Genetics and Colours - as promised

[Kay]

Now to reply to everyone else's questions as long as my PC will let me. I had all the answers typed out last night, clicked the submit reply and the damn PC decide that the server couldn't be found . My language was not very clever . So here goes.

Hreow.

Only one of PF's parents could have been a Colourpoint as 2 x Colourpoints only produce Colourpoints and PF is a self. You could have had a Colourpoint and a self that either carried or didn't carry the Colourpoint gene. Apparent from that you seem to be on the right track . Both parents would not have been Torties as this is a sex-linked gene to the female. Occassionally a male Tortie is born but they are infertile. As for the colour-chart on the website it is wrong you can only get Cream from 2 x Cream parents. I have told the lady who does the website and she will correct it. Well spotted . Torbies, as they are kown in the US, are called Tortie-tabbies over here and they are basically a mix of the Tortie and Tabby markings. Tabbies do have a M on the forehead they should also have thumbprint on the back of the ears, lines coming away from the outside corner of the eyes, necklaces round the neck, bracelets round all 4 legs, oysters on their haunches and a ringed tail with a dark tip. This is the classic pattern there is also a spotted Tabby and a mackeral tabby.

Deester.

The eye colour does not carry as the coat colour does but is linked to a particular pattern, colour or breed. Blue-eyed cats tend to be White or Colourpointed but are also present in certain breeds eg. Turkish Van and Norweigan Forest Cat. In Persians all the other colours, except Chinchilla/ silvers which have green eyes, have orange/copper eyes. To throw a spanner in the works though Whites can also have orange or indeed odd-eyes, one of each colour, and are registered as three different breeds.

Julie84.

In the UK Tabbies are registered as Brown Tabbies not Black or in the case of colourpointed cats Seal-Tabby. Although the Persian registered colour is Brown Tabby but with Black in brackets. Tabby and Tortoiseshell are both markings but have colour variations. The same applies to the colourpointed cats the onlt difference being is that the both the colour and the markings are restricted to the points, ears, face, legs and tail. A torbie, known as a Tortie-tabby in the UK, is not a bi-colour. A bi-colour is a colour and white eg Red & White, Black & White etc. You can however have Tortie and White, Tabby and White and Tortie-tabby and White in bi-colours.

Bobbie3917.

It is highly unlikely that the kittens out of a Ragdoll x moggie mating would have blue eyes but if the moggie carried the colourpoint gene then the kittens born with colourpoint markings would have blue eyes but the others wouldn't. All colourpointed cats have blue eyes as it is linked to the colourpoint gene.

Hope this helps everyone. Fingers crossed my PC will now submit it.

[Julie84]

Thanks Kay, that is brilliant and has helped me understand it all a lot better!

[Kay]

Originally Posted by Julie84

Thanks Kay, that is brilliant and has helped me understand it all a lot better!

Glad it's helped. I think I am getting a bit muddled now

[CJK]

i THINK i am starting to understand this a bit better now, thanks kay

seems i forgotten about the cat genes coming from mother etc....and thats why i thought pf parents would both be torties.

See where i went wrong now

[Fran]

Kay a question

How would you describe the Mackeral coat pattern? I thought Claude was a Mackeral tabby but from your description I think he may be Classic?

[Kay]

Originally Posted by Fran

Kay a question

How would you describe the Mackeral coat pattern? I thought Claude was a Mackeral tabby but from your description I think he may be Classic?

The face , tail and legs are the same but they have a dark line going down the back with stripes coming down from that, on either side, all the way along the body instead of having oysters on their haunches ( an oyster is just a large dark shape ). I will look one of Claude's pics and see if I can tell.

[Kay]

Fran have had a look at Claude's pics and he is definitely a Mackeral pattern Brown Tabby.

[Snoof]

Kay, this is wonderful

Only one thing confuses me - you say a tabby has to have all of these:

Originally Posted by Kay

Tabbies do have a M on the forehead they should also have thumbprint on the back of the ears, lines coming away from the outside corner of the eyes, necklaces round the neck, bracelets round all 4 legs, oysters on their haunches and a ringed tail with a dark tip.

My friends' cat Rufus is a ginger stripy cat (with a white bib and some white socks though) and the tip of his tail is light. He does have the other characteristics described as far as I can remember. Does that make him not a tabby, or does it change because he also has white?

My other friend back in Scotland has two ginger fluffballs, and the only way to differentiate between the two is that one has a dark tip to his tail and the other has a small light tip (basically, the last ring of dark starts where his brother's dark tip starts, but has a light blob at the very end). Of course they decided to give them two differently coloured collars while they learned to recognise them by other features

But does that make the one with the light tip not a tabby, or is it like in rats where that's simply considered a mismark, makes him a tabby for all intents and purposes, but counts in, say, show standards?

(Also, last time I saw my friend's two cats they were about 15 weeks old, so they may have changed since).

[Kay]

Hi Snoof

Glad you are enjoying the thread.

Your friends cats are still Tabbies like you say I am going of show standard. The one with white would be classed as a Red Tabby and White. Hope this clarifies things for you.

I am trying to think what I should cover next in this thread.

[Fran]

Originally Posted by Kay

Fran have had a look at Claude's pics and he is definitely a Mackeral pattern Brown Tabby.

Thank you Kay. I thought he was Mackeral but got a bit confused That's really clarified it for me

He is classed as brown tabby because there are no such things as black tabbies?