How to breed true and not sacrifice health and temperament?
This is an important question facing the cat fancy today. The reason people select pedigreed cats as pets, is to have a record of health and temperament coming from the parents as well as the appearance of the individual breed. As breeders, this needs to be our most important focus… to breed temperament and health for life long companionship and care; as well as, creating beauty. To do this several things must take place. • honest evaluation of cats for breeding programs • open exchange of genetic issues both positive and negative of the breeding cats • disclosure of genetic problems when found • accurate record keeping Cat shows are designed to evaluate breeding stock and vigour. They should not be “just another pretty face” but an evaluation of the cats with the most desirable traits to pass on to their progeny. While this is the ideal scenario, it often falls short because some genetic information is not in the phenotype of the cat. This information only becomes apparent when bred
