Will I tolerate living with a Siberian without experiencing an allergic reaction?

Questions and misinformation abounds on the topic of the hypoallergenic nature of the Siberian. I would say do your research, but I think you would just end up more confused than when you first began. The Siberian Research Council is actively looking for more concrete answers but they may be a while in coming.

I will try to sum it up from my understanding of the information that we have available to date.

First of all let me clarify that hypoallergenic does not mean non-allergenic. The Siberian breed as a whole produces far less FelD1 (the protein responsible for causing an allergic response in most affected individuals) than other breeds as a whole. You may have had a cat that did not bother your allergies at all, but all other cats do. That is because low FelD1 production appears to be a recessive trait. We believe this recessive trait became dominant in the Siberian breed over many years of naturally selective breeding in Russia.

Within the Siberian breed there are high and low producers. Unfortunately breeding very low FelD1 producing kittens is not as simple as just pairing up two low producing adults, as two high producing adults can have very low producing offspring. There are tests available to determine with relative accuracy what levels of FelD1 an adult cat produces, but they are unreliable in young kittens.

FelD1 production is affected by a number af variables. Genetics, gender, and hormones all come into play with whole males and cycling females being the highest producers.These variables can be ameliorated by altering your cat as altering a cat reduces their FelD1 production.

Further complicating the matter is the fact that a kitten’s true level can not be determined until adulthood. And even if it could there is no way for any individual to determine at what level they will react to the protein. These are all issues the Siberian Research Council is seeking to address but until then there are some ways to help determine your reactivity to the Siberian.

The question you want answered is, “Will I tolerate living with a Siberian without experiencing an allergic reaction?”

How can I see if this will work for me?

To date the only way to figure this out is to try and see. But you obviously can’t bring home a Siberian cat on a trial basis. No breeder can guarantee that you will not experience a reaction to a Siberian. This is why breeders rely on the results obtained from performing fur sample tests.

The idea behind the test is to expose the allergic individual to increasing ammounts of the allergen over a prolonged period of time. If no reaction is seen it is a pretty good indicator that the individual will not react to the actual cat. The accuracy of the test is dependant on obtaining a fur sample that has sufficiently high FelD1 levels.

Be sure the sample does not just contain fur from the kitten whose levels can be lower than they will be when it reaches adulthood. Ideally, the sample should contain hair from multiple adults including the kittens parents, as whole males and fertile females have the highest levels. If there appears to be no response to the fur sample test it is a good indicator that an individual’s sensitivity to the allergen is not significant enough to pose a problem with bringing a kitten home.

It is possible to have a slight reaction to the fur sample test (as it contains fur with the highest possible allergen levels) and yet have no reaction at all to the actual cat you would be bringing home. Ideally a live test can be performed where the individual can spend time in the breeder’s home interacting with the kitten as well as the adults in the cattery to further confirm their lack of sensitivity. From my experience this has been a very reliable way to determine if an individual can live with a Siberian and be symptom free. I highly encourage potential adopters to come and do a home visit.

You can read about my personal experiance as an allergy sufferer on my “about me” page.