Breeding

breeding

A cat breed is an infra sub specific rank for the classification of domestic cats. A cat is considered to be of a certain cat breed if it is true breeding for the traits that define that breed. Only three percent of owned cats belong to a cat breed, and an even smaller percentage of those are suitable as show cats. A registration certificate proves that a cat belongs to a cat breed by showing the cat's pedigree back to at least four generations. The whole concept of cat breeds is a relatively new one. Two hundred years ago there was no such thing, however today there are almost a hundred cat breeds. Varieties of domestic cat can also be identified by characteristics other than breed.

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Did you know one female cat's cumulative offspring in ten years could total over 80 million

2 litters per year
2.8 surviving kittens per litter
10 year breeding life
in 10 years could reach 80,399,780

PLEASE SPAY AND NEUTER YOUR CAT
Breeding Techniques - As breeders, we often refer to a cat or the pedigree of a cat as being inbred, linebred or outcrossed.Although we refer to a cat using these terms, we are actually referring to the cat's pedigree.

Have you ever wondered why breeders place such emphasis on the "structure of the pedigree"?

Read More: http://www.showcatsonline.com/x/breeding_technigues.htm

Reds, Creams and Inbetweens - Dr Kerry Fowler MSc PhD Grad Dip Ed
Published in NSW CFA Catching Up 5(3/4):5-6(2003)

Current registration systems in most Australian cat councils work on the concept that two solid cats cannot produce a tabby kitten. In the main this policy is absolutely correct however in the case of the orange or ‘O’ gene cats ie creams, reds and the less vibrant reds known as ‘gingers’ and ‘marmalades’, sticking to this hard and fast rule often results in no end of controversy and confusion. Breeders are obliged to register red or cream tabby marked kittens from solid parents as red or cream selfs and in turn judges are required to assess them as such despite some of these red or cream kittens and cats having an abundance of clear tabby markings..............

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Genetic principles
Clear-coated reds and creams
Dense tortoiseshells
Sex chromosomes, linkage and X chromosome inactivation
Male tortoiseshell cats
Testis-determining gene resides on the Y chromosome
Lessons from the world’s first cloned kitten ‘Copycat’
Patched blue tortoiseshells versus intermingled blue-creams
Tricolours
Shell, shaded and tabby cameos
Apricot – a dominant density modifier gene or a misspelt recessive dilute density gene
Color speciality breeding - a bygone era?
Time to revisit registration and show standards

Read More: http://cccofa.asn.au/reds.doc

SIMPLE GENETICS - For Cat Judges & Breeders - by Diana F Arnold

How do you know when a white cat is really a tabby point? Simple-you look up his jeans-sorry, genes! Most people turn off when you start talking about genetics. You can tell because their expression becomes glazed, and they get that 'out to lunch' look in their eyes. They change the subject at the first opportunity, nod off or wander away. It is not necessary to have a university degree to understand simple genetics-you just have to be interested-the more you learn about the subject, the more fascinating and relevant it becomes. A basic knowledge of genetics is of vital importance to us as judges and cat breeders.

What is a Breed Standard?

A breed standard is many things:

A Breed Standard is the description of what a perfect specimen of any particular breed should look like.
Each cat registry or federation formulates a written Breed Standard for each particular breed it recognizes.
A Breed Standard includes a text description of the ideal specimen.
A Breed Standard includes a point system - a certain number of points allotted to each different "part" of a cat (coat, color, head, body, etc) which helps determine which characteristics of a particular breed are more important than others.
A Breed Standard also includes allowable outcrosses, accepted colors, disqualifying faults and can even include a description of temperament and personality

Read More: http://www.showcatsonline.com/x/breed_standard.htm

The Pros and Cons of Inbreeding - Sarah Hartwell - Inbreeding is the mating together of closely related cats, for example mother/son, father/daughter, sibling/sibling matings and half-sibling/half-sibling. It is the pairing of animals which are more closely related than the average population. For breeders, it is a useful way of fixing traits in a breed - the pedigrees of some exhibition cats show that many of their forebears are closely related. For example, the name of Fan Tee Cee (shown in the 1960s and 1970s) appeared in more and more Siamese pedigrees, sometimes several times in a single pedigree, as breeders were anxious to make their lines more typey. Superb specimens are always much sought after for stud services or offspring (unless they have already been neutered; cloning may solve that problem in the future) having won the approval of show judges.

Read More: http://www.messybeast.com/inbreed.htm

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Heritable Aspect of Cat Breeding - Susan Little DVM

Read More: www.catvet.homestead.com

The Cat Fanciers’ Association, Inc. - The World’s Largest Registry of Pedigree Cats - CFA recognizes 39 pedigreed breeds for showing in the Championship Class, 1 breed in the Provisional Class (LaPerm), and 1 breed (RagaMuffin) as Miscellaneous (effective with the 2006-2007 show season)

Read More: www.cfainc.org

CFA Household Pet Class - Household pets are judged in one group without regard to sex, coat length, age, or color. There is no written standard for Household Pets, although the CFA Show Rules state that they may NOT be de-clawed, and if they are over eight (8) months of age they must be neutered or spayed. They are judged instead for their uniqueness, pleasing appearance, unusual markings, and sweet dispositions.

Read More: www.cfainc.org/shows/hhp.html

Varieties of Domestic cat

The decision to breed - Breeding a cat should not be undertaken without a thorough understanding of what is involved. Many people get into cat breeding thinking it would be fun to have a litter of kittens to play with. Often, consideration is not given to the need to have healthy kittens that will need to be placed in good homes. Properly caring for breeding animals; care of the queen during pregnancy, queening, and after delivery care of the kittens and finding good homes for the kittens is a time-consuming and very expensive endeavor. Ask any top quality breeder, and they will tell you it takes a lot of dedication, money, and knowledge to do it right.

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Breeding - Articles focusing on issues of breeding and raising pedigreed cats

Ocicat Genetics - Genetics- the dirty word that usually is followed by "I don't understand". Well I will try to keep it really simple. First the basics- for every visible trait (in genetics called Phenotype) there is one Gene. For every gene there is normally 2 or sometimes 3 possible alleles, but there can never be more than 2 present in each gene. The alleles tell the gene what to look like. Some alleles are stronger (dominant) than others (recessive), and rarely the same strength (co-dominant). A dominant allele only needs one while a recessive allele needs 2 to tell the gene what to look like. The way you express the genes is by using the pair of alleles it is made of. (Bb) is an example. Now down to the genes. Read More
Tabby - The cat striping pattern is determined by an autosomal gene, tabby, with multiple alleles. There are two common striping patterns, mackerel (parallel) or blotched (characterized by thick stripes or whorls), seen in non-pedigreed tabby cats.

Coat Colors & Patterns - In genetics it is common to designate a standard or "wild type" to which we can compare deviating forms. You are probably familiar by now with the wild type D. melanogaster with a tan body and round red eyes. For the domestic cat we will consider the "wild type" as the phenotype that most closely resembles the ancestral wild cats from which Felis catus was most likely domesticated

Basics of Color and Pattern Inheritance - scanned image (takes a while to load)

Color Chart - Solid Color - Cat Fanciers' Association(CFA)
Read More: www.cfainc.org/breeds/chart-solid.html

Color Chart - Pointed - Cat Fanciers' Association(CFA)
Color Chart - Sex Linked Red - Cat Fanciers' Association(CFA)
Read More: www.cfainc.org/breeds/chart-pointed.html

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