Though they spend many hours sleeping, as many as 14 hours a day, healthy Folds are otherwise active and alert. They display affection for their owners and interest in mealtimes. the first sign of illness is a lack of interest in food. One missed meal is not cause for apprehension, but the cat that misses two consecutive meals probably would benefit from a trip to a veterinarian, especially if its temperature is elevated or if it displays other symptoms of illness.

A Scottish Fold's ears are no more difficult to keep clean than are any other cat's ears and do not need to be clean more frequently than in other breeds.

Some Scottish Folds are afflicted with skeletal abnormalitites. Those abnormalities are caused by Fold-to-Fold breeding. Therefore, responsible breeders only breed Fold-eared cats to straight-eared cats. We should assume that the fold gene is a simple autosomal dominant with complete penetrance which, in the homozygous state, creates skeletal abnormalities, but in the heterozygous state only creates folded ears with no other health problems.

The first sign of these abnormalities is a thick and short tail. Other abnormalities, like thick feet can only be seen wen the cat is older, or by x-ray in a younger cat. To learn more on bone lesions in Scottish Folds, you can read the Jackson Report: Congenital Bone Lesions in Cats with Fold-ears, by Oliphant F. Jackson Ph.D, M.R.C.V.S., Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, London.