Question about breeding?

Question

I am not in any way interested in breeding myself, but I have a question. When looking at various cat and dog breeder sites I see something they call Line Breeding and backcrossing. Isn't this inbreeding and if so why don't these animals have health defects.

Answer 1

Dogs and cats can be bred with family members but restrictions do apply. Certain combinations work and others don't. The ones that don't work: Sister and brother, mother and son, father and daughter. Health risks are prominent with these combos and should be avoided. Many times the offspring won't last through the entire pregnancy. The combos that work: Grandparent and grandchild, aunt and nephew, uncle and niece, and cousins. It is favorable to breed these members if the traits and characteritics of the family are good. It is a way to not taint the line. Generally the offspring are very attractive and well mannered.

Answer 2

Linebreeding is crossing back to a cat of the same line..granddaughter to grandfather, niece to uncle, etc. It doesn't have teh same effects for animals as it does for humans. It actually can strengthen the line..in order to do linebreeding though a breeder needs to know exactly what is in the line for strengths and what is there for weakness..if there is more weakness then strength then they would not want to do a line breeding.
Linebreeding/inbreeding is actually a very natural normal part of life in the animal kingdom..it doesn't produce health issues like it does in the human world..it is a whole seperate genetic thing.

Answer 3

yeah it is inbreeding and yeah they do get defects

they just usually kill the ones that have too many defects

Still - a lot of them do die.

"genetically defective sister and brother puppies born with missing paws or faces lacking eyes and a nose. "
"The other four puppies in the litter were so hideously deformed they were killed right after birth. " (last link)

Answer 4

why not