The Breeding of Scottish Folds can be both rewarding and frustrating at the same time. Most people do not realize that usually less than half the kittens born will develop folded ears.  In other breeds, if you have 4 kittens in a litter, you have four salable kittens. With folds, we may get only two with folded ears if we are lucky. The other two kittens will be termed "straight eared" Scottish folds. Since they do not have folded ears the price is less. This is one of the reasons that folded eared kittens are so highly priced.

Since only kittens or cats with folded ears carry the folded ear gene, they are the only ones that can pass it on to their offspring.  If a Scottish fold kitten or cat has straight ears, it does not carry the gene, and cannot reproduce folded ears in its offspring. This means that even if two registered straight eared Scottish Folds are bred together they can never produce a folded kitten. 

When breeding Scottish Folds either the Sire or the Dam should be folded and the other must be a straight ear. If a folded ear is bred to another folded ear, kittens with birth defects are the result. Some unscrupulous breeders will not follow this rule thus increasing the number of folded kittens in a litter. For this reason buy your kitten only from a recognized CFA breeder only.