Colour query

I was talking to the rescue I foster for earlier, we have had a mum and kitts brought in. Mum is white with black splodges, and the kitts are: 2 blue/apricot, both longhaired, a tabby and a tortie and white (both shorthaired) - all female. How is this possible? I am guessing that mum (or dad) was carrying both the dilute and longhaired genes, but didn't think a white and black could have a tortie and white - or does this mean that dad is red? In which case, how would you get a tabby??

I'm no expert on the impossible, but I'm guessing multiple dads?

There are tow possibilites:
1. Daddy's a red pigmented tabby male
2. There are more than one father

i wondered about a red tabby for the dad - and one of them would have to be carrying dilute and longhaired genes too, wouldn't they? Unless the two fluffies dont turn out to be longhaireds, of course, they are only 2 weeks old.

Yep you are right - dad was a red tabby that was carrying the LH and dilute genes recessivly. And mom also was carrying LH and dilute genes

Plus dad was not carrying white or all the kittens would have white on them. Since mom was a bicolor she gave the white to the calico.

Ah right - if both parents were carrying the dilute gene though, how would you get a 'normal' tortie??

Originally Posted by booktigger

Ah right - if both parents were carrying the dilute gene though, how would you get a 'normal' tortie??

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I don't know for sure (and I'm hoping that someone will correct me if I'm wrong!) but if the dilute gene is a straightforward recessive gene and both parents were carrying it, statistically speaking you could expect 1/4 of the offspring to show dilute colouring, and the rest to be normal coloured but some of them carrying the dilute gene. Of course because it's all random as to which genes go into which kitty, you could have more or less than 1/4 of the litter with dilute colouring, that figure's a statistical average.

What I remember from studying basic mendelian inheritance at school of course it's often more complex than that.

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

Plus dad was not carrying white or all the kittens would have white on them. Since mom was a bicolor she gave the white to the calico.

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That's not for sure. Two white spotted cats can produce offspring without white spotting. If both parents are heterozygote for white spotting there's 25% chance for getting offspring without white spotting (since the gene for non white spotting is a recessive gene).

That is true, dad could have had white, but in my experience if one was carrying white (bicolor/calico) and the other solid, you won't get as many kittens with white on them as if both were carrying the white spotting gene.

And if you want almost ALL kits to have white, then breed to a very high white bicolor (like van with little color and a lot of white). I bred my tortie to a van and every kitten had some degree of white - just average to low amounts - none of them van like the father.

Since she only got one kitten with white, I suspect that dad was more of a solid.

And if both parents are dominate colors (black/red) but carrying the dilute, you usually wind up with a 3 dominate to 1 dilute ratio. Of course there always are exceptions