Welcome To The Instructional Breeding Project II

[Charles Courtois]

Sorry for the long interval between the post for Week 5 and this one…rl got the better of me for a couple of weeks. This week is much better, so I’m hoping to catch up on my posts by the end of the week.
Week 6 brought the first breeding of Arti with her new partner, Oliver. The hope was that Oliver would give us more information about Arti’s hidden fur, shade (if any), and whisker shape. Here is the result of their first breeding together (and Arti’s sixth overall):



Not exactly the result we were hoping for! Arti passed only one of her hidden traits this week, and it was one of the traits that Oliver isn’t well suited to give us more information about, since his shown Big Boo Boo tail (which is also Week 6 kitten’s shown tail) is more dominant than Arti’s hidden tail, which is Curious or more recessive. For the sixth consecutive week, Arti failed to pass her hidden fur! This kitten could eventually be used to breed back to Arti or one of her daughters hiding Arti’s hidden tail trait to reveal Arti’s hidden tail, but since this kitten has only 1 shown non-genesis trait, we will only unpack him if we find no other way works. So, no new information from this Week 6 breeding.

We also have the second breeding of Week 1 kitten and Week 3 Kitten to consider this week. Remember, I’m breeding these cats together to see if they will reveal Arti’s hidden tail trait. Here is the result, which I named Week 6a Kitten:



This is actually a fairly decent 5-traited cat! Let’s look at the traits one by one:

1. Fur
This kitten shows Abyssinian – Fawn fur. Both parents show Genesis Diamond IV, which they got from Arti, and hide a fur trait that they got from Sydney. Remember that Sydney is either pure Abyssinian Fawn, or he hides Siamese Flame. From this kitten, we can tell that either Week 1 Kitten, or Week 3 Kitten, or both, got Abyssinian – Fawn from Sydney. One parent may have received Siamese Flame, in which case this kitten will be hiding it, but we don’t know for sure.

2. Eye Colour
This kitten shows 18-carat Gold eye colour. Week 1 Kitten (Mom) also shows 18-carat Gold, which came from Arti, while Week 3 Kitten (Dad) shows Genesis Meadow, which also came from Arti. Since Sydney’s eye colour is known to be pure Mercury, both parents hide Mercury from Sydney. Since Genesis Meadow is dominant to 18-carat Gold, which in turn is dominant to Mercury, Week 6a Kitten must have received 18-carat Gold eye colour from Mom, and Mercury from Dad, which is her hidden eye colour.

3. Shade
This kitten shows Flair shade. Both parents received Natural shade from Arti, and a shade (Flair or possibly Glitter) from Sydney, which they are hiding. Since Week 6a is showing Flair, at least one parent (maybe both) got Flair shade from Sydney. Whether one of them has Glitter shade hiding (at most one of them does) is unknown. If one of them does, then Week 6a’s hidden shade is Glitter; otherwise her shade is pure Flair.

4. Tail
Again this week, At least one of the parents passed their shown Curious tail trait, so Week 6a Kitten shows Curious tail as well. We don’t know whether this kitten hides a trait other than Curious, or even if her parents do at this point. So again, no new information about Arti’s hidden tail trait this week.

5. Whisker Shape
This kitten shows Curious whiskers. Mom shows Guitar whiskers from Arti, and hides Curious whiskers from Sydney. Dad shows Curious whiskers from Sydney, and hides Arti’s hidden whisker, which is unknown, but is Curious or more recessive. Since Guitar is dominant to Curious, Mom passed her hidden Curious whisker shape to Week 6a Kitten; Dad passed either his shown or his hidden whisker shape (we don’t know which). The net result is that Week 6a Kitten shows Curious whisker shape, and hides whatever whisker shape Dad passed to her (which could be Curious, or something more recessive).

We’ll leave this kitten in the box, but even though she didn’t reveal Arti’s hidden tail trait (which is the whole point or the Week1 Kitten/ Week 3 Kitten breeding), she does illustrate an important point. Notice that she shows a fur and a shade that came exclusively from traits that her non-starter grandparent Sydney passed to her parents. This highlights how important it is to use quality cats when breeding with a starter, because the traits of the starter’s partner will pass on to later generations, and the better that those traits are, the better the future generations will be.

At this point, we still know that Arti is hiding:
18-carat Gold eye colour,
Curious tail or more recessive,
Rounded ears or more recessive,
2-Tone Black and White whisker colour, and
Curious whisker shape or more recessive.
Since Arti is a starter, she will also be hiding some non- Genesis fur (which Arti hasn’t passed in the first 6 breedings).


Anyways, that’s it for this post. The next one should be in a couple of days. Check back here then, feel free to reply to this thread with questions/ comments, and good luck with your kittehs!

---

News about her hidden fur (and other unknown hiddens) will be coming soon... possibly in the next post!