Caring for inbred kittens

I’ve recently taken on the role of looking after my mother-in-law’s cats as she has recently been hospitalised. She is a very frail lady and although loves her cats I have to admit she has been rather reckless. She has three cats, two girls Jasmine and Deirdre that are sisters and one boy, Alfred son of Deirdre. Last week I took Alfred and Deirdre to the vet to be neutered. That rectifies one problem! However, Jasmine is heavily pregnant by Alfred (her nephew). They are purely indoors cats, so he is definitely the father.

My concern is looking after these kittens once they are born. I’d like to hear experiences from people who have been in this situation or have had inbred cats as pets. What are the chances of the kittens surviving? Will they be disabled or need extra care? Will they be suitable as pets if I re-home them?

Once Jasmine has had her kittens and the vet says it’s OK. I will have her neutered also.

I'm new to this site. But thank you in advance for anyone who can help.

Love, Diana

Thank you so much for caring enough to have these cats neutered and spayed. The household will be much quieter now and calmer. There is a lot of inbreeding going on, some on purpose if breeders are looking for a certain trait and it is only in that family. It can go either way, but the chances are good everything will be alright and the kittens will be normal. I would ONLY re-home these kittens if it is understood they need to be neutered because some deformities come out in the second generation. Talk to your vet, or a breeder who I'm sure would know about inbreeding problems and can advise you. Good luck and please keep us posted, and once again, bless you for helping these cats!

I highly doubt they will be anything other than just normal kittens. Animals often inbreed naturally and can withstand quite a bit of inbreeding. Aunt and nephew is quite distantly related also. The only thing inbreeding does is bring forth genes that are hidden in the family; good or bad.

Hi and welcome to TCS. Thanks for taking care of these kitties.

It's really hard to say what if any effects of inbreeding will show up. If this is the first generation of inbreeding, hopefully there won't be many apparent effects. Many vibes that birth goes smoothly and kittens are all fine.

Welcome. I posted on your other thread about inbreeding. Don't worry. Inbreeding is a tool used by breeders (I don't breed cats, but I breed mice and gerbils.).

  Hi Diana.  Generally cats seem to tolerate inbreeding a bit better than humans   but  of course the possibility for serious problems depends what genes those particular cats have.   If they DO have some bad recessive gene,   the inbreeding makes it more likely a kitten can get 2 copies and be affected.

Often they don't show any clear problems.  Occasionally inbreeding could mean deformities,  or stillbirths.    but often if there is some severe problem , the embryos may not be viable - they die early in the pregnancy and are  reabsorbed into her own tissue). 

Probably most common is that, if  there's a problem, it is not something obvious at birth,  but there may be a higher risk for developing some disease later in life.   Inbreeding ( more so with repeated generations of inbreeding)  could also cause kittens being smaller than normal , or having weaker immune systems , or they may be not quite bright ( usually not so mentally deficient it would prevent them being a happy indoor pet).

 I would  approach this like any other kittens,  go ahead and re-home.   but it would be great if you could have those kittens spayed / neutered before they go to new homes -- or if your MIL keeps any!  Definitely if a brother and sister both go to the same home they need to be altered, because multiple generations of inbreeding increases the risk....  and some kittens can reach puberty as young as 4 months!   Many spay/ neuter clinics will do it  as long as they're healthy and weigh at least 2 pounds -  or some prefer 2.5 pounds for females. 

 Also  I would make sure they have had 2 sets of kitten vaccinations before they go through the stress of changing homes.   ( I would recommend that anyway,  but would just underline it  when it is possible there MIGHT be some compromised immunity.) 

 I also want to make sure you know that after neutering,  there is a possibility a male cat can still be fertile for up to 7 weeks,  if he has sperm in the tubules.  I definitely know of cases of a cat siring kittens a week or two after he was neutered.  I do think 7 weeks must be rare , but I got that info from a very respected vet school , and I figure,  better to be safe than sorry.    So  Alfred will need to be kept apart from Jasmine after she has the kittens so that she doesn't get pregnant again .  Nursing does not always prevent pregnancy .  There have been cats who got pregnant within days of giving birth,  and it's not healthy for her or the kittens. 

Thanks for stepping in and trying to deal responsibly with this situation and help these cats and kittens.   I hope your mother-in-law will be OK and is at least relieved that the cats are being cared for. 

Excellent advice from Maewkaew.

I second that advice about inbred kittens, it's alot more common than people realize, it sounds like incest but once teenaged kids become sexually mature, they no longer realize who their siblings/father or even mother are, and it's all about mating.

There are a few common "deformities" that may be seen in the kittens but not necessarily, and they are harmless.

These are polydactyl (extra toes like a thumb, which people love to adopt a kitten with this since it looks adorable) , as well as a bent tail, like a kinked tail, or a shorter tail.

Another not-as-common one is the “twisty” mutation, a genetic defect that causes hypoplasia (underdevelopment) of the radius, a major bone of the forearm.

It is when one forearm bone doesn't grow as long as the other bone causing a curved forearm.

Anyway chances are you won't see any problems, just healthy adorable kids!

Thank you. Your advice has helped greatly. We'll just wait and see.