Goals of the Ragdoll Kitten Information Project:
1) to collect current information on Ragdoll litters, including morbidity and mortality data;
2) to provide information to breeders to assist them in their breeding program;
3) to help compare Ragdoll kitten data to that collected for other breeds
Project Outline:
Participating breeders from around the world will enroll in the Project by filling out a cattery enrollment form. Breeders will submit data in a confidential manner to the project manger (Dr. Little). The raw data will only be viewed by Dr. Little and will not be housed on the internet. Summaries of the data collected, with no identification of individual breeders, will be made available on this website as the project progresses. Quality of the data submitted will be important and this will be monitored by Dr. Little.
Data Collected:
The data will be collected using a simple web-based submission form for litters born between Oct. 1, 2002 and Sept. 30, 2003. The type of information collected will include:
- the number of kittens per litter
- kitten birth weights
- parent blood types
- male/female gender ratio
- rate of stillbirths
- congenital defects
- kitten illnesses at two time points: up to 1 month of age; by 6 months of age
- kitten mortality at the selected time points
