Feorag :)

rach1980 · #1 (**permalink**) 05-01-2008, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by feorag

In simple terms (cos I can only understand simple!) the males take their colour from their mother and the females take one colour from their father and one colour from their mother. So if you mate a red male to a non-red female (in this example let's say she's black), all the females born in that litter will be torties, because the female kittens take one colour from their father (red) and one colour from their mother (black) and so are born black and red. The males will all be black.

Hope that makes sense!!!
To get a red female you have to mate a tortie or red female to a red male. In other words both parents have to have red colour. So the resulting female kittens take one colour from their father (red) and one colour from their mother (either red or black) and are born either red or tortie. If the mother was a red female, the males will be red, but if she was a tortie female, the males will be either red or black.

i have just read this post which you made in someones pic thread, i am a little puzzled however.
is this in all litters? if so my cat has had a weird litter(just to let you know im not arguing or anything i really am puzzled by this, lol)
Misty my cat (who is now speyed, may i add) had 2 litters.
now misty is grey and white
her first litter 2 girls, 2 boys
both boys were exactly same colouring as her
both girls were red, white and black

second litter 2 girls 2boys again
both girls pure black
one boy pure black
one boy black with the tiniest spot of white on his forehead.
what could have happened here? it could have been that she brought someone elses kittens in, if i hadnt sat with her as she gave birth and watched each one come into the world.

feorag · #2 (**permalink**) 05-01-2008, 04:21 PM

No, it's not the same! This only works with the sex-linked gene which is the gene which shows the colour red (or ginger as most people use).

What affects the colours of your kittens is the recessive genes both parents carry as well as the colour genes they display. Like being het. in snakes, in cats we call them recessive genes.

Your female misty is grey (which is called blue when breeding cats) and is the dilute form of black. So both Misty's parents were either a dilute colour or were a dominant colour (like black) but carrying the dilute gene, as both cats must either be (or carry) the dilute gene to produce the colour.

In Misty's first litter the father would have been a ginger tom, who carried the dilute gene. So the boys were all blue like Misty (if the tom hadn't carried the dilute gene, they would have been black) and the females were both tortie, as I explained in my OP. If the girls had been blue torties rather than black torties, that would have told me that the tom was a cream (which is the dilute form of red). A dominant x dilute mating would produce ½ litter dominant colour/½ litter dilute colour, so because the girls were black, that means your male must have been red. Does that make sense to you?

The second litter, the tom must have been another colour (probably black, but he could have even been white, masking black), but not carrying the dilute gene to dilute black to blue. So you got all black kittens.

Make sense? If you want any more info, just reply.

rach1980 · #3 (**permalink**) 05-01-2008, 04:25 PM

ahhh i see, thanks for clearing that up, would seem the father of the 1st litter is probably someone else thanw e thought , lol

feorag · #4 (**permalink**) 05-01-2008, 04:28 PM

Glad to help!

You've obviously got more than one un-neutered boy roaming near you!!

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