KittyCatS! Community Forum

I was reading in another thread where some breeders prefer natural shade over anything else. I've been a long-time blush addict but after reading that post I started to pay more attention to natural shade kitties out in the markets, and I find myself in agreement - natural shade looks good on a lot of furs

The trouble with natural shade is it's the most dominant, and once your lines start throwing out offspring with a trait shade showing it can be very difficult to eliminate. So I'd like to request a new shade - something close to natural but further down in the order of dominance so that those of us whom want a more natural look to our lines have an alternative shade to aim for if our lines start throwing us trait shades.

Shade presents a tricky breeding situation. What's good in some circumstances can be awful in others. For instance, I think Flair is absolutely the best shade for furs that are darker/bluer such as Russian Black, Russian Blue, OciBlue, etc. But I ended up with 2 Snowshoe Reds, one with natural and one with flair, and when you put them right next to each other you can see that the Natural cat looks clean and the Flair cat looks like she fell into a toilet full of toilet bowl cleaner.

I suppose it's kind of like a booby trap to teach people to be better breeders, but these things just happen and then you have to breed another generation to get rid of the problems. Most people most of the time can't be bothered, or can only concentrate on two to three traits per generation of cat - or just one.

Blush is generally safe, but of course, it's most recessive.

(02-13-2016 09:55 AM)Ivy Norsk Wrote: [ -> ]Shade presents a tricky breeding situation. What's good in some circumstances can be awful in others.

I know shade is a tricky thing, and you're right, what looks good with some furs might not look so good with others. I'm not really sure if another natural-like shade is possible or not but I figured if you don't ask, you don't get.

So far as Winter's suggestion about dumping shade altogether goes, it's food for thought. I'm not as bold as Winter in saying shade could be dumped, but doing so would give natural lovers a shot at creating a shade-free line, while those looking to add a shade could do so by using a partner with the desired shade showing. As for Winter's suggested shade menu - wow, that would be amazeballs

Thanks for adding to the thread. It's good to hear what other breeders think on the subject.

I would like to see another more natural shade are even the option to choose shades. I love my kitties but nuclear waste kitty ((White with Glitter)) is just impossible to look at. The shades are a cool concept but having a full bright/glow cat detracts from the detail a good deal. I also kinda wish shade wasn't a thing because it can distract from the kittys to much. Perhaps change Natural shade to a non genesis shade and make a new shade called Genesis Shade? Kinda like with the copper eyes Genesis Copper vs Copper... omg Genesis copper eyes looking amazing!. I did adjust my settings but still it seems kinda obsessive to have to adjust glow settings for a single part of SL.

Since natural is a perfectly good shade and people like it, what people should do, instead of buying into the 9-trait is stop counting the traits and actually look at the traits. I'm with Ivy, some things look better in combinations so a trait is not good or bad by itself. And if you buy a natural shade because you like it on the white fur or whatever -- announce that loudly if you are at an auction. Enough people do that, people will bring in cats with natural shades to sell and auctioneers will tout natural shade like it's a good thing.

I've seen the same thing for pupils -- people show a pic of a real cat with certain pupils and say we should get a recessive like that -- but the pupils look just like curious/small or mysterious/big so we already have them.

There was an auction where the folks who came actually looked at the cats (rather than just read the traits) and people were buying natural shades for good prices as well as eyes with curious/small or mysterious/big although the other traits were very varied and if dominant tended to be retired-- cats with white mysterious whiskers were very few and far between for example. However, Midnight Snack auction closed and I have yet to find another auction that put more emphasis on the looks of the cat than the trait count. Most auctions have too many cats with very dominant traits like mysterious or plush and count it as part of the 9-count. Honestly, a mysterious tail is just as hard to get rid of as a genesis tail. And white mysterious whiskers - don't ven get me started on those. (well, ok, since I got started on them -- it takes 2-3 generations to get rid of them usually -- royal pain!) Midnight Snack auction started like most auctions, though -- even that auction took time for it to develop a clientale with varied tastes and part of it was that there were 3 regulars who started to say they didn't like certain shades. So a few of the sellers brought in cats that had natural shades which sold and things began to change. I loved that auction. Even in the summer, 90% of the cats always sold. So if you like natural, speak up. Things can change even if they don't last.

What is said here is so true and shades really look so different depending on the fur. Glitter on a white fur is great if you want a ghost or irradiated looking kitty lol, but it really doesn't sell well, generally. I think it's great that we can open boxes and then re-pack them because it gives a chance to see or show a potential buyer just what the kitty looks like, if they are unsure. I LOVE natural shade on most kitties, and I know quite a few people who only want it and ask me to breed it for them even... the only thing I feel strongly about that could be made different for a new natural-type shade would be that it had a bit of a look of blush to it in terms of emphasising how the fur looks (fur detail) and also how it warms up some shades. For example, I am not much a fan of aby chocs but with blush I love them due to how different the fur looks!