Mojo

Although I wish this handsome young man was one of mine, either a resident or one I'd bred, he isn't. This is Tallica Mojito, Amanda's (reader, commenter) tonk.

Mojo was thought to be a chocolate solid, but Amanda thinks he looks more like a chocolate mink, so has given me permission to post his piccies on here to see... and hopefully as he grows there will be more pictures and we can see what he eventually settles into.

Mojo is currently only 5 months, so plenty of time to settle into his final colouration... remember the shenanigans over the REM litter when they turned about one? And C reports that Jacob has recently lightened, whilst Jonah has darkened into their (presumably) final colour. in fact it can take a Tonk several years to settle into their final colour and even then colour can keep on developing- mature browns, for example, can get very dark indeed.

Mojo's body colour now. I have not had chocolates here, so I couldn't say one way or another. His body is still pretty pale, but chocolates are pale anyway, he has a lovely creamy belly but it isn't almost white, as I've seen in a mink, but that could be the light.

His eyes look pretty aqua though, which would be more typical of a mink.

For comparison, here are Pasha and CoCo (Liesl and Brigitta) at 2(ish) months- Pasha, front, is a brown mink and CoCo a solid, but their eye colour is pretty much the same. By three months though, the eye colour is starting to look pretty different. You can't really see from this pic, but CoCo is a lot darker in the body.

Here's Bailey, a brown solid like CoCo, a month or so later:

You can see his eyes are already starting to look green/ greeny-yellow compared to Pasha's, below... Pasha is a mink and had very nice aqua eyes at 3 months...

Back to Mojo! Those eyes look much more like Pasha's than they do Bailey's don't they? If I had to guess, now, and with all the usual provisos about really not being terribly good at colouring kittens, I'd say he was a chocolate mink. But as always, opinions welcomed! M, your Dylan is a chocolate mink isn't he, is Mojo similar in colouration or is he darker-??

Gloomy

Giving me cattitude

Sorry Inds... wasn't me who turned the sun off again!

Bailey has a little brother! M's new little chocolate mink boy Dylan was finally old enough to come home. Apparently he- Bailey- hasn't been too thrilled about it and has been hissing up a storm but that's lessening now and there's even been some positive interaction going on now. I have no doubt they will be best friends before too long.

I am jealous of these chocolate mink kittens... oh for a bigger house! I would love a chocolate cat. One day!

Five Little Monkeys

Top: Gretl, Brigitta, Upper middle: Kurt, Lower middle: Liesl and one of the greybies but I couldn't tell you who!

Kurt has always been lighter than Brigitta. But he's obviously darker than Liesl. I do genuinely wonder whether he's a chocolate after all? A chocolate solid? Or is it just natural variation? I'm going to register him as a brown solid, but... oh bother it! I'm just not sure. Oh well, as ever, if he is obviously NOT brown as an adult I'd be more than happy to change his pedigree.

I do think, in my next litter, I really need to find myself a chocolate stud. I thought two of my blues were chocs, so I need a chocolate, or a chocolate and lilac ONLY litter, in order to get my mind straight as to what chocolate actually looks like... because you see I've only ever seen it at shows, not here, every day, for 13 weeks.  I'm not even sure if there is a chocolate stud in Tonk-world at the moment, or up and coming, at least as it will be next year minimum. Hope so!

Speaking of monkeys... Louisa was the first today to scale the 'cat gate' and get into the kitchen. She was incredibly pleased with herself. What a minx!

Right Then. Colours. Again.

I was going to tell you about Freddie's new home today but that will have to wait as I am having a bit of a colour crisis.

Basically, I am wondering now if my two chocolates are not in fact blues, (and whether therefore Kurt is perhaps a chocolate) I am doing some snooping online... I shall bore you all with my findings over the next couple of days, no doubt!

Let me show you what I mean. Here's Freddie and Louis...

awww!

Freddie's always had a different colour coat to Louis, browner somehow. You can sort of see it here:

But see this foot? And that tail? Surely that's a blue foot and tail, right? That's Freddie's...

And here they are, front on. Fred on the left, Louis on the right. Friedrich IS a little bit browner, but come on, those kittens are the same colour... aren't they? But I swear last week Marta and Freddie were a totally different colour to Louis...

So. Assuming they are blues, then I have to decide whether they are minks or solids. Well, they are both obviously darker with less contrast between the points than Miss Gretl (who has a blue tail, so no chance of her being a sneaky lilac lol) but remember this little guy?

Yup, our Wendell, from the last litter. He ws a blue solid, here he is at approximately the same age as this litter are now, and he's definitely blue solid. Neither Freddie or Louis, or Marta for that matter, are this dark in the body, and they should be if they are solids.

So it's all very difficult!

For my new families, I would like to say this: colouring Tonkinese IS notoriously difficult- even the experienced breeders get it wrong sometimes. Often kittens don't 'settle' into their final colour until they are quite mature, browns turn out to be blues and so on. Yet we have to send off for their pedigree slips at seven-ish weeks old- ie I should do it this weekend, really. Plenty of room for error, then, and hence me having a major wibble now!

I do promise this though: If your tonk does end up looking very different to the colour it was supposed to be, send me some pictures and I will discuss it with other breeders to get their opinion. If they agree that the cat is indeed a different colour to the one registered, and if it bothers you that the wrong colour is recorded on the pedigree slip, I will apply change that pedigree slip at my own expense. Lots of ifs, there!

More Colour Musings

But firstly, once again, if anyone is here from the advert in Your Cat, welcome to my blog, where I ramble on about my kittens and permanent resident cats and post lots of cute pictures... like this one!

This is Freddie, and yesterday he officially became the first kitten to crawl out of the nest. Very clever!

I've had another nibble, someone who may want a kitten. Hello, P, if you are reading this!

I'm going all out this time to get the colours correct *grin* so now that their nose leathers are starting to colour up- the earliest indicator- I've taken pictures of the kitten's noses to see if they hold true- plenty of time for them to change, but we will see.

I'm only lightly holding the kittens heads in these piccies... of course they all screamed their heads off like I was murdering them hehe. The photos aren't clear (my replacement camera isn't as good as my other one, but what do you do just before Christmas??? Still haven't found it...)

Liesl.

Nose leather really quite dark. She's also developing quite a marked difference between ears and body, so my guess is brown mink.

Friedrich

I'd had Freddie down as a brown solid, but look at his nose. It's dark, but a warmer, pinker dark than Liesl's. He's still pretty dark all over though, so I'm going for chocolate solid.

Kurt

Very dark nose. I think he must be a brown, whether a solid or a mink I have no idea because of his odd colouring- I got a pic of it...

his bottom half looks really pale in comparison to his dark little head. No idea what's going on there! Judging by his head colour I'd say solid, but by his bottom colour mink. Um...?

Louisa

I had Louisa down as a chocolate, but that nose is looking very lilac to me... much paler than her possibly chocolate siblings noses. Her fur has lightened up considerably too and her ears are not really noticeably darker than the rest of her- yet. So possibly a lilac solid. Otherwise a chocolate.

Brigitta

I had thought she was a choc solid before, but that nose is really dark, so now I'm thinking brown solid

Marta

Looks like a chocolate nose to me. Chocolate solid?

Gretl

That little face cracks me up!

In the photo her nose looks a bit pinky but looking at Gretl and Louisa side by side, Louisa's is much warmer. I'm sticking with my original thought here, blue mink.

Anyway them's my thoughts at the current time! No doubt they will change again though, but I think having a visual record will help me in future years when it comes to determining a kitten's colour. Whatever they are, they are all yummy! 

Colourful!

Ok, so I thought I'd do the same thing I did a few days ago re sexing the kittens- that is, take photos of their colour/ pattern development for future reference. As we all know I wasn't too hot on the whole colour question last time (although to be fair it is difficult!) so I thought an aide-memoir on here would be a good thing.

I think I can rule out having any lilac or chocolate minks. I know that they are born nearly white, and none of my kittens are that pale. A sfor what they actually are, shall we just note here and now that really, I have no idea, I'm just guessing at this stage!!!
Kitten 1

One of the 'inbetween' kittens. My guess, chocolate solid or brown mink.

Kitten 2

The teenager calls this 'The Wendell kitten' and insists he's just like him but I don't think he is really, he's too dark for a blue. I'd guess brown. He's darker than his father, coat wise, too, so I can't see how he could be anything other than a brown solid

Kitten 3

An inbetween kitten. The photo of him didn't come out, but he is most alike in colour to kitten 5. A lovely warm colour. Well his head is, his bottom is much paler! (must get a photo of him, he's odd!)

Kitten 4

Another inbetween kitten. Slightly cooler in tone.

Kitten 5

The fourth inbetween kitten. This one is a lovely rich warm colour in the light, I'm guessing this is a chocolate solid.

Kitten 6

This is the other dark kitten, nearly as dark as kitten 2. My guess, a brown solid.

Kitten 7



The lightest kitten. I don't think its a lilac solid- the tips of the fur are dark in certain lights. Given that I don't think any of the kittens were light enough to be chocolate minks, I'm going with blue mink for this baby. But I don't really know!

So there's my litter... quite, quite different to the last one, I'm sure you will agree!

Genetics: Brown, Chocolate And Cinnamon

It all sounds good enough to eat, doesn't it?

I spoke before about all cats being basically black, genetically. I also discussed how this is actually dark brown, and is known by several different names, such as seal, or natural.

The brown gene can be expressed different ways and the different expressions (of any gene, not just this) are known as alleles. There are three alleles in this instance; brown (black, seal), a warmer brown called 'chocolate', or a rich, auburny colour called cinnamon. Cinnamon is not an accepted colour in the Tonkinese, but it's worth including it in the discussion.

The brown gene is not sex linked, like the orange gene is, so all cats will have two alleles in their genetic profile. These can be the same, for example, brown and brown, or different, for example chocolate and cinnamon. Having two alleles the same is known as being homozygous, two different alleles is known as heterozygous.

So which allelle eventually determines the cat's colour? Well, some allelles are dominant over others. Brown is dominant to chocolate and cinnamon. Chocolate is recessive to brown and dominant to cinnamon, and cinnamon is recessive to both brown and chocolate. A pecking order, if you will.
So a black (brown, seal, natural) cat  might be homozygous (brown/brown) or heterozygous (brown/chocolate or brown/cinnamon) but it will still be a brown (black!) cat.

My black cat Sofia could be brown/brown, brown/chocolate or brown/cinnamon, genetically.

It's important though, as the recessive alleles can be passed on genetically, and when, for example, two chocolate alleles are passed on, one from each parent, the kitten will be chocolate and not brown. Which is why, in the cat fancy, you might see a cat described as 'brown, carrying chocolate' (for example). That means that the cat is heterozygous for colour. It's colour is brown, as it has one brown allele which is dominant. But it also has one chocolate allele, which it can potentially pass on to its offspring.

clear as mud- or chocolate- eh?

It's worth mentioning that the orange gene masks the colour gene, however it presents itself- brown, chocolate or cinnamon. Also the important word here is mask- not replace. The colour gene will be hidden but genetically still be present and will still be passed down to subsequent generations. This is what I got wrong last year!

Introducing... Ava

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

No, Ava is not a Tonkinese! She's a valued part of the kitty-household though, so I thought you might like to meet her.

Ava came here with her sister Sofia, my first cats. They were from a litter of five, Ava was the second oldest. Mum was a black smoke shorthaired Persian cross, Dad either a chocolate or cinnamon tabby with a 'Foreign' look to him. Ava herself is a blue smoke tabby, which means she's grey and stripey with a fabulous white undercoat. She's a very dark grey, were she a pedigree it would be considered a fault, but I think she's stunning, the dark grey against the creamy white undercoat is particularly striking.

She's inherited uber-soft fur from her Persian- cross mother and whilst she's a shorthaired cat, she has much longer fur than her sister Sofia (who has in turn much longer fur than Indigo... shorthaired cats have a lot of variation!)

I've included this photo because, whilst it's a dreadful picture in terms of quality, it's very 'Ava'. This was taken several years ago when she was a teeny kitten, and yes, as you may have guessed, Ava is a shy girl. She started out shy, trailing around after her far more confident sister, and in terms of the cat pecking order she's very much at the bottom of the pile. She doesn't often come out when we have visitors, unlike the other three, unless she's feeling especially brave.

However, when the house is quiet, she does venture out. She 'announces' her entrance into a room with a mew and a head rub for me, and once it's night time and I'm in bed she's chatty and affectionate, doing happy paws (kneading) on the duvet and curling up on my chest. She loves to be stroked, and she adores being brushed, purring constantly.

She's a shy girl, but it seems she's a happy one too.