katzenzeitung
office@katzenzeitung.eu

Breeders must have basic knowledge about genetics. Or not?

Many breeders are successful, when it comes to the success of their kittens on shows. But this success is not based always on solid knowledge about the basic terms of genetics, the success is based on clever shopping politics or based on the fact that the same stud, which has a lot of wins, is used more frequently. One can see it in the pedigrees of several breeds, much line breeding and much inbreeding.

The success having "typy" kittens may be reached in short time. But, unfortunately genetic defects also do occur quite fast, which cannot be bred off in a couple of few generations.

External traits are frequently in the centre of interest in several breeding programs. It may be questioned, if such politics contributes to the improvement of a breed, when thinking in genetic terms concerning the populations. The figures of exhibits in several breeds do tell us a different story. These small figures are not by random. In the 1990th the longhair category was one of the largest categories in shows, today it is a very small category.

The articles intend to facilitate the understanding of genetics and will give many examples from the practical point of view.