Musing Man
Junior Member
Your vet seems to be rather ignorant if she mentioned „more jumpy genes” in cats.
Cat breeds can be created, maintained and perpetuated almost like in any other species.
The apparent ”maintenance difficulty” with any breed comes from several important factors such as breed interest, breed control and degree of domestication. As always, all these terms aren't very well defined in themselves, therefore their meaning is rather loose.
I know the OP is after the ”bigger picture”, but let me stick with cats vs. dogs for a while, for the sake of the argument.
Breed interest deals with what we, as humans, are after in a particular species at a rather fundamental level. We took the most sociable wolf cubs and bred them for a variety of (working) purposes - traction, guarding, hunting, herding etc. - pretty much all of those being profound/deep and even conflicting traits. But the main selection was centered on one single most important trait: obedience (since they can also be very dangerous for us). The ”cosmetic breeding” began much, much later.
Not so for the cats: we let cats breed themselves, as their ”job” remained pretty much singular for millennia - catch mice. They weren't dangerous, so obedience was not an issue; it still isn't for most people. And cats aren't really domesticated anyway.
Breed control is a factor that deals with several other sub-factors, such as the degree of the animals' independence, the environment AND ensuring a healthy genetic base. A ”dog population” can be easily controlled, while a ”cat population” is a notion we still strive to even comprehend. Dogs are orders of magnitude easier to discipline than cats, especially when mating. This concerns mostly the ”cosmetic breeding” - the ”outside” features of a given species or breed.
Domestication degree is crucial to both of the above, for obvious reasons. This has to do with ”imprinting permeability” of a given species or breed - how prone it is (or not) to our influence or mere presence.
All that said, the number of recessive genes is unavoidably different from one species (or breed) to another. To my knowledge, of all domesticated animals, the humble pig reverts most quickly to its natural wild state. And if a feral/wild cat or dog is almost always still tamable, I defy anyone to tame a wild boar.
Cat breeds can be created, maintained and perpetuated almost like in any other species.
The apparent ”maintenance difficulty” with any breed comes from several important factors such as breed interest, breed control and degree of domestication. As always, all these terms aren't very well defined in themselves, therefore their meaning is rather loose.
I know the OP is after the ”bigger picture”, but let me stick with cats vs. dogs for a while, for the sake of the argument.
Breed interest deals with what we, as humans, are after in a particular species at a rather fundamental level. We took the most sociable wolf cubs and bred them for a variety of (working) purposes - traction, guarding, hunting, herding etc. - pretty much all of those being profound/deep and even conflicting traits. But the main selection was centered on one single most important trait: obedience (since they can also be very dangerous for us). The ”cosmetic breeding” began much, much later.
Not so for the cats: we let cats breed themselves, as their ”job” remained pretty much singular for millennia - catch mice. They weren't dangerous, so obedience was not an issue; it still isn't for most people. And cats aren't really domesticated anyway.
Breed control is a factor that deals with several other sub-factors, such as the degree of the animals' independence, the environment AND ensuring a healthy genetic base. A ”dog population” can be easily controlled, while a ”cat population” is a notion we still strive to even comprehend. Dogs are orders of magnitude easier to discipline than cats, especially when mating. This concerns mostly the ”cosmetic breeding” - the ”outside” features of a given species or breed.
Domestication degree is crucial to both of the above, for obvious reasons. This has to do with ”imprinting permeability” of a given species or breed - how prone it is (or not) to our influence or mere presence.
All that said, the number of recessive genes is unavoidably different from one species (or breed) to another. To my knowledge, of all domesticated animals, the humble pig reverts most quickly to its natural wild state. And if a feral/wild cat or dog is almost always still tamable, I defy anyone to tame a wild boar.
