Instructional Breeding Project (Week 7 Info: MEGA!)

[Charles Courtois]

Just when I think this group of cats has had a great week, they step it up & have an even better one! When we started this, I was worried we'd have a starter with uninteresting traits, or that we'd have a bunch of weeks of getting one or two traits out, with unsuccessful sibling breeds & uptraits. I guess my worries were unfounded lol.

I think this is a good time to do a bit of a recap, re-examine some of the decisions that were made, & how they got us to this point.

Probably the single most important decision that was made was Wendi's choice of a breeding partner for Poppy for the first few weeks. Ricky was a great choice for a couple of reasons, and to a degree, his value as a partner for Poppy those first few weeks is becoming more evident every week.

First of all, he's a 9-traiter, which not only allowed us to know how many traits Poppy was passing each breeding and how much potential each offspring had, but also hid traits in the kittens that could be brought out in their offspring, as has happened a few times in the last couple of weeks.

Secondly, Ricky was carrying some high-quality, decently recessive traits such as the Ocicat Ebony Silver fur, Lucky Irish Clover eyes, Porcelain shade and Frazzled whiskers. Not only did this allow us to learn a lot about Poppy's hidden traits quickly, it also led to some of those traits showing up in later breedings. Both the Lucky Irish Clover eyes that popped up in week 6 & the Porcelain that showed up this week are examples of this.

Both of the above points should highlight one simple fact; the partner you choose for your starter is key, both in terms of learning what your starter has, and in order to get quality kittens that you can use in your breeding programs.

The other decision I'd like to talk about is the decision we made in week 4 to change from the week 2/ week 3 sibling breed to the week 3/ week 4 sibling breed, and re-assigning week 2 to a quality 9-traiter to up-trait the Balinese Blue fur. That decision has led to producing some amazing Bali Blues in the last 2 weeks, and reinforces the other point I would like to make, one which I have made before; it is important to reassess your plans week by week, and to change things up when there is a real potential benefit. That decision wasn't made quite as quickly as we would have liked lol, but it was a good one, and the change of direction was more than worth the couple of days we lost.

I hope this is helpful. Good luck with your KittyCatS breeding!