Guess Who?

Why it's Ind....

Oh no, it isn't! This handsome chap is Alfie, Indikon Kenneth, from the REM litter last year. Looks very much like his mummy though doesn't he? And that's a solid cat, not a mink, for sure. Looks like either a lilac or a caramel to me, although I'd like to see that tail better, the bit that can be seen looks a bit caramelly to me!

Thanks S and D for sending me the piccie, he's adorable!

Alfie's Eyes

Sometimes a kitten's colour isn't always obvious. I've heard many stories of cats going to show and the judges witholding certificates because the cat simply isn't the colour he is registered as being, cueing red faces all round. Tonkinese are notoriously difficult, because they have the three coat patterns as well as the multiple colours (some of which are pretty similar) and sometimes it doesn't become clear until the kitten reaches adulthood. Well we have to decide at 8 weeks, in order to send off the paperwork. Sometimes we get it wrong.

Alfie's been bothering me lately. His family send me regular photos, and in one recent one, it shows Alfie with the most beautiful golden eyes... just like his Mama's.

Golden eyes. Alfie is registered as a mink, which means he ought to have aqua eyes, but he doesn't.

So it's almost certain that Alfie isn't a mink at all! His coat has also darkened so it is much more uniform, with less of a point/ body contrast than you would expect from a mink. I strongly suspect he's a solid, which means he can't possibly be a blue, as he's never been as dark as Wendell (Jacob). I now think, having spent hours looking through all my kitten pictures, that he is a solid caramel.

Of course now that I'm looking with fresh eyes, it seems obvious. This is one of the first photos of the kittens ever taken, they were less than 48 hours old. Looking at this, it now seems quite clear that the kitten to the top right is a solid- he's MUCH darker than the four minks in a row at the bottom. That, I'd be wiling to bet, is Alfie (Kenneth, as was). Ok, he's in shadow, but he's still darker. I hasten to add that most of my pictures were NOT so glaringly obvious! I swear they all looked the same colour to me! Interestingly one of my minks, second from left, looks a shade lighter than the other three... I wonder if that was Kensey, my other caramel?

And then there's this picture here. Definitely looking caramelly there too. Remember that Tonkinese are colourpointed cats, we use the term 'solid' but it doesn't actually mean the cat will have a uniform colour all over, just that the difference between points and coat will be subtle.

Where does that leave Alfie's pedigree? It's still valid. Alfie is a pedigree Tonkinese, and nothing can change that! If he was for breeding, then I would need to apply for a slight change to his certificate, and of course his solid-ness means he is no longer eligible to be shown, but Alfie's family do not wish to show him or breed from him, and as they say, Alfie doesn't care one way or another! However, I personally guarantee to change any pedigree in error at my expense, if the family wish it- that goes for any of my kittens of course.

Does it matter, then? Well, it matters to me. Obviously I want to get things right, and this kind of thing is incredibly useful to me. I think I must have been thrown by the whole expecting lilacs and getting blues thing! I'm still very much a novice at this, but it's all a great learning experience.

Of course now I'd love some more caramel kittens, to put my learning into practice!!! Perhaps next year eh, caramel isn't an option this time around!

Registration

FINALLY got round to sending off the registration form today, after agonising over the colours this past week. I've been looking at Kenneth and wondering if he's caramel too, but decided he looked far more like Monty than Kensey. Ditto AnnElise, but she's down as a blue, too. Of course, colours can be changed, everyone who breeds Tonks, especially mixed caramel/ non caramel litters will be well aware that kittens can take a long time to determine, and many a breeder has taken their apparently blue or lilac kitten to a show only to meet with fierce discussion from judges and other breeders as to whether it really is a Caramel! But I've done my best, anyway!

Only just in time, too. Processing can take up to 4 weeks, and I have them here with me still for.... oooh, about four and a half! Nothing like leaving it to the last minute eh, but like I say I was agonising over the colour... I really wanted to get it 'right'. I had to do the form twice, as I made an error on the first and there's no room for correction on the form, plus it's confusing and that's how mistakes are made. I suppose i'm lucky I only had to do it twice!

Anyway, off went the form, the mating certificate from stud Harry's breeders (proving I mated Indigo with another registered Tonkinese and not a random tomcat from up the road!) and the fee, and I shall look forward to getting six 'pink slips' through in the mail... My first Tonkinese, all registered and official. I feel very proud.

On a less pleasant note, this is my poor Indigo's head. The lesions extend into her ears, and over both outer ears, and as you can see are red, raw and sore. Those of you who have seen her recently will appreciate just how quickly this has flared up. She's had a collar on for 24 hours now, and I THINK they haven't worsened any in that time, (because she can't scratch them, probably) and I'm hoping the collar plus the soothing gel will break the itch-scratch-bleed- scab- itch cycle and let them start to heal. Plus we have the vet on Tuesday. I'm hoping now she's only nursing sporadically there will be more options for her. And I'm busily researching preservative and dye free food for the big switcheroo once the kittens have moved on.

 Kenneth's new family were due to visit him tomorrow, but they very kindly contacted me after yesterday's blog entry to ask if I'd rather they postpone. Considering I expect they are dying to see Kenneth again, it was very kind and I did appreciate it- thank you very much S and D!

I had someone coming over tomorrow to look at AnnElise and Kensey, but I've let them know what's going on as well... they may well wish to cancel too. We'll see how it goes. Of course the worry (apart from my concern for Indigo which is, of course, the most important thing!) is that this might dissuade people from taking a kitten from me- understandably, of course, but fairly hard lines for me as the kittens are fine!

There are two other people currently interested as well, (one in the pair, one in AnnElise) and I've let them know about Indigo's head, and offered to help find them another Tonk litter if they wanted as well... I figured that was the right thing to do, but really, of course, I'd like to stomp my feet like a little child and shout IT'S NOT FAIR! After two weeks of not a lot, suddenly I get a rush of genuine interest in the kittens... and this happens!!!!!

Ah well, that's breeding for you, things go wrong and you just have to deal with them. *grin* I feel a bit better after my virtual stomp, anyway!

Caramel

One of the reasons I wanted to mate Indigo to Harry (Fecheldee) was that Harry carries the dilute modifier, also known as the caramelising gene. Once the kittens are off my hands I'll start writing about genetics again, and we'll cover this. Basically though the dilute modifier works on dilute colours only (blue, lilac, fawn, which isn't recognised in the Tonkinese, and cream) warming ad brightening the base colours to caramel or apricot.

Some years ago, I read a piece by a Tonk breeder, making the case NOT to introduce Caramel into the Tonkinese breed. Caramel is often difficult to distinguish from other colours, which 'muddies' the genetic waters somewhat... for example, lilac based caramel and blue based caramel are only very very subtly different- indeed, they share the same registration code, but have different implications for what colour kittens they can themselves produce. How does one distinguish between the two? However, things have moved on, and I then saw that the same breeder now breeds caramels with no issue. Good for her, I think, both for questioning the necessity for certain colours but then also to be able to change her mind as the breed progressed. Similar arguments have been made for not introducing cinnamon and fawn into the gene pool, and cinnamon and fawn are currently NOT accepted as Tonk colours. And really what a nightmare that would be, sorting out fawn based caramel, lilac based caramel and blue based caramel... all looking pretty much the same. Blimey!

Now often, the difference is so subtle that cats are registered as blues, lilacs and so on, and the fact they are caramel is only picked up at cat shows when they are much older. That might be the case in multi- coloured litters- if you have one blue in the litter then I guess you just assume it's blue!- but I am lucky enough to have a whole litter of blues, plus a blue point birman for colour comparison. So that gives me an ideal opportunity to study the effect of caramel from an early stage. Of course, the idea was to have a lot of lilacs and caramels to compare, but blues do the job just as well!

So in the past few days I've been studying my kittens whenever they've been still enough to do so, and trying to see if I can differentiate the kittens that MIGHT be caramel. And... I think I can! Very exciting.

Do you see in this picture, the kitten in the middle is a different colour to the ones either side? That's the three boys, and the one in the middle is Kensey. Kensey seems- to my inexperienced eye- rather lighter and 'warmer' than his two brothers. In fact, several visitors have noticed this, and I always know when I'm talking to Kensey, and can easily pick Kensey out from a pile of sleeping kittens (without checking the colour in his armpit!) whereas I quite often muddle up Kenneth and Monty.

Now, I don't think this is natural variation. Kenneth and Monty are not exactly the same colour- one is slightly darker (but I forget which... I think it's Kenneth) but both are still a cool blue, you can tell that they are, basically, the same colour. (At the moment!) Whereas with Kensey, it's not that he's just a bit lighter

Look at this one too. This is Monty and Kensey- Kensey in front. Again, Kensey's nose leather colour seems more mushroomy than steely, and compared to Monty's you can see the difference there. And the colour on the face too, Kensey's has a more browny-pinky quality.

And here... the ears. The 'seam' of the ears- the very tip- are a good indication of the kittens' final point colour. This is Kenneth and Kensey. Kensey's ear is the lower one, and again, there's a clear difference between Kensey's warmer shade and Kenneth's cooler one.

So anyway... as far as I can tell at this early stage, both Kenneth and Monty are blues, but Kensey is a caramel. And I think I might have a blue and a caramel girl too, although it's harder to tell with them and I haven't been able to get any decent pictures to compare. Wendell, I'm pretty sure, is a blue.

Of course I might be totally wrong. We'll see!

The Blues

Originally posted on my private blog- posted to http://indikon-tonkinese.blogspot.com/ on 06/01/11

My litter has been puzzling me no end, especially young Wendell. I've noted before that he doesn't really look like a lilac, he's too dark, in fact he looks distinctly blue. Then I thought he was lightening off and would look more lilac-y in turn. Then I thought perhaps this was caramel, then? He looks very little like his Mama anyway, who is a solid lilac, and I couldn't work out why that was. The other kittens, too, they look rather darker than I would have expected for a lilac, especially Monty and Kenneth. But they couldn't possibly be lilac could they, because of their parentage it wouldn't be possible, genetically.

But yesterday the penny dropped! Dad cat is apricot, which means he has the orange making gene masking his true colour. I've only considered this orange colour when thinking about what he could pass on to his children, but of course this isn't the case... he will also be passing on his masked colour too. Bingo! I don't know why, but this had completely passed me by... I'd only ever considered the red colouring.

So I don't have a litter of lilacs after all... I have a litter of blues! And possibly blue- based caramels. There could be lilacs and lilac caramels in the mix as well, but they all look more or less the same to me so I think they are the same colour. We'll see, I'm sure Dad cat has lilac offspring, so lilac ought to be possible but I don't think we have any.

That's OK though. I like blues... I have two of my own! And suddenly the colour of my litter makes sense.

I do feel a wally though! Ah well, I'd been rather too smug about having sexed the kittens correctly (at the vet the other day it was confirmed that we do indeed have four boys and two girls) so it's no more than I deserve really, pride goeth before a fall and all that! I'm also feeling a little daunted, I must admit, at the prospect of deciding between more possible colourways... I suspect I would have been wiser to have chosen a different stud and left both red and caramel until I'd got a little more experience! But no matter, I'll get there in the end, I'm sure :)

Eyes, Coats And Noses

Originally posted on my private blog- posted to http://indikon-tonkinese.blogspot.com/ on 06/01/11

Ok, so the kittens are on Day Nine today, just over a week old, and as you can see in the picture are starting to open up their eyes. One kitten has them fully open, one kitten has the tiniest slits and all the others are inbetween. One funny litle thing has one eye a slit and one eye fully open giving him a squinty, piratey look, it's too cute!

What you can't see, but what I'm finding very exciting, is that the kittens are developing the faintest blush of colour on their noses and whisker pads. it's so faint it looks like a shadow, or dirt (only Indigo keeps them super- clean so it couldn't be...) It will be interesting to see how this point colour develops over the next few weeks. The 'seams' of their ears, too, they are all showing colour.

You can also see from the picture just how much lighter the little dark guy has got over the week. Because of the parents colourations, I KNEW I could only have lilac or lilac based caramel boys, and Mum is a solid lilac, so I was surprised at how dark this little boy was at birth. if I hadn't known it was impossible I'd have sworn he was a blue. Then I was thinking well, perhaps this is caramel then, but it was so different to Mama, and I'd read that lilac and lilac based caramel were actually rather difficult to discern, so such an obvious difference was most perplexing. But he seems to be getting paler as he gets bigger, and is now looking much more like his mama- and definitely NOT a blue.

But while we're talking about Mr solid lilac (or caramel!)... his name is Wendell. Wendell is from the song Wendell Gee, from REM's third studio album, Fables of the Reconstruction, 1985 Wendell is the biggest kitten, the first born and has been consistently the heaviest at the daily weigh-ins. And he has a Very Loud Voice Indeed!

Who's The Daddy?

Originally posted on my private blog- posted to http://indikon-tonkinese.blogspot.com/ on 06/01/11

It's Harry!

Harry, or Grand Champion Fecheldee Harry, to give him his proper title, is apricot with a tonkinese (intermediete) coat. He's very handsome and cuddly with a lovely nature, and Indigo was quite happy in his company- even when she was hiding in his bed she didn't hiss or yowl at him, and- well obviously they got on a whole lot better than that after a day or two *grin*

Apricot is a colour we haven't covered yet, genetically speaking, but it's red (orange), diluted to cream and caramelised to apricot. You'll have to take my word for that for the moment! We'll cover dilution and caramel eventually on here.

Which means there are eight possibilities, kitten- wise. These are:

Female, lilac tortie, tonkinese coat
Female, lilac tortie, solid coat
Female, (lilac-based) caramel tortie, tonkinese coat
Female, (lilac-based) caramel tortie, solid coat
Male, lilac, tonkinese coat
Male, lilac, solid coat
Male, (lilac-based) caramel, tonkinese coat
Male, (lilac based) caramel, solid coat

They all have an equal likelihood, so a 1 in 8 chance. Of course this is an average, so we might get two of one, none of another... it's the luck of the draw. And it may be many weeks- months in the case of the caramels, before their colouration becomes apparent. It will be interesting to see what we do get.

Update 06/01/11 Ha ha! I got my genetics wrong, and instead of a litter of lilacs, we have a litter of blues! This is because although Dad cat is cream, he also has the underlying colour the cream masks, (blue, in Harry's case), and has passed that onto his kittens of course! I'd totally overlooked that. I do feel a bit of a prune!