Technical Breeding Tips and Advice

[Tad Carlucci]

HOW TO Produce a true "pure" Seal Lynx.

Given a cat known to be hiding Seal Lynx: call it Dad. Go to Saga's Chart. Select two mates for Dad. They must both show coats which are not the same, both of which must be dominant to Seal Lynx, and both must also be recessive to Dad's shown coat: MOM1 and MOM2. Using MOM1 produce boxes until you have a female (or male) showing MOM1's visible coat. Then, using MOM2, produce boxes until you have a mate showing MOM2's visible coat. Mate the male and female offspring together. Your odds of producing Seal Lynx are 1 in 4 (25%), per box. The odds of that Seal Lynx being "true pure" .. that is, both showing and hiding Seal Lynx are 1 in 1 (100%).

Given a cat showing Seal Lynx, go to Saga's charts and choose a relatively dominant MOM. Produce offspring boxes and test each which shows MOM's dominant coat, using mate SHOWING a coat RECESSIVE to Seal Lynx .. if a Seal Lynx appears, that parent (offspring from the one showing) is the one you need. The offspring showing Seal Lynx, and the other parent are available to sell or use in other projects. (The box is probably a keeper and might be good to breed back against that parent, if you'd like more of those more-recessive coats.)

Why two different MOMS with different coats instead of taking two offspring from the same MOM? Scroll back and read my comments on leaving room for failure from a week or so ago.

Why NOT use two parents, both showing Seal Lynx? Because, unless you can PROVE both are true-pure Seal Lynx, there is a chance (no matter how many generations you do this there is ALWAYS a CHANCE) that their offspring will NOT both show and hide Seal Lynx.

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For those interested in learning to use Punnett Squares: I leave it as a good learning exercise to work out the squares for all of the above as proof of the process.

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Definition: "True Recessive" is that trait which is most recessive. That is, there is no trait value more recessive that it can hide. To be expressed (visible) both alleles (the value passed from mom and dad) must be the same. If either is not, it must be dominant, and the True Recessive will not be expressed (visible).

For KittyCatS finding the True Recessive for most traits is a moving target. Because they add traits, we don't always know when, so there's usually a chance that a trait which be BELIEVE is, at present, the current True Recessive, we might be wrong.

There are examples of True Recessives: Small Pupil Size and Mysterious Eye Shape.

If you're working with a True Recessive, the statements above are WRONG and the processes UNNECESSARY. Simply breed two True Recessive cats together .. the results can be nothing but "pure".

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Definition: "True Dominant" is the opposite of True Recessive. The True Dominant value is that which, if passed from either parent, will be expressed.

We know, because it's been given to us, that the "Starter Traits" are always more dominant than any other trait of that class. For coats and eyes, these are the "Genesis" traits. The True Dominant changes rarely (only once since the initial launch, so far). As a result, we generally have a pretty good idea (fairly conclusive) idea which it is.

It is IMPOSSIBLE to produce a provably "pure" True Dominant. The best you can hope to do is breed several generations, making an odds statement about the likelihood of it's being "pure", reducing the odds by 1/2 with each generation. So, for example, after 8 generations, there is a 1 in 256 chance that it won't be "pure" and after 16, a 1 in 65,536 chance. But, as I said above, no matter how many generations you do this, there is ALWAYS a CHANCE it won't be "pure".