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In breeding cats, it should be remembered that they are carnivorous animals, and therefore it is not advisable to start breeding on such an extensive scale that it is impossible to feed them in a natural way. Breeders should limit their operations to raising a few certain colors. Cats are prolific breeders and will raise three to four families in one year if allowed to do so. If they are desired for exhibition, however, only one litter a year should be attempted. This will insure that much finer specimens will be produced and they will be less likely to contract diseases.

Breeding cats should be chosen for their pedigree and conformation. To attain the best results, one should not cross different colors or varieties, but breed blue to blue, black to black, and so on. In striving to secure a type of cat as near perfection as possible, a certain amount of inbreeding is necessary. This is true in breeding all animals, and although show specimens can be, and are secured without it, it will be found that the good points of parents will not be reproduced in the offspring unless inbreeding is resorted to in order to fix the type.

If one is breeding self-colors, as black, white, or blue, special attention must be paid to the soundness of the color; whites must be free from creaminess; blacks must be coal-black with no white hairs and no shading of the color toward the roots of the fur; the blue cat should be a uniform shade of blue throughout. In breeding tabbies, either the long-haired or short- haired types, the principal point is distinctness and depth of markings, with purity of ground color.

As the best known variety of tabby is the brown, this will serve to illustrate what we mean. In this variety, the ground color must be as clear a sable or tawny color as possible, not ticked with black, and the markings, to be perfect, must be a deep, dense black, not ticked with the brown of the ground color. The tabby markings should correspond on both sides of the cat, and should form distinct lines or necklaces about the throat and chest. The tail also must be tabbied.

NOTE: This article is for information only. See your veterinarian for medical advice.

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