Coefficient of inbreeding (COI) in dogs and cats – a full discussion
At first glance this is a daunting and off-putting topic. However, we have Ben, the TikTok vet to ease us into the discussion ?. He’s great and thanks Ben. He has a nice video...
At first glance this is a daunting and off-putting topic. However, we have Ben, the TikTok vet to ease us into the discussion ?. He’s great and thanks Ben. He has a nice video...
The wild cat news today is that the world’s first albino ocelot has been discovered in Colombia. And the news is not good because the discovery indicates that deforestation in Colombia is resulting in...
They used to cost around $50,000 each in the USA (1992). I have seen various prices from $40,000 to $65,000. However, things have changed dramatically in the USA, the home of the captive white...
“Inbreeding depression” is a euphemism for a general lack of health in an individual purebred cat which has been selectively bred (using artificial selection) for appearance, which automatically incorporates inbreeding. Cat breeders often have...
On my travels through the Internet today I have bumped into what appears to be a huge problem with Sphynx cats: smelly, loose stools in nightmarish quantities. There really are some horror stories on...
There are at least 2 reasons why cheetahs reproduced poorly, which is an added reason why they are vulnerable to extinction in the wild. There has been an approximate 50% decline in population numbers...
Bengal Nose – a comparison between a good nose and an affected nose – photo copyright Helmi Flick This page was first written, as I recall, in around 2009. It has been updated on...
The Cat Fanciers’ Association (CFA) has been under pressure for decades to revise the breed standard i.e. the guidelines, for the flat-faced cat breeds namely the Exotic Shorthair, the Persian and the Himalayan. I...
Herman was the bug-eyed overbred Exotic Shorthair cat (a shorthaired Persian) who, due to his odd appearance, became one of those much heralded and celebrated online cat celebrities with many thousands of followers on...
“Breeding true” means that the offspring look like their parents. It is achieved by “line breeding” which is a form of inbreeding which ideally does not transfer undesirable traits together with those traits that...
Historians at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) studied the inbred monarchs of England and Scotland from 990 to 1800. They were inbred because marriages at that time were unions of convenience both politically...
Here are seven pictures of ugly cats and it is very sad. It is not fun or even interesting. I am publishing them here for a serious reason but I don’t expect anyone to...
I’ve never bred domestic cats and have no desire to do so because I believe that all people should adopt a domestic cat companion from an animal shelter and when that task has been...
NEAR EDMONTON, ALBERTA, CANADA – NEWS (COMMENT): CTV NEWS (and this story is unique) reports that an Edmonton cat rescue has taken in 20 Sphynx cats after they were removed from a home near...
Although there are ten imaginative hypotheses as to why Manx cats have no tails, there is one genuine and less colourful reason which is that the Manx gene cropped up spontaneously as a naturally...