Your perfect little kitten has finally arrived! As you look through all the paperwork it may be hard to know where to start, but one thing you will want to take care of right away is completing your kitten’s registrations paperwork. You will find a CFA “Blue Slip” in the envelope attached to the crate.
CFA (which stands for Cat Fancier’s Association), is the premier cat registry in the United States. Founded in 1906, they recognize 42 pedigreed breeds of cats, and manage the registries for hundreds of catteries across the country. CFA works to maintain a focus on quality of breed standards, provides a platform for cat shows and exhibitor events, and is an advocate of promoting the welfare of all cats.
Here is what you need to know about getting your kitten registered.
Step 1: The Blue Slip
When your kitten was born we completed the first step by completing a Litter Registration. Basically, that just means we notified CFA that we had a new litter of American Shorthair kittens, parented by Cat A x Cat B. CFA then provided a “blue slip” for each kitten in the litter. This “blue slip” is your registration application.
The “blue slip” looks something like this:
Every kitten coming from Silver Shorthairs, will include TALARIAH (our registered cattery name) at the beginning of your chosen registered name. This helps the registry and others to track breeding lines. You will have 2 choices for your kitten’s registered name. We recommend adding something extra to keep it personal to you. For example, “Shadow” and “Max” are very common names for new kittens, so “Talariah Shadow” might get decined if another family has already selected that name for their kitten, but “Talariah Tennessee Shadow” or “Talariah Shadow Maker” have a much better chance of getting approved.
Next, be sure to fill out all your personal contact information so CFA will know where to send the completed registration form.
Step 2: Full registration or Limited Registration
On the right hand side of the form you will also see SECTION C. Note the bottom red box where it says “PIN”. If you have purchased a Pet Quality kitten, this box will be empty. If you have purchased a Show/Breeder Quality kitten though, there will be a number written in this box.
This is how CFA will know whether your kitten has a full registration or a limited registration. A kitten with a full registration has breeding rights. This means that if you chose to breed your cat with another purebred American Shorthair, any resulting kittens could also be registered. A limited registration does not include breeding rights, and thus, any produced would NOT be registerable.
Step 3: Fees and Address
Once you have completed your registration form, you will want to pop it into the mail with a check to cover the registration fee and mail it to the good ol’ folks at CFA (Address: The Cat Fanciers’ Association, Inc., 260 East Main Street Alliance, Ohio 44601). The registration fee is currently just $14.00 if you send it in within 30 days of receiving your kitten, or $19.00 if more than 30 days have passed. We find it usually takes 2-3 weeks after mailing an application before we get the registration certificate back from CFA.
When your registration certificate comes back to you, it will look something like this:
