Today, I’m excited to release one of the most important tools in Ardent so far: historical COI (Coefficient of Inbreeding) calculations for your cats.
This feature has been requested by breeders, and it’s something I’ve wanted Ardent to support from the very beginning - a clear, honest way to understand the genetic relatedness within your lines.
Why COI Matters
COI is an essential part of responsible breeding. It helps breeders:
- monitor genetic diversity
- identify when lines may be getting too close
- support long-term health and welfare
- make more informed breeding decisions
- meet expectations from registries and licensing inspectors
Unfortunately, COI is also something many breeders struggle to calculate accurately. Multi-generation pedigrees can be complicated, and it’s easy to miss duplicated ancestors or count lineage paths incorrectly.
How Ardent Calculates COI
Ardent now includes built-in COI calculations that:
- read directly from the pedigree stored in the system
- trace ancestors across multiple generations
- ensure duplicated line paths are handled correctly
- produce accurate COI percentages quickly and consistently
Under the hood, Ardent uses a standard Wright’s method COI calculation.
The system evaluates every ancestor pair, ensuring each path is counted only
once - something that’s extremely difficult to manage manually without
specialist software.
This means you get reliable results instantly, without needing to export pedigrees, cross-check charts, or maintain external spreadsheets.
What’s Included Today
This first release covers:
- COI for individual cats (based on their existing pedigree)
- Detailed ancestor analysis to show how the COI is constructed
- Clean, readable presentation designed for everyday use by breeders
This makes it easier to track the diversity of your current breeding lines and understand how historical pairings have shaped your cats today.
What’s Coming Next
This release focuses on historical COI - meaning Ardent calculates the COI for cats whose pedigrees are already recorded.
The next major step is predictive COI for planned pairings, which will let you:
- select a queen and a stud
- see the projected COI of their kittens
- view shared ancestors
- compare potential pairings
- plan the future direction of your cattery with more clarity
This is a larger feature, and it’s now in active development.
Your Feedback Helps Shape Ardent
This is an early milestone, and there’s plenty more coming.
If you’re using Ardent and have thoughts on how COI calculations should evolve -
additional insights, formats, charting ideas, or workflow suggestions - I’d love
to hear them.
You can reach me any time at hello@ardent.pet.
Thank you to everyone who has tested the early builds and provided feedback so far. More updates soon!