Dwarfism in feral cat colonies?

[levi68]

Has anyone seen or heard of a form of dwarfism that is due to inbreeding in a cat colony such as a rural farm or other feral colony?

I have a friend who owns a goat form who is seeing several kittens born this year that just don't seem to grow.

She brought a female into her home that is now 6 - 7 months old and looks like an 11/12 week old kitten. Even her vet says it's a dwarf. There are several others like it.

 

[StefanZ]

It is mostly a result of inbreeding by itself.   Of coruse, if a dwarfism gene comes in in such an inbreeding colony, they will be pure-bred into this gene.

But this gene not necessary for them to be lesser and lesser.

A typical remedy is to change toms with some other colony far away.

Or to neuter them all.   

 

[levi68]

The coyotes have taken quite a few this fall. The ones who wander out to hunt. There are too many to neuter and toms will show up from neighboring farms. Not too mention drop offs etc.

The males born in the past year or two, do not appear to have an interest in breeding. They are a working goat farm so they are around the cats most of the time.

She has about a half dozen kittens that are still around that were born in the spring but still look to be around 12 weeks. They are healthy otherwise.

They were able to rehome some of the cats to other barns as their numbers were getting crazy high. Prob because they feed them twice a day and give them goat milk twice a day.

I just wondered how common this was. I was wondering if these dwarf females will be fertile or infertile like the males appear to be.
 

 

[mari1988]

Not sure about the dwarf situation, but if you have a low cost spay/neuter or a free spay & neuter to low income family or highly populated area it could be humane to use their services versus the innocent cats populating & being left to be killed alive by coyotes.  Just a thought....