Line breeding is a form of inbreeding

~ Like people no animal is perfect ~

Outcross breeding

Outcross breeding is the breeding together of a male and a female of the same breed who do not share any close relatives. Some limit this to the first four to five generations. With outcross breeding you maintain that greatest genetic diversity. It also offers the least conformity in physical appearance. The differences as well as similarities in the parents will be seen in the offspring. It is not a "blending" of traits but offers a larger gene pool to draw pairs from. Offspring get one half of each gene pair from each parent. Outcrossing also reduces the odds of encountering a genetic disorder. It does not eliminate genetic disorders but greatly reduces the number of offspring affected.

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In breeding ~ Line breeding

(breeding related cats to each other)

Line breeding is a form of inbreeding (breeding related cats to each other) that some breeders use to set characteristics in the progeny (kittens). The doubling up of favored genes with a planned result that will be replicable in future generations. This doubling up can also have undesirable effects. Previously unexpressed recessive genes, including those that relate to health, are doubled up to become dominant. These undesirably effected kittens are placed as pets. Show breeders want the predictability they get from line breeding. It assures them of more kittens that will become winning cats.

One of the most well known show breeders in recent history was Jeanne Singer of Singa Cattery, she rewrote the CFA Siamese Breed Show Standard in 1966. A standard that favored structure over color. The color of the Siamese coat suffered. She later said she regretted that she had erred in not placing additional points on color. She wrote in the 1966 yearbook "Color, alas, with a few exceptions, has gone backwards. Ten or fifteen years ago, breeders and judges were far more demanding and selective about seal color. Examples of good stable seal color could be found in any show room. Woe to the seal whose front legs were pale, whose whisker pads were white, or whose tail was ticked! Hip spots or tiger markings were fatal! Now such deficiencies are overlooked."

Jeanne Singer is well know for line breeding in every other generation. She wrote; "I prefer uncle to niece and vice-versa; cousin to cousin, half-brother to half-sister, grandson to grandmother, and vice-versa. Great-granddaughter to great-grandfather can be very successful", In a pedigree "Many cats from the same family reasonably assures kittens resembling these ancestors.", "Singa Lindette (born 1954) appears up to 15 times in the extended pedigrees of many winning Singa cats today.(1979- note this is a 25 year period and each kitten has to reach breeding maturity)" in this CFA article.

Siamese inbreeding became very popular in the 1970's when the Siamese was undergoing its most accelerated period of structural transformation. From the mid 1960's many breeders followed the thinking, if a little bit is good, more is better. If one crossed related individuals and got good results, crossing again and again would get them spectacular results. Mrs. Fred Galvin of Anaheim CA.is the breeder most often credited for the change of Siamese type with her male named Tee Cee born 5/3/1954. If you look back in a American Show Siamese pedigree you will find this cattery appearing frequently and Tee Cee over and over during his carreer. In a 2006 speech Betty White used these words in her retrospective of this time; "This was the time of the "coffin-head," a skull aberration that we would agree today was grotesque." and " The skull became elongated, the wedge exceedingly narrow, and in the case of one CFA GC male that I saw, the cat did not (or could not) close his mouth. With this configuration, eyes were to the side of the head, a bulge occurred over the eyes in profile, and ears were upright and small."
The negative effect both medically and in temperament became evident. Breeders began seeing smaller litter sizes, resorbed or rejected fetuses, defective sperm, and sterility. Compromised immune systems and mental instability as well as skeletal and metabolic problems. The social and intelligent Siamese became hyperactive and neurotic. The show standard has changed to try to remedy some of the problems. In 1978 the words "soft or mushy body" were added to help remove genes that carried this symptom of a medical problem and ushered in a decade of repair. Many breeders became aware of the damage from inbreeding and began working to bring vigor back.

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