At one time, cat breeders assumed that by adding two cats together, they would know what kittens would be produced and were most of the time shocked by the results. This was because the thinking was that the color of a cat's coat was dictated by a single gene but modern developments in genetic testing has shown that there are actually three genes that work together to produce the final coat color and pattern.
Blotches and stripes
Using the tabby cat as an example, there are four main variations of the tabby pattern; the stripes, spotted, ticked and blotched. Each of these patterns is caused by the genes the cat receives from its parents. One gene says whether a cat will be striped or blotched while another can turn those stripes into spots. This means if the cat doesn't have the spot causing gene, it will remain with stripes.
To use another example given by The Tech: if you have a wall which is painted red and you then paint it with red stripes, it will remain red. However if you have a black and red striped wall and paint red stripes in the opposite direction, you will get black spots. So going back to tabby patterns, the blotched cat is the red wall and another spot gene is another pot of red paint. But if you add the spot gene to the striped cat, you get spots just as you did with the black and red striped wall.
One gene or two?
Cats like people receive two copies of each gene, one from each parent so this means that there are different combinations available in siblings. Using the striped and blotched example there are three possibilities: striped/striped, blotched/blotched and striped/blotched.
Now which of these genes is the dominant? In genetics, this refers to a gene that is stronger than another gene and therefore is considered the dominant. In this scenario, the striped is the dominant gene so in the combination of striped/blotched, the cat will be striped as it is the dominant gene.
Predicting kittens
Armed with this knowledge cat breeders began to be able to predict what kitten would come from a certain pairing of cats. While the combination will have random results, so there is no way of predicting that the third kitten born will be a certain pattern, it does allow them work out the general ratios of kittens involved. For example, with the striped/blotched pairing, there is a ratio of 3:1 meaning that three out of every four kittens will be striped and just one will be blotched.
Gene codes
Away from the tabby pattern, geneticists have managed to recognize a range of genes that lead to different colors and patterns in different cat breeds. Here are a few of the major ones:
The gene code C refers to an enzyme called tyrosine that is the first step in pigment production. When it is recessive, it causes albinism in cats and also what is called temperature sensitive albinos. This results in colors such as Siamese and Burmese and is also known as the Colorpoint pattern. It results in dark color hair at the coolest points of the body such as the tail, legs, face and ears while the warmer parts of the body are a lighter shade
The gene code W is known as the white masking gene and stops cells producing normal pigmentation. This creates cats such as pure white cats and solid and white patterns.
The gene code S is called the white spotting or piebald spotting and creates pattern such as the white blaze across the face, a white bib, the tuxedo pattern or dappled paws. It is also the reason for the mitten pattern found in breeds such as the Birman and the Snowshoe.
When a cat has the red gene (O) the black color (eumelanin) in the coat is replaced with red (phaeomelanin). It is located on the X chromosome so male cats only have one version of this gene, resulting in red fur when it is dominant and non-orange fur when recessive. Female cats get two versions of the gene so when one parents has O dominant and the other o recessive (Oo), the result is a tortoiseshell cat with some red areas and some non-red areas.
Conclusion
This is just a few basics of the genetics of cats to give an idea how the color and pattern of the cats parents can affect the resulting kittens that they produce. Or you can wait with anticipate and get a pleasant surprise when those beautiful little kittens appear!
Injuries happen to cats as much as to anyone else. They happen even in the best regulated households. Accidents are a part of life. They come out of the blue. And often at very inconvenient times.
The best natural home remedies for cats' (or anyone else) injuries are not just home remedies. They are the best all-round injury treatments. It's just that you can also learn to use some of the common ones at home, offering you much greater flexibility.
What am I talking about here?
Homeopathic treatment for injuries is powerful, rapid, deep, total and complete in the vast majority of cases. And cats are very amenable to homeopathic treatment. You don't have to devise clever ways to pop the pill down your cat's throat. Your cat SEEKS 메리트카지노 the treatment.
A wholly different, and highly satisfying, ball game.
Although veterinary care can be indispensable in some cases, it is also highly traumatic for the sensitive creatures that cats are. The added burden of this trauma can be the final straw to a badly injured cat.
By learning how to treat injuries at home with effective homeopathic treatment, you can immediately start the healing of an injury, as soon as it happens to your cat. This relaxes the cat and starts deep healing. In many cases, this can be all that is required, even if you do have to dance around the changing symptoms and treatments.
Only then, if you feel veterinary care is still required, is it now safe to subject your cat to the car ride, the strange and highly fearful environment that most veterinary clinics are for cats. And the toxic treatment which goes hand-in-hand with veterinary practice.