I fully agree with everything said here.
When I decided I wanted to breed traits into tawnies (back when tawnies in themselves were WOW), did I breed them to my traited bengal snows? Noooo!! I would NEVER do that!
Instead, I bred a tawny with a 9-traited Silver Tabby - and obviously, the kitten was then a poorly traited silver tabby. -A 4-traited Silver Tabby w. 18 carat gold eyes, to be exact. BUT that 4-traited Silver Tabby later became the grandfather of Ozzy (8T Tawny w. Ody.Rainbow eyes & Round Ears), AND Ozzy's 9-traited tawny cousin w. the same traits + shade.
How, you might ask? -Well, simple. The 4-traited Tabby was of course hiding tawny + 9 traits, odyssey rainbow eyes & rounds ears. It showed none of that - but it was there. So, next step: I mated the silver tabby w. my 9-traited black russians that had the same traits - and when they had black russian kittens, I KNEW the tawny was hiding. -By that time, the trait-count was up to 7.
-Next step, I mated the russian to a 9-traited burmese platinum - and again, as soon as I had a platinum (or well, a snow - since that was his hidden fur, and he ALWAYS threw that
), again I knew that the tawny was hiding. -Meanwhile, trait-count was up to 8 + the 9th hidden.
From there it was simple. Mate two of those together and wait for win-win. -Yes, I had many 8-traited russians and bengals that MIGHT hide tawny at that time - but eventually, I got my "perfect tawny". -Of course, the process was SO long that by that time, tawnies were no longer particularly special in themselves - but since noone else I know of managed 9-traited tawnies, especially not w. odyssey rainbow eyes, (unless they bought them from me, ofc
) they sell rather well anyway.
Now... If I had mated that tawny with a snow in the first place, WHAT could I have mated the kitten with to be sure if the ½-tawny threw it's tawny-fur?? Nothing. -And then my breeding-project would have failed miserably before it had started.
Still, few people realise how valuable super-dominant furred cats are when hiding something super-recessive. I have a Genesis Smokey for sale that hides Aby. Black Silver - does anyone want that?? No... Rather, they go for Oci. Chocos or something, hiding Aby.Black Silver. -And they cheat themselves and make their breeding harder.
Ok, this was a long explanation - all this just to say: Yes, I agree. Do not cheat yourself by mating the most recessive to the 2nd-most recessive - rather, mate the recessive to a well-traited cat with MUCH more dominant fur. THEN you have a kitten that is REALLY worth something, and that you can REALLY make a good cat from - even if it doesn't show so much... it will still be hiding it.
Saga
MORE thoughts about traits and breeding (sighs ) XD
