Breeding with Red Cats
A red cat is a true gem to a breeding program! It is interesting, and sometimes confusing, trying to understand everything involved in breeding with red cats because the red color gene is sex-linked. For example, if you have a red male and breed him to a blue female, you will not have red kittens. You could have black, blue, tortoiseshell or blue cream kittens. To further confuse matters, only the boys could be black and blue, and only the girls (in most cases) could be torties and blue creams.
If, however, you bred your red boy to a tortoiseshell girl, you could get the blacks, blues, and torties, and also get reds and creams in both sexes. The only sure way to get red kittens is to breed a red male to a red female. But why?
- Rule #1 – Kittens receive two color genes.
- Rule #2 – Male kittens receive both color genes from their mother
- Rule #3 – Female kittens receive one color gene from both their mother and father
So if you breed a red male to a blue female, the boys will get two blue genes, and the girls will get a red and a blue gene, basically mixing the two colors. This gives you the tortoiseshell and the blue cream. If you breed a blue male to a red female, the boys will get two red genes, and the girls will again get a red and a blue gene and give you torties and blue creams.
Dilute Color Genetics
The dilute color of red is cream. In order to get creams and blue creams, both parents have to at least carry the dilute gene in their pedigree. To guarantee getting kittens in these colors, it would be best for both parents to be dilute, cream and blue. Two dilute cats cannot produce kittens in the dominant colors, red and black.
Using Red in Chocolate and Lilac Breeding Programs
You get into a completely different area if trying to breed a red male to a chocolate or lilac cat. Chocolate and lilac are rare colors, and if you are trying to produce a chocolate tortoiseshell or a lilac cream, you would have to breed with a male that was a chocolate and lilac carrier, meaning that there is chocolate or lilac in his pedigree, and it would be best if they were his parents. It would also help if the male was a dilute himself, being cream.
How to Breed for Brilliant Reds
Breeders who are trying to create rich, brilliant reds have found that breeding them to a blue cream enhances the colors in the red kittens. So many breeders, rather than breed a red cat to a red cat or a cream cat to a cream cat in order to produce reds and creams, prefer to breed their red males to blue cream females. Also, breeding a red male to a tortoiseshell female will produce red kittens in both sexes, and they can still have tortoiseshells and blue creams.
Cat Color Genetics Chart
Red Male bred to black, blue, chocolate or lilac Female can create:
- Male kittens – black, blue, chocolate, lilac
- Female kittens – tortoiseshell, blue cream, chocolate tortoiseshell, lilac cream
Red Male bred to red or cream Female can create:
- Male kittens – red, cream
- Female kittens – red, cream
Red Male bred to tortoiseshell, blue cream, chocolate tortoiseshell or lilac cream Female can create:
- Male kittens – black, blue, red, cream, chocolate, or lilac
- Female kittens – red, cream, tortoiseshell, blue cream, chocolate tortoiseshell, or lilac cream
Complete Cat Color Genetics Chart
Resources:
Breed Profile of Solid Color Persians
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