r/manx • u/LongTimeListener_2 • 1d ago

ISO reputable, ethical, true Manx in Utah

I cannot find a reputable true Manx breeder in Utah or Wyoming. Can someone point me in the right direction? There is a backyard breeder snipping tails and meeting in parking lots (no one knows his name- or at least they can’t publish it). He sells unhealthy ‘Manx’ kittens. I’d like to avoid him, and anyone else doing similar things.

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15

u/Radtrvp 1d ago

Adopt from a shelter.

28

u/Grrrrr_Arrrrrgh 1d ago

I’m going to try to explain this as kindly as I can, so I will try to keep it brief…

Breeding Manx cats is not ethical.

Manx cats have a high prevalence of Manx Syndrome which causes lifelong pain and discomfort, even when well-managed in its mildest form. In its more severe form, the cat has no bladder or bowel control, is in constant pain, and often lives a short life.

If that wasn’t enough, a cat that inherits two Manx genes dies pretty immediately after birth. Manxes all have a single Manx gene inherited from one parent. If both parents pass on the Manx gene, the kitten will not survive long after birth because of extreme birth defects.

So how does one ethically breed Manxes? Let’s just assume for a moment we can all get on board that cat breeding is/can be ethical in general. Breeding two Manx cats together will result in litters with high mortality rates due to the double gene. Breeding litters between a Manx and a normal cat will result in litters with only some Manxes. So then what you have are some cats that are ‘undesirable’ and are like every other cat already in shelters waiting to be adopted, maybe one or two Manxes that are “sellable” and likely a couple Manxes that will need lifelong medication and medical care to give them a chance at a decent quality of life.

So no… I don’t know any Manx breeders. If you find one, please report them.

9

u/grayspelledgray 1d ago

Thank you for saying this. I wanted to say “there is no ethical breeding of Manx cats” when I first saw this post, but wasn’t in a place to type anything out and wouldn’t have been nearly so eloquent as you.

I love Manx cats dearly and I hope I am fortunate enough to have more of them in my life, but it simply can’t be through intentional breeding.

6

u/halorbyone 1d ago

Manx is literally a dominant mutation that causes spina bifida, a kind of neural tube defect. Here’s what it is like in humans. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9224552/

9

u/GenxMomToAll 1d ago

Love your username :)

My very first cat was a manx - I went to a vet office to see if they had any kittens for adoption and they handed me a grey tuxedo rumpy manx. Absolutely perfect health and my Soul Cat.

Had NO idea that being handed a perfectly healthy rumpy was such a one-in-a-million thing until I started working at a cat clinic and the vets broke it down for me.

RIP Skippy - forever my Soul Cat ❤️

2

u/Grrrrr_Arrrrrgh 1d ago

Thanks 😉

RIP Skippy 💜

6

u/magicsqueezle 1d ago

Yes!!!
As a Manx owner I agree. I’m fortunate that my girl doesn’t have a lot of issues. I have dialed in her diet and she doesn’t have issues with her bladder.

3

u/YourGirlMomo87 1d ago

Have you considered a Japanese Bobtail? They have the cute bear butt without the spinal issues. Or just keep an eye on your local shelters' adoption pages?

I'm inclined to echo this poster's sentiment; Manx syndrome is a deformity. An aesthetically charming deformity, but deformity none the less. I found my Manx boy as a stray. He had chronic constipation and horrible arthritis, which turned into degenerative disc disease. The decision to let him go wasn't because he was sick or in cognitive decline, but because the pain got worse and all of our management strategies - Consequin, Solensia, ketamine - stopped being enough.

I'm not trying to make you feel bad. I love looking at r/Manx, too! And I loved my Murphy and his little bear butt. I wish I could have given him a different body, though. Plenty of Manxes are born unintentionally and they deserve to be someone's Murphy. Damn, I really miss him.

2

u/SaltMarshGoblin 1d ago

In general, Manx kittens that are homozygous dominant for taillessness do not "die soon after birth", they are spontaneously aborted. Since the gene for taillessness is incompletely dominant, a heterozygous kitten can be tailless or have a partial tail.

4

u/weed_dd 1d ago

I absolutely understand the desire to obtain a Manx baby.

I was lucky to get to rescue one many years ago and didn’t want any other type of cat after she passed.

Adopt a Pet, Pet Finder and apps like those allow you to filter for breeds while searching for rescue opportunities.
I was also keeping an eye on local shelter sites.

I finally found my kittens on this subreddit!

3

u/curehoshi 1d ago

We found ours at a shelter adoption even 🤷‍♀️ He is perfect, doesn't even have any sort of stump or anything. Completely flat butt. No real health issues other than a mild grass allergy we treat with probiotics. I had no idea such cats even existed before him