Recent Content by elizabeth a.

It's flattering how much you think I can answer, but I'm not a veterinarian, I'm a Ph.D. Animal Scientist/geneticist, so I think there's not much I can add. I agree it's unethical to breed a positive animal. The gene is dominant, so half the kittens will get it from a heterozygote, 100% from a...

You're going to have to figure out if the Savannah breeders use this term as the Bengal breeders do (I suspect they do) or as the geneticists do!! In genetics terms, the first filial generation (F1) is a cross between 2 lines, F2 is F1 x F1, F3 is F2 x F2, etc. To a geneticist, what the Bengal...

The albino cat is a bit elusive from all I can tell. It doesn't seem to have been seen often enough to be studied, but this albino gene is believed to be the most recessive in the series that includes siamese, etc. There is also at least one genetic disease (caused by a totally different gene)...

Nothing is a hard-and-fast rule when it comes to behavior.....there's always plenty of variation, thank goodness! Now a psychiatrist might say your sweetie suffers from insecurity........!

I've never heard anything to make me think Bengals are not safe to have in the home. I think the original crossbreeding introduced new genes, but selection since then has been pretty stringent to get rid of anything undesirable. And the same can't really be said about wolf-dog hybrids, I don't...

More likely you're going to embarrass me!!! I have no stats on identical twins, triplets, etc. in cats, but this is one possibility. If they are identical, then that would apply to behavioral traits too. Of course, we can't tease that apart from the influence of rearing either, although, as...

Don't think I can add anything as I'm not aware of any genetic information on this specific aspect of eye color. I agree....beautiful eyes!

Sorry everyone........computer glitches for me this morning! As we've already discussed, behavior has a genetic component and there's a lot we still need to learn. But usually, that aspect is independent of which parent passes on the gene. What you're talking about is more likely to be the...

Good question and I think the answer relates to that history of domestication. We selected all our domestic species for traits that made them easy to live around and to manage. Cats have only 5,000years of this, compared to over 12,000years for dogs. Also, as we've already talked about, dogs...

I'll see your 3 ways and raise you one!! You're totally right that there are many ways to get a white cat! 1. dominant white gene 2. blue-eyed white gene 3. true albino 4. really extensive white spotting That last one is what you're talking about, and it's a totally different gene to the...

Cute tummy! OK, OK....not a very scientific response, but what else can I say? Neat feet?!!

Thanks, Sandie! As you point out, the inhibitor gene affects the less pigmented areas of the hair, not the tips. The extra information helps, I think, as I now know that Zeus has the siamese gene. That makes pigment production sensitive to environmental temperature. Maybe there's some kind of...

One of the big problems with coat color genetics is that we use different words for the same thing and the same word for different things. "Spotted" is one of those words! We use it for patches of color (e.g., a calico is spotted with white, and that is indeed the name we give to the gene)...

Just to let you all know that I'm really enjoying this.......you're coming up with some good questions! Sorry not to be able to check in every day, but I hope your waits are not too long!

Nothing yet, but I haven't forgotten the question! I know the National Cancer Institute in Maryland is hard at work on the Cat Genome Project and they do DNA tests for police departments at times, but I don't know if they have a commercial lab. The other possibilities I know of are the Vet...