PawPeds: indispensable knowledge base for breeders
- Debbie Sprenger
- Apr 13
- 10 min read
Updated: Apr 13
As a breeder, you make choices every time that affect the health of the breed. Which tomcat is suitable for my queen? How do I prevent combining closely related lines? How do I know what is happening in the background of my cats? For those kinds of questions, there is PawPeds. What started as a simple database has now evolved into the international platform where pedigrees, health, and education come together.
Pedigree Database - More than a Pedigree
Where your cat's pedigree shows 4 or 5 generations, with PawPeds you can look back dozens of generations back to the Foundation where the line started. This is possible for almost every cat breed. It's useful to see where a line comes from, but especially to gain knowledge about your breed.
You can see how many offspring a specific cat has had and when, which cats have been sold abroad, and the colors and sexes of the offspring. For example, you can find out what color genes your cat has or where a specific recessive gene comes from in the line. Health results are also published per breed in the pedigree, from the active health programs that PawPeds has for each breed. Show titles and photos of cats are also recorded, so you can see how well the ancestors performed at shows and what they look like. By publishing the photos, you can see the type over the years and identify which traits come from which ancestor.
The great thing about a central database is that this information is publicly accessible and does not get lost. In practice, you often see that when breeders stop breeding, the website goes offline and much information about certain cats can no longer be traced. Or that some breeders do not want to share information about health tests of a cat. The published information in PawPeds will always remain available.
Reverse Pedigree
You can also select a cat and view the reversed pedigree, which does not give you insight in the ancestors but in all the offspring and generations after this cat. This way, you can see in an overview where this line is located and in which countries and catteries. Did you have a cat that was born 15 years ago? Then you can see if the line still exists today, how it is spread, and who is currently working with it. A very handy feature to use if you are importing a new cat and want to see if the line is already present in the Netherlands.
Search Function
PawPeds has an incredible amount of data about our cats, and with the advanced search function, you can create all sorts of interesting lists, depending on your interests and what you want to know. Here are some examples for inspiration:
- Have you always wanted to know which cats from a certain country have been imported to the Netherlands?
- How many cats from cattery xyz are registered in PawPeds?
- Which breeders in the Netherlands work with a specific color?
Calculations
PawPeds also does quite a bit of important calculations for you as a breeder! The calculations you can perform in the pedigree database include inbreeding coefficient calculation, foundation calculation, and possibly breed-specific calculations. Below, they are explained.
Calculating Inbreeding
It is important to consider the COI calculation (Coefficient of Inbreeding). This shows how much the parents are related of a certain combination. A high percentage indicates a close relation, with associated risks. With the "test mate" function, you can calculate combinations in advance and consciously aim for more genetic diversity. Can you imagine that breeders 30 years ago calculated inbreeding by hand by printing out multiple generations, with the entire floor covered in A4 paper? With PawPeds, it has become a simple click on a button. Just think about it: for a total inbreeding coefficient over 20 generations, no less than 2,097,150 ancestors are counted in the calculation! (Of course, this does not refer to unique cats, as certain cats appear multiple times in the pedigree.) To perform such calculations quickly, a large server capacity is required.
In the inbreeding calculation, you choose for how many generations you want to calculate the inbreeding. PawPeds offers the option to calculate inbreeding from generation 2 to 10. If you want to calculate a total inbreeding coefficient over all known generations back to the foundation, you can click on the link "Inbreeding". In the image below, you can see that currently the inbreeding of 4 generations is displayed (Inbreeding = 0.0%). Only when the number is higher than 0.0% there are duplicate ancestors found in the selected number of generations.
When clicking on the inbreeding link, the text changes to "Complete inbreeding." Now you see the total inbreeding coefficient, calculated over ALL known ancestors back to Foundation.
When too many ancestors are missing (more than 2%) and a reliable inbreeding coefficient cannot be calculated, a warning will appear in red text. Note that this text only appears when you click on the Foundation link (and sometimes on other breed-specific calculation such as clones for Maine Coons). However, the percentage of unknowns also applies to the inbreeding calculation, meaning that in the worst case, this percentage is added on top of the calculated inbreeding.
Bonus tip: When you create an account in the PawPeds pedigree database, you can use the extra functionality "Mark doubles". This allows you to have duplicate ancestors highlighted, and they will each automatically receive their own color, making them easy to recognize.
Foundation Calculation
In addition to inbreeding, you can also calculate the Foundation for each breed. Here you will see an overview per Foundation cat, showing what percentage it contributes to your cat's pedigree. You will also see which cats have not yet been traced back to the Foundation and which pieces of the puzzle are still missing in your cat's pedigree.
Breed-Specific Calculations
Some breeds also have specific calculations that only apply to that breed.
For instance, the Maine Coon has a calculation for Clones, an important genetic bottleneck within that breed.
The Ragdoll has a calculation for PG, where you can see if the Ragdoll Patriarch Gucci appears in the lineage, which is linked to dwarfism.
The Norwegian Forest Cat has a calculation for Polaris, which calculates the extent of the influence of the ancestor Pan Polaris in the pedigree.
The Abyssinian has a calculation for WW2, a genetic bottleneck caused by World War II, which allowed only a few Abyssinians to continue the breed.
The Ocicat has a calculation for an important genetic bottleneck named Chevy.
Quality and Quantity of the Pedigree Database
The quality and quantity of each pedigree database is determined by the involvement and commitment of the breeders themselves and the volunteers. Each breed has a number of volunteers (who are usually breeders themselves) who have taken on the task of entering the many pedigrees into the database. The quantity depends on how many breeders submit their pedigrees. The Maine Coon is the breed with the most engaged breeders. Of the pedigrees listed, an average of 99% of the ancestors can be found in the pedigree database (240,263 Maine Coons registered today). This is incredibly unique and valuable, and such a complete database can't be found in any other public studbook. For other popular breeds such as Ragdoll (82,578 cats registered) and British Shorthair (100,456 cats registered), typically half of all ancestors can be found. Breeders can help make this database more complete by submitting more pedigrees, especially from older cats that have played an important role in the breed. You can also help correct errors by reporting them to the administrators. Through the link “Give Info” (or if you are using the English version “Send in Pedigrees”), you can upload pedigrees, upload title registrations, or submit corrections.
Focus on Health
PawPeds is also an archive of health data. More and more volunteers are entering results from HCM ultrasounds, HD photos, and DNA test results. This creates a collective overview of what is happening in the population. Not only is this useful for your own plans, but also for the entire breed. The more data we share, the better we can identify health risks.
Breeders determine which health programs are set up for their breed and then organize the volunteers who register them. Some breeds have no health programs at all, while others have many. As a breeder, it is important to stay focused on the health issues that are the biggest problems within your breed and to work together to reduce these issues. Health programs can help with this, as they clarify which lines have these problems and which do not. An important principle of a health program is that when you decide to participate, you agree in advance to the publication of the results before the test starts. Only when both good and bad results are visible does this help to get a clear picture of this issue within the breed population, and it also helps other breeders make better choices to reduce these problems. Participating in this requires some courage from the breeder. You must be willing to share both the good and the bad results with the whole world. It is also important to support each other when an unexpected bad result comes out. It can happen to all of us and is not something to be ashamed of.
HCM
HCM is the most important health program that is active for most breeds. In order to have a high-quality health program for HCM, certain conditions have been set for veterinarians who can perform this test. A veterinarian must have successfully completed an ECVIM exam in veterinary cardiology or have successfully completed the ESAVS courses in veterinary cardiology. They must also have the appropriate ultrasound equipment to make a proper assessment of the heart. Currently, the following Dutch veterinarians/specialists are affiliated with the HCM health program of PawPeds. You can go to them for official HCM screenings within the PawPeds HCM health program. The Netherlands, together with Sweden and Germany, provides the most HCM results within the PawPeds HCM health program!
Niek Beijerink
Melanie Bouwmeester
Rob Gerritsen
Natascha de Heer
Marjolein den Toom
Dinand (F.D.) Favier
Remco Jonker
Monique Lecluijze
Marion van den Bosch
Hanneke van Meeuwen
Aukje Swarte
Viktor Szatmári
Giorgia Santarelli
Alma Hulsman
Ines Schellhoff
Melinda Schmidt
Mariëtte Vink-Nooteboom
Anne van de Watering
On the PawPeds website, you will find an overview of where these specialists work in the Netherlands. Participants in the HCM health program often receive a friendly price, which you can also find on the website. If you want to participate in the HCM health program, please indicate this in advance when making an appointment. Make sure to fill out the HCM form from PawPeds (only the top section with owner and cat information) and sign it. Bring the completed and signed form to the appointment, along with the cat's pedigree. It is also important that you have registered your cat in the pedigree database prior to the screening, so that the result can also be published there. The result will be sent by the specialist to PawPeds for registration and publication.
HD (Hip Dysplasia)
For Maine Coons and Norwegian Forest Cats, there is a health program for hip dysplasia within PawPeds. Unlike HCM, ANY veterinarian with an X-ray machine can take the hip X-rays for HD. This is because the assessment of all hip X-rays is done centrally by one specialist (at the moment this is Elisabeth Ball). Other breeds can also be assessed for HD with an official certificate. The results are not published in the pedigree if there is no active health program for it, but you can find the results in the download files with all health information per breed.
Statistics show that the HD health program and recommendations are effective. Parents with good hips have a greater chance of producing offspring with good hips than when one of the parents has poor hips or has not been tested.
DNA Test Results
We also register DNA test results for which breeders have established a health program for their breed. Currently, we register the following DNA test results and publish them in the pedigree:
GSD IV: Norwegian Forest Cat
GM2: Burmese
PK deficiency: Abyssinian, Somali, Bengal, Maine Coon, Norwegian Forest Cat
PRA: Abyssinian, Somali, Siamese (and related breeds), Ocicat
SMA: Maine Coon
CMS: Devon Rex
The test results can simply be submitted by the breeders to the email address associated with the relevant health program. When the veterinarian has taken the swabs/blood, you can include the veterinarian's statement to indicate that the chip ID has been verified. However, this is not mandatory.
PawAcademy: Learning for Everyone
In addition to the database, PawPeds also has the PawAcademy. This is a series of online courses (G1, G2, and G3) that are followed worldwide. In the first course of the series - G1 - you learn everything about caring for your cat and the basic knowledge required for keeping cats and starting a cattery. G2 delves deeper into genetics and responsible breeding. The final course, G3, goes even further, teaching you, for example, to think in terms of the welfare of the population of your breed. Breeders who pass are allowed to display a beautiful banner on their website. The first course in the series - G1 - is even available in Dutch.
A total of 410 Dutch students have already passed the G1 course. 110 Dutch students have passed G2. For G3, there are 27 successful Dutch students (but this course has not been offered in recent years). Good news for those who have been on the waiting list for the Dutch-speaking G2, as it has started again in early 2026! The English-speaking G3 has recently been rewritten by volunteers and will start again in February 2026!
Final Thought
PawPeds is much more than a digital pedigree. It is a knowledge base, calculator, and archive in one, and moreover a place where we, as breeders, work together to build transparency and health.
PawPeds operates on volunteers and donations. It is the breeders themselves who, with great passion for the breed, volunteer for PawPeds, participate in health programs, serve as volunteer course leaders to help beginners, propose and implement new health programs for their breed, or donate to PawPeds to keep all this possible. The more data we collect and share, the more valuable it becomes. Ultimately, not only your own breeding program benefits from this, but the entire breed does as well. All of this serves the welfare of our cats, as we remain their staff.
This article, written by Debbie Sprenger, appeared in the 2026.1 edition of Neocat magazine.
