Any way to tell what color/pattern the dad was?

[Kareywood]

Hi I found a stray 7 or 8 month old kitten in my back yard in April. We decided to keep her and she turned out to be pregnant. She had 4 kittens. We will be keeping mom and all 4 kittens (all will be indoors only, spayed/ neutered, and we have a big house , enough money to care for them properly, and are retired so can spend a lot of time with them).

mom is a brown and white spotted tabby.
the two boys are black and white tuxedo cats.
one girl is a brown and white spotted tabby (looks almost exactly like mom).
the other girl is mostly black with ghost stripes (I think its called).

mom and 3 of the kittens are short hairs. The girl with the ghost stripes is long haired.

just curious about what dad looks like-color, coat length?

thanks!

 

[Kareywood]

Here’s another pic of mama cat!

 

[Willowy]

Solid black, almost certainly, since 3 of the 4 kittens are solid. Possibly blue; if the mother doesn't carry the dilute gene none of the kittens would have gotten it. He might have had a little white but since the black female doesn't have much white, and the mama cat has a lot of white, he probably had less than the black kitten does. And he might have been longhaired, although 2 shorthaired carriers can have a longhaired kitten so not necessarily.

They're a beautiful kitty family!

 

[Kareywood]

Thanks, willowy! I will have to look up blue cats-not sure what that is. One of our neighbors said they have seen a big mostly black stray cat running in their front yard. I bet that’s the father! I also did not know 2 short haired cats could have a long haired cat. The 2 boy kittens seem so different from the girls and only one of the 4 looks like mom. Interesting combination of kittens!
Hubby and I love them all and mom as well

 

[Willowy]

Blue is just the "official" name for gray .

 

[Heart For Cats]

Blue cat:



Black smoke is the term for a black cat whose tabby markings show through.

 

[Maurey]

Black smoke is the term for a black cat whose tabby markings show through.

That’s tabby ghosting, can happen in any black solid cat.
Black smokes are black solid cats with the inhibitor gene, so they have white roots, affecting overall colour. They do occasionally have ghosting, especially the shorthairs, but it is in no way related to the presence of the inhibitor gene.

 

[cataholic07]

I would say is probably a black male since one solid black kitten. Do you have more pics? The one climbing on the screen is a longhair brown and white tabby.

 

[StefanZ]

The black tom is the main suspect. He may even have some white spot. If neither momma or daddy are heterozygot on white spot, some kitten will be solid black. He is prob shorthair, although he may be longhair.

Momma is apparently NOT homozygot as tabby. So just some few of kittens get her pattern. (half statistically, but statistics arent ironclad)
Daddy is surely no tabby, because tabby being dominant, would show in at least one kitten... So daddy is something quite neutral colored and neutral patterned
Anyways, kittens got essentially mommas colors and patterns.

Homozygot: a gene doubled up; one from momma, one from daddy
Heteryzygot; just one gene, either from momma or daddy, the other gene in the pair is neutral.


And yeah, that black kitten has probably ghostly stripes. its very common on solid cats! the stripes will prob become weaker as the kittens gets adult.
Its no true tabby gene.
(although it demonstrates the tabby genes are more complicated than my pedagogic, easy to understand but oversimplified modell).