Cat Behaviour and Inbreeding

Thanks a lot for the educative information on "Inbreeding" in cats. My cats "Matahari" and "Matata" are doll-faced Persian cats and true to the breed standard of the "Traditional Persian cat(Doll-Faced Persian)".They do not possess "Cat Pedigree Certificats" as "Cat Shows" are non-existent in India,just kept as expensive pets at home unlike dogs which do have "Dog shows" and "Pedigree dog certificates"."Cat Fanciers" and "Cat Breeding" is still in its infancy in India compared to Country's having "cat shows" and a "Cat breeding industry" akin to "Pedigree dogs".Kitten"Matata" is definitely of excellent pedigree as certificates are not the only means of judging, true to the "traditional Doll-Faced Persian" profile and robust in health.

For what it is worth I'll chime in too! I don't like the idea of inbreeding. Its purpose is solely to fix an attractive appearance trait. It is unnatural.

In the wild, male wildcats roam (new window) ensuring more healthy genetics and therefore a better chance of survival.

The problems of inbreeding of captive tigers both white and orange (tiger farms) is well known.

And there are many examples of isolated island habitats causing inbreeding. Two cases come right to mind, the Florida Puma or Cougar and the Siberian tiger. There are many others.

On the domestic front the GCCF (the premier cat association in the UK are considering issuing fresh guidelines to breed less for appearance and more for health along the lines of the Kennel Club (the No.1 dog association).

In short I think the concept of inbreeding for appearance has had its day (almost) and a more considerate approach (from the cat's perspective) is commencing, slowly, to focus on health and personality, with appearance coming second rather than the first priority.

I talk about the genetic diversity of cat breeds on this part of a page on cat genetics.

You will see that the Singapura and the American Burmese cats are the most inbred.

Thanks for the article, Rudolph. Of course these are only my views. There are many opinions on this subject.

Hi Rudolf!

Beautiful pair of cats you have there 🙂
I thought I'd chime in here, too, as we have many feral cats dropped at our farm and, though we try to catch and fix all some we cannot catch and they breed; father to daughter etc.. In our case they are all red tabbys and flame points that result from the cross of the one female we have yet to catch and the wiley Tom! The kittens are large, beautiful and healthy, easy to place in homes with all the kids here for lessons. I feel guilty for adding to the overpopulation problem, but we didn't cross them on purpose.
I'm sure there is a wealth of information on the internet about in-breeding for improving the breed etc... that said, please be sure you can place all resulting kittens in good homes before you actually try it 🙂

Rudolph,

Yes, the behavior you describe about an in heat queen is normal, & they do normally chill out after that, especially if they have feline company to do what I call "cat stuff" with. However, since you have NO idea of her pedigree, or the pedigree of the male you bred her to, you have NO idea of what the genetic health is of either cat. Without being armed with that knowledge, there is NO way that I would recommend that you breed the son to his mother. You are doubling up on gene pairs that you don't have a clue about. They could easily be hiding undesirable recessive traits that could spell a death sentence for the kittens. Quite honestly, I would spay the mother, neuter the son, & search out a breeder in your half of the world that has a pedigreed program, even if it means paying a fair amount of money for the cats, & paying the import fees to do so. That way you KNOW that what you are starting with is correct in type, bred to the written standard, and genetically sound.