# Having a hard time believing this is true



## AbyssinianLover (Oct 25, 2008)

So i was just on askjeeves today and thought i would look up breeding a brother and sister(no i am not breeding a brother and sister) and on one of the things that came up was that breeding a brother and sister cat is fine. Is that true? I really want to send information to this lady that asked me if i wanted to breed my kitten i got from her to his sister. I know some how this is completely wrong and problems will occur.


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

Usually it is okay, though it is frowned upon as the genetics are too similar and any health and physical defects can be magnified. In-breeding and line-breeding are done to lock in certain characteristics of a species' breed(s). In horses this is usually done father to daughter or son to mother. Sometimes half siblings are bred together. In a few cases I've seen full siblings bred together.

My neighbor in CA bought two Irish Wolfhound puppies, a brother and sister. They bred before he could get her spayed and her litter was just fine.

I think the biggest problem is in isolated colonies where the in-breeding is rampant, no cats are leaving and no new cats are coming in to expand the gene-pool.


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## Sol (Feb 20, 2003)

If it's OK or not depends on who you ask. As a breeder and a biologist I stay away from that kind of inbreeding. It's rather common with that sort of inbreeding when it comes to cat and dog breeding. Breeders believe it's the best way to "fix" type and wether it is the best way or not can be discussed forever. I'm of the opinion it's not the best way. Most of the health problem in purebred animals have been created by inbreeding and I don't think anyone who inbred 20-30 years ago did it in order to create sick animals. They probably just believed that they did the best they could in order to breed beautyful and healthy animals. Not really knowing how detrimental inbreeding can be for the general health.


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