(05-15-2013 02:11 AM)Nocshadue Balbozar Wrote: I don't mind Curious/Big and when I breed or buy a kitty with that combo I simply try as much as possible to pair with Myst/Small. The bane of my existance is Gen/Gen mostly ears and tails. When I was hunting for Ody Bellini eyes, most of what I found were all gen tails as far back as the eye can see. I am JUST NOW producing kittens with tails, it took 4 generations of breeding. Now it really shouldn't you say, just breed the gen tail kitty with a nice tail and then you have it hidden and breed sibs. And I did. They would toos the eye...or the tail. And I found that out of an average of 12 breeds, the tail may pop once. So ya. It can happen I know when you are focused on breeding for a certain trait. But for me, I just want kitties with tails, so if a nice eye gets hidden in the process..it'll pop back out eventually, and have a tail to go with it. I know other's would say I'm doing it wrong but hey..I likes what I likes =o)
One thing I found out when I buy a very recessive trait on a low-trait kitten .. i don't sibling breed. I take the cat with the trait i bought and mate it with a 9t partner with the rest of the traits i want and a very dominant trait in the slot i'm trying to work in. Let's use your example, Ody Bellini. I take a 9T cat with great traits and a reasonably dominant eye (let's use Oceania).
Breed those, you know YOUR trait is hiding, and the kitten is 9T capable. Take that box, mate it with a *different* 9t partner with a more recessive eye than your first choice (let's say Morning Glory). Mate the new cat with your 9T Morning Glory -- as soon as you get a cat with Morning Glory (and hopefully a few more shown traits), you know it's hiding your Ody Bellini and you can move forward again.
It can take a couple of generations, but I don't sibling breed til I have at least at least a pair of 8T cats (preferably with *different* traits missing) to sibling breed and pull the hidden Bellini back out.
Doing it this way, you work the trait into YOUR favorite lines and trait it up without wasting time pulling a double hidden out at each stage, you only need to do that at the very end. It also helps that you don't have to wait for a pair each time, sex doesn't even matter as long as you have a partner for the box that is of the opposite sex at each stage. It's saved me *tons* of time in getting the kitties I want doing it this way.
