By Barbara Redalia
In the High and Far-Off times, O' Best Beloved, when Stirrin'
Up the Gene Pool was written, there were more Persians cats
and more Persian Breeders than there are now. The numbers of
Persians, and of Persian breeders, have been thinned by infectious
diseases such as FIP, by breeder response to polycystic kidney
disease, and by the animal rights movement. If we wish to survive
and progress as Breeders we would do well to breed animals for
which there is a Market, rather than bewail the fact that nobody
loves what we have been breeding. Examination of the numbers
of Persians, of Himalayans and of CPCs being registered and
shown within CFA indicates that cats with the 3000 numbers,
comprising Himalayans and CPCs, now comprise about 2/3 of the
total cats classified as Persians. The market for Himalayans
has remained strong. We have been sufficiently encouraged by
the market for lilacs and chocolates to continue breeding these
colors, but we felt the need to analyze and "tweak"
our breeding program, the basis for this article. If creating
chocolates and lilacs in new patterns is of interest to you
read on and profit from our experience!
Combining Chocolates and Silvers
The matings we have done which combined chocolate
or lilac with coat patterns other than solid included: |
1). Chocolate point and lilac CPC males X
chinchilla silver female |
|
a. |
The chocolate point male used for this first
breeding proved, upon re-scanning, to be PKD positive. He
passed the gene for PKD to his shaded silver son, which
we had kept for breeding. This male was thus neutered and
placed as a pet. |
|
b. |
The second breeding of our chinchilla silver female to
our lilac CPC male produced a singleton male kitten which,
upon evaluation, we decided to place as a pet. |
|
c. |
The third breeding of this silver female, again to the
lilac CPC male, produced 2 silver tabby females with sufficient
type to encourage us to keep one for further breeding. This
kitten has the genotype Aa Bb C- Dd Ii. When bred to a lilac
CPC male of the genotype aa bb Cc dd ii they can produce: |
Aa or aa |
half agouti striped; half solid |
Bb or bb |
half chocolate or lilac; half black or blue |
CC, Cc, or cc |
3/4 full coat color; 1/4 Himy (if mom is a
CPC) |
Dd or dd |
half dense color; half dilute color |
Ii or ii |
half smoke or shaded (tipped); half non-tipped |
Chocolate Carrier X Chocolate Carrier
Since this silver tabby female is only 8 weeks old the results
of her breeding will await Chapter 3 of Stirrin' Up. Because
her sire is a CPC we do not know whether she carries the Himalayan
gene (c). She had a 50% chance of receiving this gene from her
lilac CPC sire, and no chance of receiving it from her chinchilla
silver mother. If we do not wish to produce smoke color points
(not recognized by CFA) we should breed her only to one of our
non-pointed cats, CPCs or Persians. The breeding of this silver
tabby female to our black smoke male (chocolate carrier) can
be represented thus:
Silver tabby female |
X |
Black smoke male |
Aa Bb C- Dd Ii |
X |
aa Bb Cc Dd Ii |
Possible alleles |
Phenotypes |
Aa, aa |
Half agouti striped; half non-striped |
BB, Bb, bb |
3/4 black, 1/4 chocolate |
CC, Cc, cc |
3/4 full color, 1/4 possibly Himy |
DD, Dd, dd |
3/4 dense color, 1/4 dilute |
II, Ii, ii |
3/4 tipped coat, 1/4 non-tipped. |
Inspection of the probabilities indicates that the majority
of the kittens from this breeding would be expected to be either
black smokes or brown tabbies. Not encouraging for a chocolate/lilac
breeder.
If this silver tabby female were bred to our black and white
bicolor male (who carries chocolate) these are the possible
kittens:
Silver tabby female |
X
|
Black/white bicolor male |
Aa Bb C- Dd Ii ss |
X
|
aa Bb Cc Dd ii Ss |
Possible alleles |
Phenotypes |
Aa, aa |
Half agouti striped, half non-striped |
BB, Bb, bb |
3/4 black, 1/4 chocolate |
CC, Cc, cc |
3/4 full color, 1/4 possibly Himy |
DD, Dd, dd |
3/4 dense, 1/4 dilute |
II, Ii, ii |
half tipped coat, half non-tipped |
Ss, ss |
half white-spotted, half non white-spotted |
Again, the majority of the kittens from this breeding would
be expected to be either black smokes or brown tabbies, with
or without white. Once again, not encouraging for a chocolate/lilac
breeder. Clearly this silver will need to be bred to a visual
chocolate or lilac, something homozygous for that recessive
bb gene.
Producing Chocolate Smokes
One year ago I purchased a Persian black smoke female to be
bred to our lilac CPC
male, with an eye toward eventually producing chocolate and
or lilac smokes. Breeding these two together can be represented
thus:
Lilac CPC male |
X |
Black Smoke Persian female |
Aa bb Cc dd ii |
X |
aa BB CC DD Ii |
Their offspring included 2 black smoke males, 1 black smoke
female, and one solid black male. All the males were nice enough
to be used for breeding. The female was placed as a pet. The
remaining male offspring have the following genotypes:
Aa Bb C- Dd Ii |
Black smokes |
Aa Bb C- Dd ii |
Black solid |
Because this breeding produced a solid black in addition to
black smokes we know that the dam was heterozygous for the inhibitor
gene (Ii). The black smoke males produced from this breeding,
which carry both chocolate and dilute, can be used to produce
chocolate or lilac smokes by breeding to cats which are (or
carry) chocolate or lilac. We do not know if they carry the
Himy gene. That is something to be determined down the road.
Chocolate Bicolors
The mating of a chocolate CPC female with our blue and white
bicolor Persian male produced two blue and white bicolors and
one black and white bicolor male, Ch Tuleburg Fudge Baron. This
male's genotype is described thus:
Alleles |
Phenotype |
Aa |
Non-agouti (no stripes) |
Bb |
Black, (carries chocolate) |
Cc |
Full coat color, (carries Himy gene) |
Dd |
Dense color, (carries dilute) |
Ss |
White-spotting gene (heterozygous) |
From the first breeding of this bicolor chocolate carrier to
a black CPC chocolate
carrier female there were two black kittens and a chocolate
and white female, which died several days after birth. A test
breeding to a Himalayan female gave clear proof that the bicolor
male carries the Himalayan gene. This breeding to a blue cream
point produced a seal point female, a red male, and two Himalayans
with white feet. Since this bicolor male carries the Himy gene
we will, from now on, only breed him to CPCs, thus halving the
probability of producing Himys with white feet. We are saving
two kittens as future queens for Fudge Baron, an unrelated blue
CPC and an unrelated blue cream CPC, both of which carry lilac.
The first breeding can be represented as:
Black and White Bicolor |
X
|
Blue CPC |
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ss |
X
|
aa Bb Cc dd ss |
Their offspring can inherit the following genes:
Aa |
Non-agouti (no stripes) |
BB, Bb, bb |
3/4 black, 1/4 chocolate |
CC, Cc, cc |
3/4 Full coat color, 1/4 Himys |
Dd, dd |
Half dense, half dilute |
Ss, ss |
Half white-spotted, half non white-spotted |
The most common kitten from this breeding would be a black
or blue, with a 50% chance of being bicolor. The second breeding,
to the blue cream CPC, adds the possibility of red factor to
the above, allowing torties and blue creams, dense and dilute
calicoes, and chocolate and lilac calicoes to the above. To
increase the probability of chocolates or lilacs one would breed
the bicolor male to a visual chocolate or lilac CPC female,
thus:
aa Bb Cc Dd Ss |
X
|
aa bb Cc Dd ss
|
Genotype |
Phenotype |
aa |
no stripes |
Bb, bb |
half black, half chocolate |
CC, Cc, cc |
3/4 solid color, 1/4 Himy |
DD, Dd, dd |
3/4 dense, 1/4 dilute |
Ss, ss |
Half white-spotted, half non white-spotted |
In summary this breeding of our bicolor male to a visual chocolate
or lilac would result in an equal probability of black vs. chocolate,
mostly solid colors, mostly dense, and 1/2 with the spotting
gene. Sounding better.
Mr. Cream Genes, AKA "The Greater Ho Ho"
When I began to write this update to "Stirrin' up the Gene
Pool," two months ago, another intriguing possibility had
not yet arrived on the scene. On October 16th a litter arrived
which contains two show potential males, a cream and a blue
CPC, out of GC Tuleburg Lilac Totoro and Ch. Maitaiias Pr-Eyes
Pkg. Now, let's see, if this cream male were bred to a female
chocolate and white bicolor (from the previous breeding) we
can expect to have, at last, chocolate or lilac calicos. Is
that what this has all been about?
This article used with permission. © Barbara Redalia
All Photos Protected by Copyright Laws
Genetic cat article used with permission. © Barbara Redalia
|