Question for GoldenKitty---genetics & colors

Or anyone else that can answer! This is just something I am curious about! Noticed on different threads that some of you post about colors and guessing what the parents were and all that. I honestly never even thought about it until I saw the posts and now I am really curious (and interested in learning...what are good websites/books with info on this?)!

I am wondering what you think the parents were for the 2 litters of ferals I have raised....not even sure if you can do it without knowing at least one parent? The pics are below!
The B&W kitties have either a B&W or Grey & W mom, but not sure... in the colony there is a B&W male with a LITTLE bit of white on face/chest (I think, he looks male, I'll find out when I TNR him) and a grey and white(with tabby stripes)...maybe they are the parents?

The other litter....where did the white (or whatever the technical color may be) kitty come from?! She even had shorter fur than the boys.








And the other litter





Thanks

The black and blue ones are probably from the suspected black/blue parents.

The red had to come from a tortie/calico or a red female. If the last picture is the white one in the above pictures, it looks like it might be a pointed one. Is there color on the face, legs and tail? If so its a pointed - not a white.

The white is from one parent who is also white. OR if its pointed then the parents are either pointed themselves or they are carrying the pointed gene as a recessive one (probably more likely)

Thanks! I obviously don't know the proper names for the colors...any website you can point me to to help? I am envious of your knowledge!

The "white" kitty did have some "grey" color on her ears and tail, with bright blue eyes! She was SO beautiful! (everybody thought she was Siamese). I've never seen a pointed cat in the colony so it was probably a recessive gene...plus she was form the same litter as the red (so orange is really called red?).
Forgive my stupidity on this subject!

Thanks

There are a couple good websites out there for teaching genetics of a cat and they range from the basics to polygenetics...

Just google "Cat Genetics" and you will run across them. Depending on your knowledge of genetics, you might want to start with the ones that show you how the punnet square square works and which genes are recessive or dominant and what that means.

I think this is one of the first ones I've read:

http://www.fanciers.com/other-faqs/color-genetics.html

There's another one out there that listed the most common traits and colors and their code or recessive/dominant trait, but I will have to look for the link as I seemed to have lost it.

You might want to focus on the coat colors first, and how that works before you get into the tabby/agouti genes or pointed.

Basically there are main colors

Black
Red
White

and the less common Chocolate and Cinnamon, which are simply mutations of the black gene.

Blue (gray) is a diluted version of Black, just as cream is a diluted version of Red (orange).

Red is a sex-linked gene and only sits on the 'X' chromosome. Males are XY and females are XX. Hence how torties come about, black on one X chromo and red on the other. Also why red males are more common than red females.

White is a masking gene. Which means their "real" (genetic) color is hidden under the white gene. In order to get a white kitten at least one of the parents must be white.

If course white is different than pointed. Which brings me to my next thought, once you get the hang of the colors you can move on to the variations... what makes a pointed, or shaded or tabby, etc.

There are a lot of genes that work together.

Anyway, feel free to PM me anytime if you have questions! I simply LOVE genetics and would love to chat with you about them.

~Marian

WOW, thanks! That was very helpful! I checked out the website and learned a whole lot! Although I will have to read it a few times for the info to stick! My DH got home the other night and I started explaining to him all the colors of the kittens and who their parents probably were...he just looked at me like I was crazy, haha!

I might PM you someday for clarification!!

Thanks

Originally Posted by roxsam

My DH got home the other night and I started explaining to him all the colors of the kittens and who their parents probably were...he just looked at me like I was crazy, haha!

I might PM you someday for clarification!!

Thanks

Click to expand...

Haha! I totally understand! I love to chat genetics, but finding someone to talk to whose eyes dont glaze over is challenging

I'd love to chat with you sometime!

I love doing genetics. There is so much to learn. I have a pretty good working knowledge of it, but there are colors that I'm totally confused with

Your "grey pointed" kitty - is a blue point and will keep the blue eyes

I'm learning about the chocolate/cinnamon color genes now that I have an Oci. Jack's breeder has a really good color chart for breeding and helped explain some to me cause I was confused about it

You 2 are amazing! I will start reading more about it in June when I have time, and hopefully soon I can shoe you up! Haha, J/K!!!! Seriously, I hope I understand it as well as ya'll do!

I'm actually taking a Bio class this summer so I might get a good review