Overpopulation of cats - What Can We Do?

[borderdawn]

Charlie.
I am NOT having a go but you really should reconsider breeding if you are not familiar with the basics of cat conformation. The "bite" in a cat or dog is imperitive to its standard. A badly conformed jaw can lead to very serious problems for the animal concerned.

Fran.
I will still disagree here, I know a perfect dog or cat has never been born if we are talking breed standards and showing, but ANY fault that can be clearly seen, should not be bred from in my opinion, our aim should be to produce animals that fit the standard, not almost not quite fit the standard, starting with a known fault like a jaw fault will always come through.
Dawn.

[Fran]

Originally Posted by borderdawn

Fran.
I will still disagree here, I know a perfect dog or cat has never been born if we are talking breed standards and showing, but ANY fault that can be clearly seen, should not be bred from in my opinion, our aim should be to produce animals that fit the standard, not almost not quite fit the standard, starting with a known fault like a jaw fault will always come through.
Dawn.

Dawn, I agree with you

[charliebubs]

Originally Posted by smudgley

That was my point Dawn.

a) that you shouldn't breed from animals with faults anyway, but b)if you do (as Charlie suggested with the eye colour) by going to the other extreme of the fault it is just doubling up on faults - not eliminating them.

What I'm trying to say is that if you put an animal with a fault to an animal with another fault, you are not going to get a good litter with neither fault.

Charlie - you are breeding cats & you have never heard of a scissor bite?

Perhaps I haven't explained what I was trying to say quite eloquently enough Obviously I don't mean that I would breed any animal with a fault as such, what I mean is that if something isn't quite ideal that you could breed to better it. For example, Lily has a small head - this is not a genetic fault or indeed any fault - she is perfect in every other way (!) but by putting her to a big cat, who is bigger boned - she shouldn't produce kittens with small-ish heads. The same with eye colour - I didn't mean going to extremes - just that if one cat has a pale eye colour then you could put it to a cat with fantastic, deep eye colour and produce better eye colour in the kittens.

That's why Siamese were outcrossed with Raggies many moons ago.........to bring in the deep blue Siamese eye colour

Originally Posted by smudgley

I know that's what you said Fran, but I don't think that's what Charlie was saying.

It is what I was saying - just perhaps not as well

Originally Posted by borderdawn

Charlie.
I am NOT having a go but you really should reconsider breeding if you are not familiar with the basics of cat conformation. The "bite" in a cat or dog is imperitive to its standard. A badly conformed jaw can lead to very serious problems for the animal concerned.

Dawn.

Of course I know what a "bite" is - but I have never heard the term "scissor bite". Plus I have not come across any problems with bite in Ragdolls (not like Persians for example) so I haven't had any experience of it.

I really don't want to have another Catsey disagreement. I know what your thoughts on breeding are - full stop - so we could just leave it at that?!

[smudgley]

Thankyou for explaining.

Now I understand what you meant Charlie.

[borderdawn]

I dont think you do know how I feel about breeding Charlie, Ill tell you. I have ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEM whatsoever with responsibly bred litters of kittens or puppies for that matter, its something I have been directly involved with for the last 18yrs! I have whelped many bitches from 3/4 different breeds, docked tails, removed dew claws (when legal) hand reared puppies and kittens and raised litters of kittens for animal rescues, I hope thats clear now.

I think youre being a bit naive to think Ragdolls do not have mouth faults, they do, I agree perhaps not to the extent a Persian might, but Ive seen them myself at work.

What is breeding and showing all about Charlie? Producing the best? showing the best? So theres the litter in front of you, the breed should have a long muzzle (hypothetically) this kitten is lovely but its muzzle is really short, not suitable for showing, what do you do with it? sell it as a pet! right? In months to come the jaw develops, the bottom jaw continues to grow and thats the one that will in all probablity turn undershot, what would you know about it? given the fact that the majority of kitten and puppy owners do not keep in touch with the breeder, you will never know how that kitten turned out.

Im sure Fran, Smudgely etc.. will confirm this, you are not likely to have seen problems like this if you havent been in it long, and if you havent been around pet cats of any breed at an adult age, you are never ever going to see these faults in the show ring.

I hope you understand, im not trying to be awkward, you know how I lack tact, but I just wanted to tell you how I felt.

[charliebubs]

I understand Dawn.

[borderdawn]

I hope so, my mouth flaps at a rate of knots, and I often am less than careful with my words than I could be, I dont mean it, its just the way I am, straight to the point!
Dawn.