Question about kitten colorpoints

Heart For Cats

Cat Lover Forever
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
Jun 27, 2021
Messages
605
Purraise
441
Location
Florida
I used to watch an Animal Planet show called Too Cute, which was about puppies and kittens growing up from shortly after birth to adoption day. In one episode, there were Birman triplets - two girls and one boy. Their mom is a chocolate point. Their dad is a seal point. Both girls have their mom's chocolate point, but the boy has a lilac point. Why wouldn't his point color be either chocolate or seal?

FWIW this is a show cat family, so I know they are pedigree kittens.
 

Willowy

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 1, 2009
Messages
31,893
Purraise
28,300
Location
South Dakota
Lilac is dilute of chocolate. So both parents carried the recessive dilute gene and passed it on to him :).

It's a bit unusual that all the kittens came out chocolate/lilac (50% chance in a chocolate to carrier breeding) but that's how statistics work.
 
Top