Curious about parents

Have been meaning to do this for the past 3 weeks!! I have a mum and kittens on foster at the moment, mum is a pure black, and had 4 babies - a grey (who was rehomed before coming to me, so not sure if full grey or grey tabby), a very dark grey tabby female (never seen such a dark grey, but she has lightened slightly since coming), a dark grey tabby and white boy (his tabby markings aren't as noticeable as hers, it took me 2 days to work out if he was tabby or black!!), and a black and white boy!! Am assuming dad must have had some white on him to get white on 2 kittens, and I assume one must be carrying the dilute gene to get grey in 3 of the 4 kittens.

HEre are some pics of the kittens

Yes, the father has to have white spots. I'm not sure about what you mean with grey though. If the kitten that was rehomed before you got them was blue both the mother and the father has to carry the dilute gene. If it was "grey" likethe one in the middle on the first picture it's not blue, it's black smoke. The mother doesn't look smoke to me so the father has to be smoke.

If mom was a stray, and you got black, blue, black smoke and tabby, then more then one father was involved. At least 2, maybe 3. You have solid colors, smoke, and tabby in the group.

Both parents had to be carrying the dilute gene (and maybe the blue one's dad was blue or he also was a carrier). Then one parent had to be smoke. And finally one parent was a tabby. Between these fathers - one or more had to have white on them too

One parent non-agouti (suppression of tabby markings), the other agouti carrying non-agouti. One parent smoke (or silver tabby) but carrying non-inhibitor (non-smoke) gene, the other with full colour expression. One parent with white spotting, the mother doesn't look to have any (if some kittens don't have white then the father only has 1 gene for white spotting rather than 2). Both parents carrying dilute. The colour inhibitor gene is dominate so one of the parents would have to show smoke/silvered colouration, same with agouti, but if they are carrying the recessive non-inhibitor and non-agouti genes then a mix of tabby, solid, and smoke are possible from a mating with a solid coloured cat. Throw in one recessive dilute gene from each parent and you can get a mix of black and/or blue from the above options. I think

Mum definitely has no white on her, but I thought the little girl (right hand side of hte carrier) was a dark gray tabby, as she has tabby markings (they just aren't showing up well in pics), and the little boy in teh middle has some tabby markings, just not as obvious as her - both have pretty much a pure black back though.

I believe that all cats are genetically tabbys. Many times blacks will show ghost tabby markings (mackeral, classic, or spotted). So there may not be a true tabby as the markings would be more defined.

So its probably 2 fathers involved instead of 3.

So I have a black and white, a black smoke and a black smoke and white?

If I'm looking at the right kittens (the ones with the 3 of them in the carrier - the middle one (black smoke/white?) looks the same shading as the one next to him that is a black smoke.

As their fur grows out, see if both of them have a WHITE undercoat - not the greyish. If it doesn't change to white at the base, then it may not be a smoke, but a poor colored black.

The middle one and the one on the right are the ones I am curious about, it is obvious the other is a black and white - and when they are together, it is obvious that the girl and the other boy (sorry, they have been here 3 weeks and still unnamed!!), are lighter than the black and white, which is why I thought they were dark greys. They are up for rehoming though, but I do want to stay in touch with the owners (if I ever find any!!), to see what they turn out like - they are slightly fluffy at the mo, and I can't work out if it is kitten fluff (they are 11 weeks old now) or they will be semi-longhair. Wish I could get a decent pic of the girls markings.

The little boys sadly died before being rehomed, but the little girl went to a good home, I spoke to her owner this morning, and she has got darker, pretty much black in places, but the gray is still showing through, she is going to send pictures when she is a bit bigger.

awww sorry to hear about the boys - do you know why they died? And the little girl may or may not be smoke. If the undercoat is white and not greyish she is smoke - otherwise its just kitten coat and when she get her full adult coat in, then she would be black.

Yes, but not one for the forum sadly. Will be interesting to see what she is like when she is fully grown then, she will be 6/7 months old now, as they were 2 months in September (but I Can't remember waht part of Sept, and the paperwork is downstairs).