BASIC PRINCIPLES OF CAT GENETICS

• To get a genetic red or genetic cream female kitten, the sire must be a genetic red or genetic cream and the dam must also have red or cream in her.
• A dominant characteristic (dominant colours, shaded, smoke, white, tabby, bi-colour, etc) cannot skip generations.  It cannot go from one generation to the next without showing the characteristic in each generation.  Cats displaying a dominant colour, must have a parent that displays a dominant colour.
• Two recessive colour parents (cream, blue, etc.) cannot produce a cat of dominant colour (black, red, tortie, etc.)
• Two colourpointed parents cannot produce a  non-colourpointed offspring.  To get a colourpointed kitten, both parents must be carrying the colourpointed gene (even if they do not appear colourpointed themselves).
• A tabby cat must have at least one parent that is either a shaded or a tabby.  All red cats will have some tabby markings.
• A cat with a white undercoat (smoke or shaded) must have a parent that has a white undercoat.
• Shaded parents can produce smoke offspring, but smoke parents cannot produce shaded offspring
• A bi-colour cat must have a bi-colour parent.
• parti-coloured cats (blue-cream, tortie, calico) are almost always female, but males can and do occur occasionally.
• A white cat must have a white parent.
• A mackerel tabby kitten must have a mackerel tabby parent.