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Kittens on the way!

post #1 of 12
10/20/10 at 10:29am
Thread Starter 
Well, not soon, but I may as well start a countdown now.

Skylark has to be pregnant. She is rounder than usual and her nipples are a medium coral colour. She will be due in early November.

The show I brought DD to brought her into a roaring heat. She was presenting to the judges on the second day which is always fun (and embarrassing). I got her home the next day and since this was her third heat after having her kittens I decided to breed her. I witnessed two matings and have left them together for one more day. I knew this would result in kittens over our Christmas holidays so I wasn't worried about the timing too much. I have just about the whole month off school. But when I calculated it, day 67 falls on Christmas Eve! Should be interesting to say the least.

A bunch of years back I bred my German Shepherd and she gave birth at 2am on Boxing Day. There were complications and my Mom, Dad, the vet and I ended up rubbing 9 puppies into life at 2am after an emergency caesarean. Bonding experience!

DD was worried with her first litter and tried to have them on my lap, but the whole thing went so fast that I am not forseeing any trouble. She calmed down quickly and got down to mothering within a few hours. She'll be much more experienced this next time.

Now, everyone please envision pretty little SILVER babies! Especially an exceptional SILVER baby boy for my program...

PS - Smokes are wonderful too, right Ferris!!??!?!
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post #2 of 12
10/20/10 at 11:30am
How exciting hope you get silvers.

There was a thread on another forum warning that matings this week are due around Xmas, that wouldn't bother me but my silver girl isn't listening they never call when you want them to
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post #3 of 12
10/20/10 at 12:45pm
Best wishes for what you want to get. And maybe start thinking of Christmas names too for the babies

Maybe we need to change tactics and wish for a chocolate male, then the cats will have more choco-silvers.....lol
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post #4 of 12
10/21/10 at 12:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sohni View Post
PS - Smokes are wonderful too, right Ferris!!??!?!
Smokes rule!! Seems the pick from every litter Selene's given me has been a smoke female But a nice silver is useful as well.

My last litters gave me 7 smokes and one silver. Some of the smokes look to have nice color. . . spots I can see from across the room. Now to wait on type! These kittens have me now deeply comtemplating our first smoke to smoke breeding.
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post #5 of 12
10/21/10 at 12:45pm
If you did a smoke to smoke breeding would the kittens be too dark?

Partial good news re Angel's litter. One kitten left but he's a strong little one and big too - and the better part is the chocolate is a chocolate-silver - he now has some white on his face making him a CS! That's a good thing as the white is slow in showing and means better contrast.
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post #6 of 12
10/21/10 at 1:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by FerrisCat View Post
These kittens have me now deeply comtemplating our first smoke to smoke breeding.
Does that tend to make for a better smoke? With Ocicats a silver to silver breeding makes for better silvers, are Mau's the same?
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post #7 of 12
10/21/10 at 1:29pm
Thread Starter 
It depends on the genetics as much as the type I think. Since some silvers will have a bronze in the background there is a better chance of tarnish coming out if you breed to another silver with a bronze background. Same with smokes, but generally a smoke is bred to a silver to possibly deepen the contrast. I am not sure that smoke to smoke would result in a darker smoke, but it would result in a higher percentage of smoke babies and that is what you have to think about. Would you like to have more smokes or silvers in your program and what would benefit you most.

What I am curious about is the genetic pool and the importance of including a bronze in the mix sometime. If we continue to breed only smokes and silvers and the bronze people are only breeding bronze to bronze, we are risking a divergence in type. I have no intent on bringing in a bronze, but I am curious about it in general.
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post #8 of 12
10/21/10 at 3:29pm
That's sad too cause I do think the bronze are very pretty and you never really see them. I can see not breeding bronze into the silvers as it will tarnish them, but not sure how bronze would affect smokes.

You raise and excellent point and question regarding the bronzes.

With the Oci's most times the silver to silver doesn't make them better - they tend to fade too much in most of the S to S breedings I've seen. And it seems that if the silver kittens (or color-silver kittens) have too noticable silver on the faces and bodies when born, then they will fade out a lot more as they get older.

Most Oci breeders do NOT like breeding a silver to silver - it washes them out too much.
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post #9 of 12
10/21/10 at 4:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45 View Post

Most Oci breeders do NOT like breeding a silver to silver - it washes them out too much.
I certainly wouldn’t say most don’t like silver to silver matings, and none who I've spoken to. Most do not specialise in silvers, some countries prefer the chocs or tawnies at show so I can see why they wouldn’t.
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post #10 of 12
10/21/10 at 7:56pm
Thread Starter 
I personally prefer the silvers and smokes just because they don't look as much like an Ocicat or Bengal in colour. We as breeders can tell the difference, but the general public still thinks that all bronze coloured spotted cats are Bengals. With the niche for brownish spotted cats kind of filled, silver and smoke Maus stand out for me.
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post #11 of 12
10/22/10 at 7:12am
My comment was more of a joke, but with a huge grain of truth. My last two litters resulted in mostly smoke kittens.

One of our top 3 best of breed cats from 2 years back was the result of a smoke x smoke breeding. She was known for her exceptional contrast.

I wouldn't choose to do a smoke x smoke breeding lightly. Color just won't enter the equation if I elect to make a match like that. . . because if it were a major concern, I'd just play it safe and do a silver x smoke. Not many breeders have done smoke x smoke matches and certainly none with the lines I currently am working with. So who can say how light or dark the kittens might be. If I do a smoke x smoke, I would be breeding for type. We're supposed to be breeding for type, anyways! Build your house, then paint it. . .

As for silver x silver kittens getting washed out. . . perhaps it is just the line? I've seen a goodly number of black on white kittens come from silver to silver breedings.
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post #12 of 12
10/22/10 at 10:27am
Maybe its different for the Maus on the silver to silver. With the Oci's in US, if you read their pedigrees they are not silver to silvers.

I think if the lines are mainly silvers then its different. But Oci's just don't have a 4+ generation of just silver colors - they always are mixed.
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