About us
My name is Laila Meldgaard Petersen, and together with my better half, Mads, I have been breeding Siberian cats since the middle of year 2004. We are a young couple who both are born and raised in the city called Randers, Denmark. Actually it all started with Maine Coons, but we had a really bad start, because we bought a kitten, which was completely unfit for breeding, and had to be put to sleep when it was only 6 months old because of sickness. Already back then, we had a wish of a small cattery, but we became sure that it wasn’t of Maine Coons...
Our first meet with the Siberians, was when we was introduces for the breed on the Internet, in the end of year 2003. We spend a whole lot of time studding the breed, and one day we met a few Siberians on a show in Denmark, where a German woman was presenting hers. By further research we find out that the Siberians was a rare breed in many countries. We contacted many breeders all over the world, but didn’t find what we actually were looking fore. I spring 2004 we got into contact with a German breeder, which welcomed us with open arms! She had the perfect female for us, as we droved down to get a few weeks after. This was our first female; D*Spirit Of New Heaven’s Iljuschka. But then we needed a male for her. We planned to mate her in Sweden, as was the country where we thought there was the highest number of attractive males. But when we made contact to a Swedish breeder, to buy a mate, we were offered to buy the male instead and we couldn’t resist that! So we travelled to Sweden to get our first male; RU*Svetozar Chingi-Tura. He was originally breaded in Russian and then imported to Sweden, where he had been used for several mates.
We became very thrilled by our first two Siberians, which shown us to be of a very good type and got some good results at shows. Our male RU* Svetozar Chingi-Tura became the first Siberian European Champion in Scandinavian, and we were very proud!!!
Our two first Siberians did also have a very good health and temperament, and later on they gave us our first litter, which of cause were some adorable kittens.
On very short time we had relatively many breeder friends all over the world.
In summer 2008 we were married :)
In October 2010 we had our son Mathias :)
With my bag ground as a veterinarian technician (nurse) and with our love to the Siberians, we felt that we were able to contribute with many things in breeding Siberians. It’s a natural and healthy breed, which hasn’t seen much of the day light in the breeding world, and we felt that we had a chance of being there from the start and select the best and most suitable cats, by temperament, health and type. We spend a lot of time studding pedigrees and choose the whole right cats for our breeding and we have been importing cats from many different countries.
It’s our wish and goal to spread out the interest and knowledge about the Siberian breed, and we wish to breed Siberians with a good temperament, which is healthy and has a beautiful type. As a breeder you have an idea of the perfect cat and here started our breeding and goals, and we all know the feeling of wanting more and more…
In spring 2006 we have bought a huge agriculture on 215 square metres with lots of space around, on the outskirts of the city Randers. Plus our normal house, we do also have an outhouse on 235 square metres, which we use some of, for our male cats.
Here is a little bit about us behind the cattery...
Mads is a chef and he's very ambitious. At the moment he works at "Vestas" in Aarhus. His work takes a lot of his time, men when his of he loves to play and pet with all the animals and when time is, he goes to the football pitch and hunt.
Laila is a veterinary technician (nurse) on a hospital for pets in Randers, Denmark. She has been working at the same animal hospital since 1998. She is also educated professional dog training and soon professional dog behaviour therapist also. Most of the spare time is spending on training our Labradors and on the cats. Besides the animals at work and at home, she also spends time on other interests, such as Riding, boxing and hunting.
In Denmark we have the opportunity to voluntarily get our cattery approved by our cat club and a veterinarian every second year, which we have. Our cattery contains several cats, and by having it approved by a veterinarian, we think it’s a sign to others, that our cats live at optimal conditions.
To get a cattery approved, there is some certain demands, such as:
- The cattery/home should be of properly construction and be in good repair.
- It’s not allowed to keep the cats in small cages or rooms, and a cat should always have access to at least 6 square metres on the floor.
- The rooms must be in a suitable temperature.
- There must be sufficient with light and ventilation.
- There must be clean in the cats’ beds, water and food bowls, toilets and etc.
- The cat run must be of a proper construction and be in good repair, and be big enough for all the cats in the cattery.
- The cat run must be dry inside, and the cats must have free access for water and beds.
- The cats must be fed at least once a day.
- The cats must be fed with quality food.
- All area where the cats are allowed must be cleaned frequently.
- All cats must be allowed free access to toilets all the time.
- All toilets must be cleaned at least once a day.
- Both adults and youngsters must be vaccinated once a year.
- Sick animals must be brought to vet and treated right away.
- All cats must be checked and treated against worms and parasites regular.
We only have kittens for the pleasure and we enjoy each litter. Our cats live together with us inside the house and have free access to most of the house and furniture. It’s very important to us, that our cats are well and a part of the family.
Our cats are very social, both among each other, our dogs the family and guests.
Even when we have a large cattery, we do spend all needed time and even more, together with our cats and kittens. Our kittens are raised in our house and they have a large playpen in our kitchen so they are near us all the time. They are well socialized and use to everything so they are well fit for their new homes when they turn 12 weeks old and are able to live a long and happy life with their new family.
Through the years we have made 28 imports from 4 different countries, to get breeding material to our cattery and to improve the breed:
Imports from Russia:
RU*Darina Silva Line
RU*Arwen-Timange Fialka
RU*Aristarkh Chingi-Tura of Meldgaard
RU*Peri Knyaz Gvidon
RU*Adonis-Viktortimo
RU*Luka Laskoviy Zver' Meldgaards
RU*Sherkhan Laskoviy Zver' Meldgaards
RU*Maks Laskoviy Zver'
RU*Rodion Adagio
RU*Potap Trofimic Adagio
RU*Alisa Laskoviy Zver' Meldgaards
RU*Morozhko Laskoviy Zver' Meldgaards
RU*Kukla Sibiriskoe Assorti
RU*Tsezar Malysh Sibiriskoe Assorti
RU*Bal'tazar Sarzhi Belyi Sibiryak
RU*Noe-Iskander Fialka
RU*Tselios-Oblomov Fialka of Meldgaards
RU*Mazaj Urkis of Meldgaards
RU*Gardemarin Urkis of Meldgaards
Imports from Sweden:
RU*Svetozar Chingi-Tura
S*Moya Mechta Forrest
S*Sneschinka Aleksandr
S*Sneschinka Antonina
S*Nikopejas Grifina Sneschinka
S*Knjaze Solnechny Zajchik
Imports from Germany:
D*Spirit Of New Heaven's Iljuschka
D*Spirit Of New Heaven's Wasja Meldgaards
Imports from Italy:
I*Ofelia Anusia
The first of our imports are today the foundation for our cattery. By using the following imports we have improved the breeding through the years and made several of good generations. All of our breeding cats have bloodlines from Russia where the breed original come from.
As we now have bred most of the generations in our breeding cats we know them very well and are therefore able to predict their type, temperament and health pretty well, which make us able to ensure the new families, that they will have a nice kitten.
We regularly renew our breeding by taking the parents out of breeding and keeping an offspring for further breeding, and make new imports. Thus we have a high turnover of our breeding stock and many of the imports of which we have made over the years, can now be seen on the "Former breeding cats." In breeding this way, we are able to continually improve the breed, because we repeatedly select the offspring that are most suitable for breeding. At the same time each cat are not used much for breeding, which otherwise would cause each cat an unnecessary burden and would easily lead to inbreeding, because the breed is so rare and so is the entire gene pool within as the breed is relatively small.
We try to keep many of our bloodlines separated so that if there is suddenly a genetic defect or disease, we are able to limit the damage by shutting down the breeding line. But by keeping our lines separated, we are also able to breed our own cats through generations, without inbreeding. We are also able to offer more than one, two or more cats from our breeding to other breeders, without it meaning they are related.
We only breed traditional Siberian cats, such as nature created them in Siberia, that is not "colorpoint Siberian" (also called Neva Masquerade). We consider Neva Masquerade as a different breed than traditional Siberian, as the color that gives the masked pattern, is created by the Persians and Siamese implicate in the Siberian breed. All our breeding animals are tested for Neva Masquerade color gene, diseases and hereditary disorders (here among heart disease HCM) before they are included in our breeding.
Besides our love to Siberians, we do also have huge love for dogs – Labrador Retrievers. At the moment we have 4 Labradors and a small kennel. We train our dogs and use them for field tests and shows.
If it has court your interest, you can read about our dogs by clicking at “Our Labradors”. Our kennel name is Dream of Labradors’.
We hope you enjoy the time on our web side and that you will find what you are looking for. If you have any questions at all, or just want to talk, you’re always welcome to contact us. Just press "contact us" on the menu in the left side of the page.
