Ocicat — questions to ask before paying a deposit
A responsible breeder will have these readily available. Deflection is a red flag.
Progressive retinal atrophy, rdAc type (PRA-rdAc)can shorten life or cause chronic pain
A recessive, late-onset blindness: affected cats have normal vision at birth and lose it gradually. UC Davis names 'some Ocicat' lines explicitly among the affected breeds, alongside Abyssinian and Somali, from which the Ocicat descends.
Ask to see: UC Davis VGL PRA-rdAc DNA test on both parents.
UC Davis VGL — Progressive Retinal Atrophy (PRA rdAc) (Abyssinian) (https://vgl.ucdavis.edu/test/pra-rdac) · Menotti-Raymond et al. 2010, The Veterinary Journal (Table 1, Ocicat rows) (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tvjl.2009.08.010) · Anderson et al. 2022, PLOS Genetics (S4 Table, Ocicat row) (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1009804) · OMIA — Retinal degeneration II (cat) (https://omia.org/OMIA001244/9685/)