How to Breed Colored Persians
Learning to breed solid color Persian cats takes only a little research. It requires some study of genes and to reference a few articles. Once you have the basics, you will be ready to breed your own beautiful solid color Persians.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Understand a little about cat coat color genes. The genotype is all of the cat's genes and the phenotype is what appears visibly on the cat. A kitten's genes come in pairs: one from the dam, or mother, and one from the sire, or father. Genes are dominant or recessive to one another. The dominant gene overrides the recessive gene. The kitten's coat will come from a choice of four genes, picking from two from the dam and two from the sire, with the result of having two herself.
-
2
Choose the color litter of kittens you want to breed.
-
-
3
Learn about what coat color genes are dominant and recessive. Black, chocolate, cinnamon and red are the four basic colors. If a dilution or a caramel gene is present, the color will change accordingly. Some solid colors are dominant over others. Red is a different case than the other three.
Black dominates the major solid colors except the white dominant gene. Chocolate dominates over cinnamon and cinnamon can only be achieved if the kitten has two cinnamon genes. The red gene is found on the X chromosome, or the female chromosome, and because females have two X chromosomes, a red female kitten must have a red sire and a red or tortie (tortoiseshell) dam. A red male kitten can be produced from having only a red father, but it isn't a guarantee. If both the sire and the dam are red, then a red litter will be produced.
There are three different types of white genes. One is albinoism, or lack of any color pigments. The second is the white dominant gene, which if present in a kitten will make the kitten white no matter what the other color is. The third is the white spotting gene, which produces white spots on cats, but can produce an all-white cat if the spotting occurs all over the body.
-
4
Choose your dam and sire. If you want white kittens, two solid white cats will sometimes produce white kittens. If you want black kittens, you only need one black parent. If you want chocolate kittens, breed two chocolates or a chocolate sire to a non-black or non-dominant white gene female. For cinnamon kittens, you need both parents to be cinnamon.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Solid color is a recessive gene for the most part, meaning that tabbies and torties will dominate over the solid color. Dense colors such as red, black and chocolate are dominant over diluted color such as cream, blue or lilac. Cream is diluted red, lilac is diluted chocolate and blue is diluted black. Caramel solid color is a modifier of diluted color and will only be seen if the diluted gene is present. Tortie cats have two different color genes, one of them being red.
The white dominant gene is linked to deafness in cats. Usually these cats have unusual eye color.
