How likely is a cat to pass diabetes to offspring?

[Beck]

We have been fostering some cats and after some miscommunication and whoopsies, one of the females became pregnant. The father is diabetic. The mother healthy as can be. We are most likely keeping the father as it'll be hard to get him adopted. All are neutered/spayed or scheduled for it in the near future.

Has anyone found any studies showing a strong genetic link for diabetes? And if so, are the odds signigicant enough that we should tell everyone who is interested in adopting?

Any info would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

I think a lot has to do with obesity, feeding a diet of high carb foods, and there is a genetic link to diabetes in some cats. I know that Australian Burmese cats have a higher incidence to diabetes than other cats. I'm no authority though. Ill tag @Wendy&Neko

 

[Beck]

Thanks! In case it helps, neither are a pure bred. The parents should also be completely unrelated.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

I'm no expert on this. There are many things that can cause diabetes, so it'd depend if one of those is present. I have heard of siblings being diabetic. But if raised together, they have the same environmental factors too.

 

[Beck]

We do kind of wonder if the father became diabetic because of his situation. Last summer he was dumped, it took us 4 months before we were able to catch him. We would see him eat rotting roadkill while ignoring the canned cat food in the trap. Yet he wasn't too skinny when we finally caught him.