This has been very instructive, Charles and Wendi! In particular, it illustrates very dramatically the good results of unpacking starter offspring, not only to speed up identification of the hiddens, but also to come out with pretty good kittens at the end of the project! Week 9a kitten is a nice one, a little "daughter of Sydney with cute ears and hiding awesomeness from Buckley."
I think it's interesting, your comment at the end, that putting Arti with Jonas right away might have abbreviated the project too much. Discussing all the steps, all the analyses and decisions that a breeder has to make for each pairing, teaches us a lot more ... I had to think more about "restraint" in watching your choices. (I kept wanting to rush forward and clobber Arti with a trait bomb mate, but I can also see the value now of using moderation).
I'm still thinking ... "the trait bomb mate, even if he's an expensive cat, might be more economical in the long run, considering food cost." What I've been doing though is to start with a well-rounded but not too expensive mate, then zero in on the unidentified traits, using a mate that might not have been bargain-basement
Do you think Arti is average or unusually stubborn? Having average or unusually lacking-in-newness hiddens?
After we got the Halloween releases when this project was already moving along, I tried to use some of the principles learned here. I did change their mates when they showed something the original mate couldn't reveal. Also, one of the things I did was to make notes in the starters' pedigree page, each time they revealed a hidden trait -- and noting which traits weren't yet identified. (So it would say something like, "whiskers: black. whisker shape: curious. CHECK HER EARS"). It worked reasonably well ... i got out a new eye from one of them, and then another has now made a kitten with Latte whiskers, which means i have to figure out whether (and how!) to test him and/or the offspring for recessive-to-latte whiskers.
The notes in the pedigree page did save time on re-figuring-out, since i am not organized enough to keep a spreadsheet.
Overall, this has been a real inspiration, and very fun to follow. Thank you so much for doing this!
Welcome To The Instructional Breeding Project II
