# What color kittens might we get?



## CatnipCats (Feb 15, 2010)

Hello all,
We have a long-haired seal point female (not registered, but looks Siamese) and both her parents are also long-haired seal points. http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/gyJeo1MWiOuC0GWLLxOmeQ?feat=directlink

She is pregnant by a DSH gray tabby, unknown pedigree (we rescued him from a tree in the Target parking lot as a kitten). http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/msbbIumodp2MT49xfXlI2A?feat=directlink

The only white spotting on either is a small locket on the male.

Would some of you who know cat genetics please tell us what kittens are possible from these two parents?

My best guess is she's due in about 2 weeks, and I'll post kitten pics then if folks are interested. 
Thanks in advance!


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

This litter of kittens' markings will be determined by the male.

Unless he carries a recessive pointed gene, none will be meezer-marked. 
Unless he carries a recessive long-hair gene, all kittens will be short haired. 
Genetically, he is black-based, with agouti (_which makes his tabby pattern readily visible_) and he exhibits minimal expression of white-spotting. 

The female is black-based, no agouti, homozygous for recessive long hair and pointed markings. Each kitten will receive one of her recessive long hair and pointed genes, though unless they receive a matching gene from their sire, they will not have meezer points or long hair.

My guess would be:
If the male is heterozygous for agouti (Aa) there will be a mix of solid black kittens and tabby kittens. If he is homozygous for agouti (AA) all kittens will be tabbies. ****/Hetero status of his white-spotting will determine if any/all kittens receive white markings.


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## CatnipCats (Feb 15, 2010)

Thank you! I'll be anticipating tabby and/or black kittens then.


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## hoofmaiden (Sep 28, 2009)

Please be sure to have the daddy neutered now and the mom spayed as soon as possible after weaning. They can re-breed before you know it and cute as kittens are, there are already way more than there are excellent homes for them.


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## CatnipCats (Feb 15, 2010)

We sure will. I'm usually the one telling others that, we just goofed this time. Don't worry, if none of my work or camping friends will take the kittens, we're prepared to keep them. 



hoofmaiden said:


> Please be sure to have the daddy neutered now and the mom spayed as soon as possible after weaning. They can re-breed before you know it and cute as kittens are, there are already way more than there are excellent homes for them.


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## CatnipCats (Feb 15, 2010)

*Re: What color kittens might we get? UPDATE! *

She had her kittens last night. One is a gray tabby and three are white, so the daddy must have some color point in his background. 

Mama went right into the kittening box I prepared for her yesterday afternoon and allowed me to be with her the whole time. They were born over 4 hours' time, everything went very smoothly and the kittens are nursing well.


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

That is awesome news, yay!

In reading over this thread, I also missed commenting about the male's dense status. His being a blue (gray) tabby means he carries the recessive homozygous pair of (dd) dense genes which makes his black coloring less dense and it dilutes to blue. Because the tabby kitten is blue, this means Momma must also carry a recessive dense gene, so she is Dd. This also means the three white/meezer kittens have a possibility of being dilute in color! _Blue is a dilute of Seal and Lilac is a dilute of Chocolate._


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## CatnipCats (Feb 15, 2010)

Thought I'd reply on this thread instead of starting a new one, so in the future anyone can easily follow the result of color inheritance from these particular parents. The meezers are lynx points, woohoo! And the daddy is being taken to the vet this morning to be fixed. 

One of our meezer babies died at about a week old.  

The remaining 2 meezers and the gray tabby are doing great. They are 3 weeks 2 days old now and are 16 to 18 ounces in weight. I'm pretty sure the meezers are girls and the gray is a boy. We haven't been able to decide on names yet.

(I apologize in advance for the poor quality of the cell phone photos.)

Here's a picture of mama just a few hours before she went into labor. Look at that baby belly!









The babies nursing, age 21 days.









Babies snoozing, age 21 days.









Here's a picture of dad (I finally realized I need to use Photobucket to imbed pics):


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

Squeeeeeee! It's baby kitties! :luv They look lovely. _Sorry to hear about kitten #4._ atback


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## bluemilk (Oct 3, 2005)

I think the coloring will be BEE-utiful-and the markings will be mixed,and very colorful. Like a child's fingerpainting!


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