Asking, pleading for kittys to gain love from day one.

[Tad Carlucci]

(11-28-2012 11:44 AM)dakillakm Resident Wrote:  OK, I think I understand how the odds are increased for "improving" upon the parents. How does this, in turn, translate to a 25% price drop on cats in the market is my sticking point? Just because I've improved upon a parent by one trait does not necessarily mean that a) I'm going to put that box for sale or b) that that box is more or less valuable than the parent. It seems to me that these factors are based on what traits are improved upon, how much more recessive/new/desirable are the improvements, etc.

The odds worsen from 5-in-2 for success producing any breeding pair to 3-in-4 for producing a pair where each offspring/new-parent has at least one trait improved (more recessive) than one of their parents.

Dropping the age-in without also lowering the age-out allows one extra box. That extra box raises the 3-in-4 odds to 1-in-1.

That means, 25% more people will be producing 'improvements' each generation. And that means the desirability of any cat will be lowered. Why purchase if, baring exceedingly bad luck, you'll produce it on your own?

Whether YOU (the random reader) choose to sell a given cat doesn't enter into it.

If you produced it, you're not buying it.

And if you're not selling it, someone of the several thousand breeders almost certainly will.

Remember, I'm not speaking about individual success. That's controlled by random factors. But when we speak of group success (where the group is 'all breeders') randomness is effectively eliminated and it's simply a matter of turning the breeding crank for results to pop out.