Siberians are bred together all kittens will have normal allergen level.
-When one or both parents of a litter have lower than normal allergen level, it is likely that some kittens will have lower allergen, but it is unlikely that all of them will.
- Only when breeding 2 extra low allergen Siberians will you insure that all kittens have lower than normal allergen level. (We have one such mating at this time- Galilea and Zoro)
Here is the chart developed by and used with permission from kittentesting.com
Testing kitten's allergen level with this saliva sampling has proven valuable but there is a one thing mentioned on the kittentesting.com website that we need to respectfully disagree on: silver, smoke and bimetallic cats being always high allergen. Over the last 14 years that we have been breeding, we have placed many silver and smoke kittens in homes with allergies with resounding success. Our first Siberian, Vassily, was a red silver boy and we never had anybody react to him, even people with severe allergies! We are hoping to test more of our silver Siberians this year to hopefully shed more light on why that is but in our experience silver and smoke Siberians from tested very low allergen queens are as likely as any other colors to not produce an allergic reaction.
The only time when please refer to kittentesting.com for more info on this test.
Many people with allergies become interested in the Siberian because of their reputation of being low allergen and soon these people find out that they can live "sneeze free" with a Siberian in their home, even sharing their bed without getting any allergy symptoms! Breeders advertising all of their Siberians to be hypoallergenic however are ill informed or have a short sighted way of trying to make a quick profit.
But Siberian
Can you test the specific kitten I want for allergen level?
When we test for allergen level we will test a whole litter of kittens. We do not test a kitten on request. If you do need an allergen tested kitty
Is it true that silver, smoke and bimetallic Siberians are more likely to be high allergen?
Many people with allergies become interested in the Siberian because of their reputation of being low allergen and soon these people find out that they can live "sneeze free" with a Siberian in their home, even sharing their bed without getting any allergy symptoms!
How much are your kittens?
Many people with allergies become interested in the Siberian because of their reputation of being low allergen and soon these people find out that they can live "sneeze free" with a Siberian in their home, even sharing their bed without getting any allergy symptoms!
Contact
I'm always looking for new and exciting opportunities. Let's connect.
123-456-7890