Scottish Fold — questions to ask before paying a deposit
A responsible breeder will have these readily available. Deflection is a red flag.
Osteochondrodysplasia (Scottish Fold cartilage/bone disease)can shorten life or cause chronic pain
The TRPV4 mutation that folds a Scottish Fold's ears also disrupts cartilage growth throughout the skeleton, causing shortened or misshapen limb bones, a thickened and inflexible tail, and progressive, often painful degenerative joint disease. A cat needs only one copy of the mutation to have folded ears and be at risk; two copies bring more severe skeletal disease. Because a folded ear cannot exist without at least one copy of the mutation, the appearance and the disease risk cannot be separated by any test.
Ask to see: TRPV4 Scottish Fold genotyping result for both parents (UC Davis VGL), confirming N/SF rather than SF/SF, plus a veterinary orthopaedic assessment of the individual cat — genotyping rules out the more severely affected homozygous form but cannot rule out the disease itself in a fold-eared cat
UC Davis VGL — Scottish Fold (https://vgl.ucdavis.edu/test/scottish-fold) · Gandolfi et al. 2016, "A dominant TRPV4 variant underlies osteochondrodysplasia in Scottish fold cats", Osteoarthritis and Cartilage (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joca.2016.03.019) · International Cat Care — Scottish Fold osteochondrodysplasia (https://icatcare.org/articles/scottish-fold-osteochondrodysplasia) · UFAW — Scottish Fold: Osteochondrodysplasia (https://www.ufaw.org.uk/cats/scottish-fold-osteochondrodysplasia)