breeders of orange cats

I was in another forum a few weeks ago and I happened to mention how most of the orange cats are male. I had 10 orange ferals and only one of them was a female. This lady posted back and she said "I don't know why people think that orange cats are mostly all male. Just ask a breeder that breeds orange cats". So I'm asking, if anybody here breeds red boys I would like to know the ratio of males to females.

Thanks
Ellen

This should answer the question, it's from a post when we had the genetecist here



The gene controlling orange/nonorange is on the X chromosome. Females have 2 X chromosomes, males are XY. So a male only needs one orange gene to be orange, a female needs a copy from each of her parents as the orange/nonorange combination would make her a tortoiseshell. This is a pair of genes that show codiminance (i.e., neither hides the other by being dominant). So, yes, it is harder for a female to be orange, although I can't quote any statistics.

The white spotting is caused by another pair of genes, so "orange" does include "orange and white" when we're talking about the inheritance of orange color.

In answer to your part (2), parents with orange color will pass it on to their kittens. Orange males pass on the orange gene, as do orange females. Tortie females pass on the orange gene to half their kittens. So 2 orange parents will have orange kittens, an orange male x tortie female can also produce orange females.


__________________
Dr. Elizabeth Oltenacu
Department of Animal Science at Cornell University

Sandie, that was very interesting to read. Thank You!!

I've also read somewhere that due to the need for the double X orange chromosome, that only about 10% of orangies are females. I've seen 3 orange females in my colony over the last 10 years, but countless males. Orange is a dominant trait in my neck of the woods.

We have an orange tabby male, and when his sister mistakenly got pregnant while recovering from panleukopenia, she gave birth to 2 female calicos, and one orange tabby male, there was also a stillborn that was mostly black.

Why would anyone be breeding orange cats in the first place? Orange is not a breed and there are so many orange kitties in shelters waiting for adoption, there is no need to breed them.

Amen.

Thanks, Sandie, Momofmany and Meagan for your interesting replies.
That pretty much backs up what I've been told.

Of course no one breeds orange cats unless they are thoroughbreds.
Many thoroughbreds come in different colors. There are orange Abyssinians, munchkins, manx, Maine Coons, etc.

OT...Hey Ellie...I see you live in Maryland and you mention that you had 10 orange ferals. Do you caretake a colony?? Have you ever used the Alley Cat Allies monthly clinic in Centreville?? I only ask because I volunteer there and we get ferals from WV, VA, DE and MD.

Katie

Originally posted by Coco Maui
Why would anyone be breeding orange cats in the first place? Orange is not a breed and there are so many orange kitties in shelters waiting for adoption, there is no need to breed them.

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Some pure breeds are orange...

Thanks for your input, Princess Purr.


Hi Katie,

I've been to your website and have talked to you about finding a group in my area that needs help with TNR. My real name is Ellen.
Twice I've gotten in touch Alley Cat Allies to get some information about their free clinic. Both times I was discouraged from going and they wouldn't give me the address or phone number of the place. I got the impression that the clinic was only for a chosen few.

I've always taken my cats to Petworth on Georgia Avenue. In fact as soon as I get off here I'm going to set some traps for their clinic tomorrow. Theres been a few new arivals lately and I want to get them fix before kitten season starts. So far I've had a total of 23 ferals sprayed and neutered.

Unfortunaly I only have 4 orange ferals left. Their mother and brothers have disappeared over the years and it kills me not knowing what happened to them.

Ellen

Of course no one breeds orange cats unless they are thoroughbreds.

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Oh ya I hadn't thought of that. Good point

Originally posted by Princess Purr
Some pure breeds are orange...

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Yes, there are orange pure breeds but who would breed only by colour? "Coloyr breeding" isn't anything I would recommend anyone to do unless they have a huge genepool.

Some people specialize in certain colors of different breeds, but of course you do end up with more then that color. For instance some people try and only breed blue and fawn Somalis/Abyssinians. Yet with all the genes you can't expect all of one when dealing with the colors that are harder to get to. I don't know if that made any sense what so ever...I have a head cold and I think it is affecting me, lol.

I still find the term 'orange' to be odd. Here in the UK, they're called 'ginger' cats, or 'red' cats. If you said to someone in the UK 'I just saw an orange cat!' they'd look at you like you were balmy!

I hear them called orange cats alot here, more so than "gingers" and I hardly ever hear them called "reds".

I guess if I was into breeding and went to shows I would hear these terms more. Before the cat site, I had never heard of the two terms

Originally posted by Ellie
Of course no one breeds orange cats unless they are thoroughbreds.
Many thoroughbreds come in different colors. There are orange Abyssinians, munchkins, manx, Maine Coons, etc.

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Abys don't come in orange. Abys are Ruddy, Red, Blue or Fawn (and in some associations Silver and silver varieties of the above) and the red is definatly not the kind of red people refer to when they say a cat is a red tabby. Red Abys are have a very rich, dark, deep red color with rich chocolaty-brown tipping.

Actually most of the red aby's I have seen look more like an orange, I have an orange/red tabby and it is about the same color. Of course some may be darker then others, but they aren't all the exact same..


I have never heard the term ginger! Wow, you learn new things everyday! I guess some of us use the color "orange" more the mixed breed cats we know, at least I do, but then the purebreds are called red. So strange!

An interesting thing about red Abys is that they aren't genetically "red" at all! They are cinnamon (though in Abys the color is called red or sorrel), which explains why the females aren't torties. It also explains that beautiful rich color.

Originally posted by chixyb
Actually most of the red aby's I have seen look more like an orange, I have an orange/red tabby and it is about the same color. Of course some may be darker then others, but they aren't all the exact same..

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I don't know who's Abys you have seen but a red Aby shouldn't look red. If you want to see a good Aby you should go to this link:

http://www.knology.net/~ginawiley/truluck2.html

The first cat is Sizzle, he is currently the top Aby in Premeirship in CFA, judges comment on his rich coloring. His coloring is what you want on a red Aby. A red cat is not the same color as Sizzle. He has the dark rich coloring that I am talking about, chocolatey browny red, very warm tones, not red.