If two cats from the same litter mate, will the kittens be deformed?

Question

My aunt got a brother and sister kittens, two months ago. Intending to have them neutered when they're 6 months, but the female's pregnant! She was told they were 3 months old when she got them, but they must be older. She's taking them to the vet on Friday. Will the kittens be sick, or deformed?

Answer 1

It's likely (but not absolutely certain) that the kittens will be less healthy than normal. One thing about cats is that a female can mate with more than one male during one heat, and the kittens in the same litter can have different fathers. It's possible that they aren't full brother and sister (but that will only make a relatively small difference in the likelihood of their being less healthy).

Answer 2

Cats can be capable of reproducing as early as 4 months of age. Whoever told your aunt to wait until they were 6 months old did her a disservice.

Inbred kittens can turn out completely normal or totally screwed up. You could end up with one or two deformed kittens and a few other totally normal ones. Basically, it's not definite that all the kittens will be screwed up, but there is a possibility.

I know a girl whose cat was impregnated by a son from a previous litter. She had 4 kittens. 3 of them were totally fine and normal physically, but the 4th was a mess; legs fused together, no visible sexuality (the sex organs didn't form right...it looked weird), and she's pretty sure it was completely blind. The mother cat stopped feeding it (of course), so she took it in to the shelter to have it put down.

Your aunt can have her spayed now even though she's pregnant. A total hysterectomy basically destroys all the kittens. Even though I'm against this in some cases, it might be the best thing in this one. The female is much to young to be having kittens, and with the risk of the kittens being completely screwed up, it might be the best thing to just terminate the pregnancy entirely.

Good luck.

Answer 3

A lot of deformities and hereditary diseases are caused by recessive genes. If your aunt's cats are carrying any recessive genes that cause health problems, the kittens are more likely to suffer from those problems than a if they had bred to non-related cats.

However, in most circumstances, the kittens will be okay - the chances that both parents are carrying something life-threatening isn't huge, even if they are brother and sister. Even if they are, it might not show up.

Assuming you want to go ahead and let her have the kits, you'll want to get the male fixed right away (and the female as soon as possible) so that it doesn't happen again, though.

Answer 4

It is a myth that brother sister mating produce deformed babies.

Animals of all kinds are bred brother to sister, child to parent and so on to get a specific trait. Think of cows, horses and dogs.

When animals are inbred for many generations, like some purebred cats and dogs, problems occure because breeders are looking for a spesific physical trait without considering the overall physical health of the animal breed. For example, if you want to make a blue/gray colored doxie, and breed only for that color, you might over look some other trait, lets pretend and say, bad hearts- that might come with that color.
So you might get bad hearts on pretty dogs.....

But random brother sister matings generaly make healthy kittens, unless they both carry a gene that is a specific bad one. This would be uncommon, but it does occure. Manx cats, for example (short tailed/no tailed cats) must be bred carefully to avoid the genetic problems that can come with no tails.

The bigger concern is the age of the mom cat. She is young to have a litter. You have several choices. Sad as it may make you, if she is not too far along, have her spayed. Yes, the kittens will die before they are old enough to be born. But mom will not have to make milk and care for them, and you will not have to find good homes for them, and they will not be born to die in a shelter.

If you want to let her have her babies, you'll need to feed her very well- she is still a baby herself. Consider a high quality kitten diet for mom- IIams kitten is fine, Science Diet is fine. Consider offering her high protien high calorie wet food, hills (vet might have it or can order it) makes a canned food called a/d diet, which is good for providing the right nutrition for a growing kitten who is going to be a mom.

Mom can and probably will have a healthy litter. You can help her by giving her the proper care.

Answer 5

it's possible that there might be something wrong with the kittens. I know dogs are often line bred to "set" certain characteristics and often end up with great looking animals, but breeding two animals from the same litter is very risky. Maybe your Aunt should consider taking the female in for a spay/abort. There are already so many unwanted animals in the world.

Answer 6

If it were speaking of humans yes the child would be deformed. In animal cases it is the opposite. Breeders will have brother and sisters mate all the time. It actualy produces a better off spring thus more and more healthy cute little kittens. It may seem gross but it isnt to the cats.

Answer 7

its true that some breeders will mate siblings in order to make a more refined version of the breed. the idea is that if you mate two purebreds you have an even finer purebreed. that is the way breeders have created persians with extra flat noses and pit bulls with extra broad shoulders. however, this technique often causes long-term complications. those same persians considered fine examples of their breeds suffer greatly from breathing problems. muscular pets often suffer from arthritis and bone diseases.

the kittens will not be born deformed. even in humans the likelihood of deformity is not very high. the problem is with other health problems and even then they are not much higher than the general population. its just that mating siblings gives you a slightly greater chance of genetic diseases. its best to avoid that possibility.

Answer 8

the probabilities that the kittens would be deformed are surely low with this mixture. even nonetheless, the genuine difficulty is the age of this female cat. Cats that become pregnant decrease than 6 months tend to have stillborn or undesirable kittens. it could additionally reason lifetime ailment interior the female cat. in simple terms be very careful. I completely understand. Many vets won't spay that youthful, yet my vet became into prepared to neuter one among my boy cats at 5 months whilst it regarded he would desire to be getting slightly frisky. the different boy cat became into achieved at particularly 6 months. NO spraying! Yeah!!

Answer 9

Not necessarily, they may be perfectly healthy.
Being a farm girl growing up with lots of cats...every once in a while we would have one that was not right in the head...I believe inbreeding to be the problem. I would not advise inbreeding for generation after generation. I'm sure the vet. will be able to explain to your aunt....maybe aborting the pregnancy would be an option. I usually spay and neuter at 9-12 mos. but have not had a male and female at the same time...together...can't stop nature in animals.....I'm sure everything will be fine...good luck

Answer 10

As with any species, inbreeding can cause problems; however, there's not usually any way to know until the kittens are born. Should your aunt wish it, the vet can simply abort the kittens when the cat is spayed.