Question about Pure

[Kayla Woodrunner]

Pure is the shown and the hid is the same. But unless you've tested the cats (or it's ancestor), you may not know your true hids.

You get one trait from the mom and one from the dad for each trait. The most dominant of the 2 always shows.

People who do "pure breeding" often have hids that pass for generations and don't realize that because if both cats have the same shown and both have hids then it's only a 25% chance both will throw hids and reveal the most dominant hid. However if one cat has the same shown and hid; and the other cat has that same shown trait but a different hid: The kitty will always show the shown trait and even if the hid passes (50%), it will never show because both traits on one parent is more dominant and both traits of that parent is the same. I'll do an example based on your whiskers

Mom has plush whiskers shown, frazzeled whiskers hid
Dad has plush whiskers shown, dreamy whiskers hid
You have 4 possibilities of what passes:
Mom shown, Dad shown = Child plush shown and plush hid
Mom hid, Dad shown = Child plush shown, frazzled hid
Mom shown, Dad hid = Child plush shown, dreamy hid
Mom hid, Dad hid - Child frazzled shown, dreamy hid

As you can see plush is shown 75% of the time -- will look as if it passed "pure" but actully 2/3 of the time has a hid
Only 25% of the time did a different whisker show and it was frazzled since dreamy is more recessive.

Same example but making mom "pure"
Mom has plush whiskers shown, plush whiskers hid
Dad has plush whiskers shown, dreamy whiskers hid
You have 4 possibilities of what passes:
Mom shown, Dad shown = Child plush shown and plush hid
Mom hid, Dad shown = Child plush shown, plush hid
Mom shown, Dad hid = Child plush shown, dreamy hid
Mom hid, Dad hid - Child plush shown, dreamy hid
100% of the children show plush

In this scenario every child shows plush so 100% of the children looks "pure" plush but actually 50% had dreamy hid. That dreamy can pass for generations and never show just because it was never matched against another recessive. This scenario is not uncommon when people have parents with matching traits.

I have bought "pure breeds" which look pure for generations -- I always test against more recessive cats. I am not a pure breeder type of breeder -- I am an uptraiter type of breeder which usually means changing traits on a cat and usually to more recessive traits. I have never found one cat to have all traits shown and hid. At least 2 or 3 traits have hids. Most often it is 3 or 4. Even on cats that look "pure" for generations that I bought from another breeder. The previous breeder/s probably never checked for hids so the more dominant traits always showed.

Not saying pure isn't possible but it is very rare. The only was to know is to check. Once you know the hids for sure (means the hid is different from the shown and the hid was thrown against a more recessive) and you know both parents threw the known hid and have the same hid, then the child is proven to have the same shown and hid.

The exception is white mysterious whiskers. White mysterious whiskers seem to be "pure" 80% of the time if the parents and grandparents show it -- that is probably because whiskers as a trait were added later in the evolution than all the other traits. I think all previous cats at that point were given white mysterious whiskers so those cats were automatically pure. Probably an old timer can confirm this. It just seems like a super high amount of whiskers of white mysterious are actually pure.

Some people say pure and some people say solid. Means the same. As an uptraiter, I say checked or unchecked depending on if the current kitty and/or it's ancestors have been checked against something more recessive. Saga's charts need checked kitties to confirm dominance of a trait. Because hids can be passed for generations, you need to prove the hid to show true dominance. The most dominant always shows. Easiest way to prove a hid is to pop a hid against something more recessive.

Pure breeders and Uptraiter breeders are just 2 types of breeders: neither is better than the other though both tend to buy from others doing the same kind of breeding. There are, of course, many other type of breeders and I have no wish to disrespect them -- just too many types to mention. I met a Random breeder. Never matched their kitties, just let them roam and drop boxes. Kind of cool actually -- like real cats, lol. But her kitty's pedigrees probably would give auctioneers conniptions. I'm also a Lovely breeder -- the type of breeder who puts traits together for how lovely the traits go together (pedigree consistency doesn't matter, recessiveness doesn't matter, just the shown traits).

I'm rambling again. Time to stop, lol.