Culling

Culling at its least controversial is removing an animal from the breeding line and homing it as a pet.

The term is also used for the practise of reducing litter size by removing some of the kittens from the mother. The theory behind this is that it reduces the stress and nutritional load on the mother. The alternative is to supplement the mother's diet to enable her to cope with the kitten's demands.

Ex-breeding stock may also be 'culled' by rehoming or other methods.

Aside from the ethical considerations, the culling of rats has the drawback that it removes some of the data which would have been available for the planning of future litters. This may be balanced by the fact that the breeder has more room to breed more litters.

Culling is one of the issues which often highlights the divide between traditional 'Stock' breeders and 'Fluffy' pet breeders.

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