Could there be health risks? They aren't mine, it happened to a friend of mine, but the kittens came out and seem to be healthy, I just wonder if they should be worried about giving them away to people knowing they are inbred.
2006-07-03 10:22:06 · 14 answers · asked by Sarah K 1 in Pets ➔ Cats
It happened to a friend of mine's cats, but watch out, if it goes too far, after so many generations there will be many health risks. These health problems include, but are not limited to deformations!
2006-07-03 12:30:58 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
There are health risks, and here's why (basically):
Every cat has genes. It gets them from its parents. When they mate, their genes and the other cat's genes pool for the kittens.
Some traits are recessive- a cat may have the genes, but not the trait. If these two mating cats both have recessive genes for a certain trait, the trait may show up in the kittens. If it is a bad trait, the kittens may have it. They will have the genes.
This is where parent/child breeding produces problems. If mom has a recessive gene for a bad trait, her kitten will also have it. When they mate, their kittens may end up with it. This is why kittens parented by close relatives are more likely to exhibit problems.
The flip side it, they have may good trait recessive genes. Some expert breeders breed relatives in hopes of this. It is called line-breeding or inbreeding.
This is also why mix-breed kittens tend to be healthier- because they come from a much larger gene pool.
As for giving away, most problems are noticeable- craziness and deformities and such. There could be more subtle problems such as weak bones, but these are possibilities in all kittens.
Hope this helps!
2006-07-03 16:28:07 · answer #2 · answered by aeiou12 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Of course they aren't pickey, I would suggest asking your friend to get her female spayed, they can have 3 or 4 litters a year, sometimes they will mate within days of giving birth. I am sure there are low cost places where you live. It's so much more healthy for the female and male cats. Plus the cat population is still out of control, it's the best gift you could give them, There are thousands of cats a year that have to be destroyed because they don't or can't find homes, it's very sad, I have 8 they are all altered.
2006-07-03 14:32:13 · answer #3 · answered by halfpint 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As a matter of fact, I have kittens like that as well! This is sometimes called "linebreeding". With cattle, some people purposely line breed their animals so that the resulting cattle are more uniform and you can get superior animals this way. This only works however if there is no defective gene in the animal to begin with. In Hereford cattle (sorry I am referring to cattle so much-Its just that they are the animals that I am most familiar with!) they have a dwarfism gene. If the beginning animal has this gene, then the linebred animals will eventually begin to show increased incidences of dwarfism than normal. Sometimes with cattle they will take one male and breed him to twenty-five of his daughters. If there are any defective genes, mathematically, you should have four representations of it in the twenty-five resulting babies. This is how they insure that they are starting with animals with no bad genes.
I know that dogs and people can get messed up if they are linebred for too long. I have cats that have been line bred for approximately three generations and none of them are messed up yet, so they probably don't have any defunct genes.
Concerning your friends kittens: If the kittens look and act normally then I wouldn't be worried. I would just make sure that the linebreeding doesn't continue, because if there is a defective gene it will eventually express itself in future generations. If the linebreeding stops then any defunctive gene will be diluted and will only express itself slightly more often than it would in a normal animal.
Hope this helped!
2006-07-03 10:39:07 · answer #4 · answered by red-head Susan 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Of course. Animals are not like humans. And face it, some humans do that too. GET THE CATS FIXED!!!!! That is the smart thing to do!!!! Over time inbreeding will lead to less thrifty cats.
Some people just aren't too smart. If your friend can't figure this out of themself, there is little hope.
This is not LINEBREEDING. This is INBREEDING. Most all animals would do this. They do not know they are mother and son. Cats and dogs just do not REMEMBER that they were/are related.
2006-07-03 10:26:41 · answer #5 · answered by ARE YOUR NEWFS GELLIN'? 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well i have only one boy cat! and a hundred girl cats! well i say its not bad because! my cat molly she had a batch of kittens and so i kept two and one was a female named carrottop our male cat not from the batch had a batch with her then we kept melody and she had a batch with that same male and we kept a cat named sprinzzey she is a female and she also had a batch with that same cat! so ya its really really crazy of course are house is crazy!
2006-07-03 10:40:55 · answer #6 · answered by irishdragoncoffee 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Technically, they are more likely to suffer from genetic diseases - practically, you probably won't notice any difference. But if you don't want your [or your friend's] animals breeding willy-nilly, get them fixed! There are enough unwanted animals in the world already!
2006-07-03 10:29:00 · answer #7 · answered by rissaofthesaiyajin 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I guess it's possiable, not sure about the health risks in cats.
2006-07-03 13:34:10 · answer #8 · answered by macleod709 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
YUP.... It happens, all the time, when thier owners aren't responsible enough to get them spayed and neutered. animals don't know what incest is.
2006-07-10 08:12:20 · answer #9 · answered by Katt 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There might be health issues with inbreeding, but it has happened.
2006-07-03 10:25:12 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋