BeckyFlowers
Well-Known Member
Completely 100% adorable!
The new kittens thread
- Thread starter ycbm
- Start date
poiuytrewq
Well-Known Member
Kitty Arlo was today proudly big enough for his first injection. It was quite scary but the needle bit was nothing to a tiger 🐅
JenniD
Well-Known Member
He's a little sweetie! We have two cats we rescued from a farm up the road when we lived in Scottish Highlands. They were in a terrible state. Fleas, ticks, thin, hissie and spittie! Supposed to be sisters one long haired mog, one shorthaired 'blue' type mog. Fluff and Fang. Took 3 years for them to settle in the house. Fluff goes around as if she's stoned out of her brain and Fang acts as if she's on 'speed'!! Is it true that 80% of ginger kitties are male? Looks like Arlo is nicely chilled in his new home.
ycbm
Einstein would be proud of my Insanity...
I found the genetics:
The red colour is a sex-linked colour, which means it is only carried on the x chromosome. A female has two x chromosomes and a male has one x and one y chromosome. The gene that determines red is called O and it is dominant, and since it is carried on the x chromosome the males need only one red gene to become red. Females on the other hand will need two red genes to become red - if they only have one, they will be tortoiseshell. To get a red female you will need the mother to be tortoiseshell and the father to be red, this way 50% of females (statistically) will be red and 50% 'torties'. There are two ways for a male to become a tortoiseshell: either he has a genetic mutation and has 3 sex chromosomes xxy (if so he is most likely sterile). Or he might be the result of a fusion of two embryos in an early stage in the womb. If one of the embryos carried the genes for red and another carried the gene for black and the fused embryo is a male he can become a male tortie. But this is rare - though not as rare as the genetic mutation. In conclusion, red females are not really that rare, especially not in the breeder environment where a lot of breeders focus on colour. Male torties are very rare but they do occur both in virile and sterile form.
The red colour is a sex-linked colour, which means it is only carried on the x chromosome. A female has two x chromosomes and a male has one x and one y chromosome. The gene that determines red is called O and it is dominant, and since it is carried on the x chromosome the males need only one red gene to become red. Females on the other hand will need two red genes to become red - if they only have one, they will be tortoiseshell. To get a red female you will need the mother to be tortoiseshell and the father to be red, this way 50% of females (statistically) will be red and 50% 'torties'. There are two ways for a male to become a tortoiseshell: either he has a genetic mutation and has 3 sex chromosomes xxy (if so he is most likely sterile). Or he might be the result of a fusion of two embryos in an early stage in the womb. If one of the embryos carried the genes for red and another carried the gene for black and the fused embryo is a male he can become a male tortie. But this is rare - though not as rare as the genetic mutation. In conclusion, red females are not really that rare, especially not in the breeder environment where a lot of breeders focus on colour. Male torties are very rare but they do occur both in virile and sterile form.
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ycbm
Einstein would be proud of my Insanity...
The person I got Skip from is now fostering a very pretty 8 weeks tabby with white undercarriage female if anyone wants one from the Huddersfield area. I have a picture if you want to see her PM me your email.
ycbm
Einstein would be proud of my Insanity...
He's growing
,
,
Peregrine Falcon
Hoping for drier days
Aw, look at his lickle paws! Too cute.ðŸ±
ycbm
Einstein would be proud of my Insanity...
Just why?
LadySam
Well-Known Member
Because he can.
If he damages anything, I can help you out with a spare curtain ring...
If he damages anything, I can help you out with a spare curtain ring...
BeckyFlowers
Well-Known Member
Why not, more like.
Peregrine Falcon
Hoping for drier days
Lol! Cats are great. 😀
Rumtytum
Have Marmite, will travel
Scaling the north face of C2 (that's Curtain 2 for the uninitiated) - all in a day's work for a busy kit
DabDab
Ah mud, splendid
He's super cool
The genetics stuff is interesting. I think ginger females seem more of a rarity because most seem to have a lot of white, whereas you seem to find a lot more male gingers with minimal white. Our ginger Tom is a bit of a mystery colour-wise because he's got black patches and I've tried and failed to find out what causes that genetically. I've not seen another like him - don't know if you've come across it?
The genetics stuff is interesting. I think ginger females seem more of a rarity because most seem to have a lot of white, whereas you seem to find a lot more male gingers with minimal white. Our ginger Tom is a bit of a mystery colour-wise because he's got black patches and I've tried and failed to find out what causes that genetically. I've not seen another like him - don't know if you've come across it?
DabDab
Ah mud, splendid
ycbm
Einstein would be proud of my Insanity...
He's super cool
The genetics stuff is interesting. I think ginger females seem more of a rarity because most seem to have a lot of white, whereas you seem to find a lot more male gingers with minimal white. Our ginger Tom is a bit of a mystery colour-wise because he's got black patches and I've tried and failed to find out what causes that genetically. I've not seen another like him - don't know if you've come across it?
In theory, your male is either xxy, or he is a combination of two embryos into one at a early stage of development. Colour in cats is on the x chromosome, and to have two different colours a cat must have DNA from two different x chromosomes. Which is why almost all torties are female. I studied it once, it's fascinating.
I don't think there is as clear an explanation as to why the majority of gingers are male.
DabDab
Ah mud, splendid
Ah ok, yes your post up thread got me thinking that...
He's just come in and sat on me, so ice told him that he's a genetic rarity...he said 'but of course'. ðŸ…
He's just come in and sat on me, so ice told him that he's a genetic rarity...he said 'but of course'. ðŸ…
ycbm
Einstein would be proud of my Insanity...
To be fair, being a cat, he would have said that if he was as common as muck 😅
I'd forgotten I'd already written it upstream 🚣
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SEL
Well-Known Member
Very interesting - we had a ginger female when I was young. She was long haired and I guess the lady who rescued cats in the village didn't check too closely and assumed the ginger kitten was male. Only when mum took "him" to the vet for the snip did we find out we had a girl. No white on her