Question about my girl and their kittens

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blessedwindz

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While I was trying to read about cat breeds and generics to understand about my cat and her kittens, I'm overjoyed that I found this amazing forum. I have a few questions regarding them and I hope I can get great answer from you guys.


Here's my girl that I adopted from a shelter (is she a blue mackelred tabby btw? I'm not too familiar with colors and patterns).


I wanted her to become a mother once before getting her spayed so I had her did her things with a blue british shorthair male. Last week she gave birth to two tabby kittens that looks similar to her mother and two white kittens.


Much to my surprise, since my cat and her male aren't white, I studied a but about cat breed and found that white isn't a color and it's a dominant genetic. Being not that smart to understand about all that stuff, I kept searching and found this forum. So here I want to ask:

- Why are they white? Is that because the genes their parents carry? And is it from their dad or mother (since I adopted mine I don't know about her parents)?

- What are the chance for them to be deaf? I've read about pure breeds being deaf but not many guide mentioned anything about mixed breeds. Seriously hope this isn't the case.
 
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StefanZ

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Blessedwindz said:
While I was trying to read about cat breeds and generics to understand about my cat and her kittens, I'm overjoyed that I found this amazing forum. I have a few questions regarding them and I hope I can get great answer from you guys.


Here's my girl that I adopted from a shelter (is she a blue mackelred tabby btw? I'm not too familiar with colors and patterns).


I wanted her to become a mother once before getting her spayed so I had her did her things with a blue british shorthair male. Last week she gave birth to two tabby kittens that looks similar to her mother and two white kittens.


Much to my surprise, since my cat and her male aren't white, I studied a but about cat breed and found that white isn't a color and it's a dominant genetic. Being not that smart to understand about all that stuff, I kept searching and found this forum. So here I want to ask:

- Why are they white? Is that because the genes their parents carry? And is it from their dad or mother (since I adopted mine I don't know about her parents)?

- What are the chance for them to be deaf? I've read about pure breeds being deaf but not many guide mentioned anything about mixed breeds. Seriously hope this isn't the case.
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Pics are always welcome.

My guess at this moment, is they are points - these are born "white" you will see the poitned parts of the body darkening up in a few days.   Points arent really white, and thus, not deaf...

I will perhaps return later on.
 
StefanZ

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ps.  points - "siamese-mixes" so to speak.   Both parents carrying the gene but not being poitned themselves.  
 
jennyr

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You are right about white. It is a masking colour, and if both parents carry the white gene then there are likely to be white kittens. They are most unlikely to be deaf, but keep a watch as their eye colour changes at a few weeks old. The deaf gene goes with white colour and blue eyes. So if their eyes stay blue then there is a possibility of deafness. But I have had four white cats and none of them were deaf. Are you going to keep the kittens? White cats do have a few health problems to watch for, the most important being the danger of skin cancer due to their thinner, pink skin. They really do have to be guarded against the sun, even against sunbathing on window sills. I have always put baby-grade full block sun cream on ears and noses on sunny days.

I love white cats - now I only have one, but I am always a sucker for a pretty white kitten!
 
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blessedwindz

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StefanZ said:
Pics are always welcome.

My guess at this moment, is they are points - these are born "white" you will see the poitned parts of the body darkening up in a few days.   Points arent really white, and thus, not deaf...

I will perhaps return later on.
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Wow, you're right about the kittens being points. They have grey parts on their ears and legs! :eek: I thought they were white the whole time, thanks you!

I had problem uploading pictures, but here they are:

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JennyR said:
You are right about white. It is a masking colour, and if both parents carry the white gene then there are likely to be white kittens. They are most unlikely to be deaf, but keep a watch as their eye colour changes at a few weeks old. The deaf gene goes with white colour and blue eyes. So if their eyes stay blue then there is a possibility of deafness. But I have had four white cats and none of them were deaf. Are you going to keep the kittens? White cats do have a few health problems to watch for, the most important being the danger of skin cancer due to their thinner, pink skin. They really do have to be guarded against the sun, even against sunbathing on window sills. I have always put baby-grade full block sun cream on ears and noses on sunny days.

I love white cats - now I only have one, but I am always a sucker for a pretty white kitten!
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I'm definitely keeping them! I love white cats, my first kitten was a british longhair, that pure white ball of fur is soooooo cute.
 
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blessedwindz

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Extra questions please! Will their color developts to a darker one as they age? If so what can I expect what color they will had?
 
StefanZ

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Blessedwindz said:
Extra questions please! Will their color developts to a darker one as they age? If so what can I expect what color they will had?
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Yes, they will darken up with time, especielly face masque, ears, taila and paws.  The color they usually take from their parents - of course.  If momma is blue, chance is big they will be blue too.  I see momma is a tabby.  So they will prob be tabbies too, at least one of them.   And tabby tends to cover more than just the masque, its some on the body too.   Thus, tabbies ("lynx") points tends to darken up on the body quicker than other points.

And my guess on them being points was rather easy.  Its not only because I knew such happens.  But also I took your riddle for face value:  white is dominant, so how come there come pure white kittens out of cats whom arent white,  dont even have protruding white spots??

Its impossible, unless the postman or janitor did helped out.  (the pure white janitor that is!)
 
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