What will the babies look like?

Bratcat31

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Hello!

My friend found a stray cat that is pregnant while staying with her mom during the pandemic. They brought her inside and are working to get her into a rescue. We are just curious what colors the babies might be. Pic of momma and expected daddy cat attached.

Thanks,

Kelli
 

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lutece

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Assuming these are actually the parents, and starting with the color of the parents,
  • Mom is shorthaired and appears to be blue classic tabby in color.
  • Dad is also shorthaired, and appears to be either black with some discoloration, or sable (seal sepia / Burmese color restriction).
Hair length:
  • Kittens are most likely to be shorthaired.
  • If both parents carry the recessive longhair gene, each kitten would have a 25% chance of being longhaired.
Likely colors:
  • Most likely color for the kittens is brown tabby (black stripes on a beige to brown background).
  • If mom carries solid, you could also see solid black kittens.
  • If dad carries dilute (blue), you could also see blue tabby kittens (similar color to mom).
  • If mom carries solid AND dad carries dilute, you could also see solid blue kittens.
If you see any of these colors, you will know the cat in the picture wasn't really the dad (or the mom had more than one boyfriend):
  • Kittens with white markings
  • Tortoiseshell or calico girls
  • Solid white
 
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Bratcat31

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Assuming these are actually the parents, and starting with the color of the parents,
  • Mom is shorthaired and appears to be blue classic tabby in color.
  • Dad is also shorthaired, and appears to be either black with some discoloration, or sable (seal sepia / Burmese color restriction).
Hair length:
  • Kittens are most likely to be shorthaired.
  • If both parents carry the recessive longhair gene, each kitten would have a 25% chance of being longhaired.
Likely colors:
  • Most likely color for the kittens is brown tabby (black stripes on a beige to brown background).
  • If mom carries solid, you could also see solid black kittens.
  • If dad carries dilute (blue), you could also see blue tabby kittens (similar color to mom).
  • If mom carries solid AND dad carries dilute, you could also see solid blue kittens.
If you see any of these colors, you will know the cat in the picture wasn't really the dad (or the mom had more than one boyfriend):
  • Kittens with white markings
  • Tortoiseshell or calico girls
  • Solid white
You are amazing as always!! Thank you!
 

StefanZ

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Agree, momma seems to be a diluted torbie...

So, half of kittens will be classic tabbies. They will tend to be black (or brown tabby) (or grey, / blue tabby if daddy is a diluted carrier him too) or red (creme).

Girls will tend to be torties / torbies, undiluted or possibly diluted.


There are also some slim possibility of occasional longhair kitten or pointed kitten (if both parents are carriers of these recessive genes).
 

lutece

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I'm not seeing irregular cream patches on the mom, other than the cream areas you would expect a blue tabby to have. Where are the two of you seeing irregular cream patches?
 

lutece

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On her right front paw, that cream patch seems larger than you'd expect from just tabby shading.
It looks symmetrical to me with the other leg... Inside front leg is often a light area on tabbies, and you often see a dark "bracelet" higher on the front leg, and then a light area lower down. Here are a few examples of blue classic tabbies for pattern reference.

cfdc7fad07f3400ef1dbb580c1b53e4e.jpg Stormy_Molkeen_June_2019.jpg 99ce4d41b0525e5c258d716373a75a13--kitten-images-british-shorthair-kittens.jpg valerie191111e.jpg

Of course it's always possible that there are cream patches hiding somewhere, but I'm not seeing them in the picture...
 

lutece

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It's possible that she has cream patches hiding somewhere, but they are not obvious in those pictures... she looks like a normal blue classic tabby.

However, if she has any red or cream kittens, you will know that she is a torbie and has cream patches hiding somewhere!
 

StefanZ

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There was a hole in my analysis. I discovered whole sleeping my night sleep. I presumed she has just one gene of the tabby. As is common in moggies... IF so, half of her babies will be tabbies, half not. As I wrote.
But its also possible she has this gene doubled up. IF so, ALL of her kittens will be classic tabbies / torbies.

They will be classic "bulls eye" tabbies, they cant be no other tabby type, because classic tabby is the least dominant of the tabby types, so we know there is only the classic tabby onstage.

IF you get also any other tabby type, you will know the daddy got help from somewhere else.


And yes, when the kittens are born and patterns and coloring is clearly visible, please tell us what it become.
Especially if some become torbies / torties / red ones.... or not. :)

THREE of us forumist and "inhouse experts" will get us a lesson. :)

B Bratcat31
 

lutece

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They will be classic "bulls eye" tabbies, they cant be no other tabby type, because classic tabby is the least dominant of the tabby types, so we know there is only the classic tabby onstage.
The kittens' tabby pattern will depend on dad. He has tabby pattern genes, the pattern is just not being expressed because he is solid (or sepia). If his tabby pattern is mackerel, spotted, or ticked, he can pass that on to the kittens.
 
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Bratcat31

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For some reason I'm no longer getting emails when my watched threads get updated!

No babies yet. Unfortunately my friend may not be able to keep her through the pregnancy as she has tested positive for FeLV and my friend has two negative kitties at home. But I'm hopeful to be able to at least keep enough track to find out what the babes look like. I'll post for sure!
 

cataholic07

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Did they do an IFA test? Unfortunately felv can be spread to the kittens so she might want to take that into consideration.. finding homes for felv positive kittens is hard.
 
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Bratcat31

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Did they do an IFA test? Unfortunately felv can be spread to the kittens so she might want to
She's done 3 tests. 2 ForHome Blood SNAP tests and one IDEXX Serum test. I don't think she is going to do a IFA as they are suuuuper expensive here. She is planning to surrender the whole brood to a shelter here that specializes in FeLV kittens/cats to try to give them the best shot. Sometimes even positive FeLV neonates, if hand reared, can kick the disease themselves as long as it is done at a very early age so surrendering is actually the right decision in this case. Normally, it wouldn't be as FeLV kittens are generally euthanized on sight, but fortunately this shelter not only doesn't euth, but pulls FeLV cats from all over the state so they don't get euthed. So, they are wellllllll set up to get them vetted, and adopted out. If memory serves, they even waive the adoption fee and cover all FeLV related costs for the life of the cat. I might be remembering that wrong, but I believe that's right.

I think currently she's trying to figure out if she wants to foster until they are able to go up for adoption, or if she wants to surrender now and have the shelter find them a new foster. I'm going to ask her today what she thinks she's going to do but I'm trying to give her some space because she was planning to keep the momma and now can't so there is a lot of heartbreak involved.
 
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Bratcat31

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Okay, finally had babies last night! 3 tabbies and 1 solid white baby that was still born. I think it's girl, boy, boy but it's hard since I only have pics. Pics are front, back, bottom of each kitten. lutece lutece StefanZ StefanZ W Willowy
 

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lutece

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I'm very sorry to hear about the stillborn kitten. Glad the others are fine, though! Good luck with the sweet little ones :)

Solid white at birth probably means that it was a pointed kitten, which would tell us that both parents carry colorpoint and Dad is black in color (rather than sepia). Dad's underlying tabby pattern appears to be mackerel carrying classic, since the kittens have both classic and mackerel patterns.
 
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Bratcat31

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#1 is a girl, #2 is a boy, I think #3 is a boy but he's kinda squished in the picture so I'm not positive.

They're so cute!
I said girl, boy, boy too so maybe we are both right. I asked for a new pic of number 3 cause it's not great and the second was worse. LOL!! She's gonna wait until next weigh in to try again. :-)
 
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