# anyone know anything about russian blue cats



## gbacall (Apr 14, 2010)

my cat had a litter of 3 kittens and then later fostered 4 more i came to ask advice on that and got a great response so i figured id ask about this as well
one of our kittens is a very dark Grey and has purple nose and paws and even his belly i was asked about selling him for $20 by a friend of a friend (my "adoption" fee is 10) she told me he was a Russian blue and worth a lot of money. now my cats grandmother was rumored to be a Russian blue but i never got to see her she was killed about a year ago the kittens eyes are not open yet so i cant tell you if they are green but i did look up some pic of newborn Russian blue kittens and he seems darker then that he has very long hair already his ears don't seem big enough by the pics i found
i don't know how to post pics ill work on it.
my question is can he be a Russian blue if both of his parents are Grey tiger striped. mom a tuxedo dad a solid Grey striped(dose that make sense) thanks in advance.


yes i know my cat needs to be fixed she had a fever when i went to take her in so they would not do it. then a week later she went into heat and a boy cat got into my basement from a broken window pane we have a walk in for her blood work as soon as the kittens are weaned.


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

He can only be a Russian Blue if both parents are pure Russian Blue. 

He sounds beautiful.


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

My apologies in advance for TMI. :mrgreen: 



gbacall said:


> my question is can he be a Russian blue if both of his parents are Grey tiger striped. mom a tuxedo dad a solid Grey striped (does that make sense) thanks in advance.


First, a cat is only Russian Blue if both parents were registered as Russian Blues, otherwise the cat is simply a _black-based_ kitty carrying the homozygous and recessive _dense_ gene-pair and no _agouti_ gene. 
Your 'blue' kitten is:
oaadd
This means his parents were both black-based and homozygous/recessive dense (blue) and he received the black gene from his Dam (o) and a recessive dense (d) gene from each parent. Because each parent is 'gray' (blue), that means they are both dd and would always have blue kittens when bred together. Because each parent is tabby striped, but had a solid colored kitten, this means both parents are heterozygous for agouti (Aa) and your blue-boy received a recessive agouti (a) gene from each parent, making him aa. The tuxedo dam is also heterozygous for White Spotting with a minimal/moderate expression and did not pass her WS gene to your solid blue-boy. 
With the genetic makeup of this sire/dam pair, you will always get dilute colored kittens (blue) and depending on the inheriting of agouti or white spotting, some kittens will be solid, some tabby and some with white spotted markings like the dam.


Copy-paste about genetics:
Generally, there is no way of knowing what, if any definite breed, most stray cats are. 

The thing about cat genetics is all of the genes for every characteristic are "out there" in various combinations. In the early years, geographical isolation kept many cat 'breeds' pure or limited in color and body conformation expression. As people became more mobile and traveled the world, all it took was for someone to become enamored of a cat (_bird, dog, horse, livestock..._), bring a few specimens back home with them and begin breeding them together to create a distinctive and recognizeable breed. Many other general breeds were simply people collecting cats with similar characteristics and selectively breeding and culling until they had a breeding population that bred true every time.

Examples of this would be ‘color breeds’ like the Siamese-type cat and the 'blue' cats; *Russian Blue*, Chartreaux, Korat and British Shorthair. All of these breeds were deliberately bred to *keep* particular traits, which in turn *eliminated* 'wild-card' traits until the cats always bred true because certain genetics were bred out of the population.
All Siamese-type cats are homozygous (_matched gene pair_) for the recessive (_needs 2 copies to express_) pointed gene (cscs). The Meezers AND the Blue cats have also been selectively bred to eliminate the agouti gene (aa). Agouti is the gene responsible for making a cat's tabby pattern be readily visible. All cats carry a version of the tabby gene (_Classic - blotched, Abyssinian - ticked and Mackerel - striped, broken striped and spotted_) but without the agouti gene, they will present as a solid colored cat. Additionally, in the case of the 'blues', they have been selectively bred to be homozygous for the recessive "dense" gene (dd), which dilutes black coats to blue.
Some people began to breed agouti back into the Siamese breed to create “Lynx Point”, with tabby markings on their points. A new breed category was created to classify them, called “Colorpoint”; which includes Lynx, the Reds, Tortoiseshells and their dilute versions.

Tortoiseshell is remarkable because the cat carries both black (o) and red (O) on her pair of XX genes. Females are XX and can carry a color on each X gene. Males are XY and only carry color on the X gene. This is why male calicos are rare because they would have to be a genetic oddity with XXY. Tortie/Torbie cats with White Spotting are commonly called “calico”, especially if their markings have definite patches of black, red and white. When the black and red are ‘marbled together’, that is called Tortoiseshell.
Torties do not carry agouti. Torties who do are called Torbies. Tortoiseshell + Tabby = Torbie. Agouti only affects *black* hair and has no effect on red hair. All red cats will show the countershading of their tabby pattern. Black-based cats can also show countershading, but it is sometimes difficult to see. 

So, while there are things I *can* tell about a cat's genetic make-up based on its’ phenotypical appearance, there is no way to determine what, if any, breeds influenced them with complete accuracy. With Siamese points and Persian smush-faces it is *easy* to see what breeds/genetics influenced them, both recent and long-ago, but in general it is impossible to tell because all of these genes that influence color, markings, characteristics and body type are out there in many, _many_, combinations. Dogs are a little easier to distinguish contributing breeds in a mutt, but cats haven't changed body-types (_body, muzzle, ears, et cetera..._) as distinctly as dogs have.

heidi =^..^=

An AWESOME genetics explanation website: http://home.earthlink.net/~featherland/off/white.html


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## gbacall (Apr 14, 2010)

wow thanks that was informative. 
i did not think that made sense but i know nothing about Breeding cats i stud my show dog out and can tell you that a blue/gold dog and a black/tan dog in most cases will give you a litter of blue/tan puppies (to simplify) but i had no idea if that could work in cats i remember when i was a kid my neighbors cat had a kittens and they wear orange and black and white and Grey so i was truly lost 
thanks again it was truly helpful 
i think i will tell the woman im not interested in giving him to her for any price im afraid she will take his looks and try to breed him.


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

Or you could get him spayed at a low cost spay/neuter clinic before you adopt him out, and include the cost of neutering in the adoption fee. 

Sounds like you might like to keep him.


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