Hi there,
I would love some information about breeding reds or creams. Is there any one out there who has some experience?
It is simple. Get a red parent. Red is dominant.
However, it is sex linked. So one needs two red parents to have red/cream non tortie girls.
Cream is the dilute of flame (red) and dilute is recessive. Therefore, both parents need to contribute a dilute gene to have dilute kittens. It is the same gene that turns seal to blue and is common among breeding cats. There is a DNA test for dilute, so one can know that a dense colored kitten carries dilute even when one parent is not a dilute.
Thanks! That was quick and just the kind of answer I was looking for!
I have a red boy from our first who is absolutely gorgeous and with a great character. We would love to team him up with the right girl to get reds or creams. What are the odds of getting all red or cream kittens when crossed with the same colour? You're saying red is dominant. Does this mean they could still carry e.g. a recessive seal or blue gene and pass this on if both parent have this?
There seems to be some apprehension around and warning against breeding with reds and I'm not sure why. Just worried I might miss out on information I'm not aware of
There is no reason to avoid reds and there is some reason to specialize. (Placing kittens can be an issue, since reds are less popular in general than seal/blue.)
There is a color chart for red at the RFCI link below. You need to understand dilute to fully understand it. So if your male is dense, then you have to know if he carries dilute and know the dilute status of the queen to get the cream/blue offspring.
http://rfci.org/genetics/red_color_chart.php
Thanks again!
Just not 100% sure what dense means in this context. Perhaps because English isn't my first language.
Dense is the converse of dilute. Colors are in Dense/dilute pairs. Two dilute genes will "turn" the dense color of the cat to the dilute color. The Dense/dilute pairs are:
seal/blue
chocolate/lilac
red (flame)/cream
This chart may be easier to follow:
http://www.tbrcc.co.uk/
the predictor is found on the left hand side link. A red on red red will produce red/cream whether carrying dilute or just red if not carrying dilute.
I am not sure I understand your comment.
The red and dilute are inherited apart. So, whether red is homozygous or not does not affect the Dense/dilute (red/cream) inheritance.
The sex link of red inheritance is what causes the tortie combinations, since the male can have only one red gene with no space for another and the female can have two (or one) and this has nothing to do with Dense/dilute inheritance.
Dilute works just as with any other colors. If the kittens can (or must) get one dilute gene from each parent, then they will be the dilute color pair (blue, lilac, cream, blue/cream, lilac/cream). If they get just one dilute gene (or none), then they will be the Dense color pair (seal, chocolate, flame, seal tortie, chocolate tortie).
(02-16-2010 01:47 PM)JanH Wrote: [ -> ]I am not sure I understand your comment.
The red and dilute are inherited apart. So, whether red is homozygous or not does not affect the Dense/dilute (red/cream) inheritance.
The sex link of red inheritance is what causes the tortie combinations, since the male can have only one red gene with no space for another and the female can have two (or one) and this has nothing to do with Dense/dilute inheritance.
Dilute works just as with any other colors. If the kittens can (or must) get one dilute gene from each parent, then they will be the dilute color pair (blue, lilac, cream, blue/cream, lilac/cream). If they get just one dilute gene (or none), then they will be the Dense color pair (seal, chocolate, flame, seal tortie, chocolate tortie).
The original question was regards a red male, the later comment was regards getting reds from this male (I think).
My comment in order for her to get only reds from the red male, the female will need to be red or cream. For a mixture of red, torties and a solid (blue, seal etc) the female would need to be a tortie (seal tortie, blue/cream etc)
The lilac and chocolate aren't common here in the UK but are starting to appear in a few catteries.