Breeding techniques

Eurocatfancy

Genetic terms
Dominance of genes
Breeding techniques
Crossing Table 1
Crossing Table 2
Gene A: Agouti
Gene B: Black
Gene C: Full colour
Gene D: Diluted
Gene I: Inhibitor
Gene L: Shorthair
Gene Mc: Mackerel
Gene O: Orange
Gene S: Piebald spotting
Gene W: White
Gene XY: Sex

Breeding techniques

There are existing several breeding techniques which are combined with each other, of course.

Line breeding

Cats whose pedigrees include related lines (=catteries) are mated. The advantage is that you keep the traits which are already existing in these lines, and you cross lines which do already harmonize with each other.

Example 1:
Let’s show this on a concrete pedigree.

sex: male

colour: Siamese creampoint

1st generation	2nd generation	3rd generation	4th generation
Sire: Klingeskov's Nisiros Siamese chocolatepoint	Sire: San-T-Ree Charmeur Siamese sealpoint	Nivandro So Sinister Siamese sealpoint	Nivandro Attaboy Siamese sealpoint
			Sugarplum Sheba Siamese chocolatepoint
		San-T-Ree Love Story Siamese sealpoint	San-T-Ree Dark Kontur Siamese sealpoint
			San-T-Ree Dark Unique Siamese sealpoint
	Dam: Klingeskov's Sifnos Siamese sealpoint	Loui Braun Brimiso Siamese sealpoint	Klingeskov's Athos Siamese sealpoint
			Kalina Al Kattá Siamese chocolatepoint
		Klingeskov's Piperi Siamese sealpoint	San-T-Ree Dark Mascot Siamese sealpoint
			San-T-Ree Alisha Siamese sealpoint
Dam: Nissen's Honey Oriental tortieshell	Sire: Klingeskov's Tanos Siamese sealpoint	Loui Braun Brimiso Siamese sealpoint	Klingeskov's Athos Siamese sealpoint
			Kalina Al Kattá Siamese chocolatepoint
		Klingeskov's Piperi Siamese sealpoint	San-T-Ree Dark Mascot Siamese sealpoint
			San-T-Ree Alisha Siamese sealpoint
	Dam: DK Player's Claudia Oriental chocolate tortie	Blue Felicity's Felix Siamese creampoint	Blue Felicity's Dusty Oriental red spotted
			Blue Felicity's Ariel Siamese white (Foreign White)
		Nissen's Ona Oriental black (Ebony)	Mads af Bajang Oriental black (Ebony)
			Nissen's Heidi Oriental lilac (Lavender)

When you look on this pedigree, you have various choices which lines you can use for breeding.
Of course you should know these lines and which offspring they produce. But here the study of the show results and their score board index can be of good help for you. If these lines included in the pedigree of your cat are often scoring in the charts you can assume that these lines might produce good kittens and that you should use these lines for breeding.

You may choose the female out of the following lines:

Line of San-T-Ree
This line is quite often in the pedigree of our male and seems to be very successful, otherwise this line would not have been used so often for breeding. This line seems to harmonize quite well with the line of Klingeskov.

Line of Klingeskov
This line had been used on the father's side as well as on the mother's side, like the line of San-T-Ree. It would be very interesting to have a daughter of Klingeskov's Piperi or of Klingeskov's Nisiros.

Line of Blue Felicity
This line is used only the mother's side. Therefore it would be interesting to use a female out of this line to mate with our male.

Inbreeding

You cross cats which are related to each other, f.e. father with daughter, mother with son, half siblings, cousins, uncle with niece, aunt with nephew, grandparent with grandchild.
When crossing relatives with each other already existing traits are fixed and intensified. But note, that also the faults already inherent are also intensified.
One word to the argument that inbreeding is unhealthy.
This argument is simply not true. For inbreeding of course the best cats have to be used, "best" means the most vigorous and most healthy cats - besides the most beautiful cats. The kittens born out of such an inbreeding program are more healthy than their parents because with inbreeding already existing traits - concerning the healthiness - are intensified and fixed.
It is in the responsibility of a serious breeder to select the cats which fit best for inbreeding. But you can't generalize and say inbreeding is unhealthy.

Example 2:

sex: female

colour: Persian bluecream

1st generation	2nd generation	3rd generation	4th generation
Sire: California Dream'n Persian cream	Sire: Creamydelite Quest of Puff N'Purr Persian black	Midas Fame Fortune of Creamydelite Persian red	Lullaby Abracadabra of Midas Persian black
			Midas Ziegfield's Folly Persian red
		Village Inn's Charcoal Brigette Persian black	Village Inn's Adonis of Corsica Persian black
			Corsica's Storm of Village Inn Persian tortieshell
	Dam: Puff N'Purr's Sunkist Persian cream	Freis-Cream B.J. of Puff N'Purr Persian black	Le-Hi Bonanza of Freis-Cream Persian cream
			Freis-Cream's Celebrity Persian cream
		Puff N'Purr's Sunflower Persian cream	Simbelair Quincy of Puff N'Purr Persian cream
			Queen Ann Hill Hi-D of Puff N'Purr Persian cream
Dam: D'Allessandria's Pretty Woman Persian bluecream	Sire: D'Allessandria's Celebration Persian blue	California Dream'n Persian cream	Creamydelite Quest of Puff N'Purr Persian black
			Puff N'Purr's Sunkist Persian cream
		D'Allessandria's Andrina Persian bluecream	Ulric Persian blue
			Samira v. Neuholdau Persian cream
	Dam: California Starlet Persian bluecream	Puff N'Purr's Ajax Persian white, copper eyes	Puff N'Purr's Gorgeous George Persian cream
			Puff N'Purr's Little Gem Persian white, copper eyes
		Puff N'Purr's Sunkist Persian cream	Freis-Cream B.J. of Puff N'Purr Persian cream
			Puff N'Purr's Sunflower Persian cream

When you look at the pedigree of this cat you see immediately where cats had been used for inbreeding.
Inbreeding is the quickest way to fix some traits.

California Dream'n
You can find this cat at the father's side as well as at the mother's side. This cat is the father of our female as well as the great-grandfather of our cat.
We even could do an inbreeding with this cat once more, which would intensify the traits of our female. We would get a lot of kittens which have a similar look like our female.

Puff N'Purr's Sunkist
We have this cat also at the father's side and at the mother's side, it appears quite often in our pedigree. She is the grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great grandmother of our female. Our female has for sure a lot of traits coming from this cat. This queen seems to be quite successful, otherwise we would not find her so often in our pedigree.
It would be very interesting to get a son of Puff N'Purr's Sunkist. This would be an inbreeding between uncle and niece what you'll find quite often.

Freis-Cream B.J. of Puff N'Purr
Also this cat we can find at the father's side and at the mother's side. It would be quite successful to make a mating with Freis-Cream B.J. of Puff N'Purr which we have in the ancestors of the father and in the ancestors of the mother. We could use the breeding method of inbreeding combined with the method of the common ancestor.

Creamydelite Quest of Puff N'Purr
It would be very interesting to make a mating with Creamydelite Quest of Puff N'Purr, as we can find this male at the father's side and at the mother's side in different generations.
A mating with this male is an inbreeding between grandfather and grandchild which would also intensify the traits of our female and her kittens would look like more like our female.

Breeding with a common ancestor

The same cat is used for mating in different generations.

Example 3:
On the pedigree above you can see the common ancestors which had been used in several generations. Especially the queen Puff N'Purr's Sunkist is used several times as common ancestor.
Didn’t you sometimes think by yourself astonished: "Oh, look at those cats, they are also in the pedigree of my cat. Hm, it seems that many cats are related to each other."
In fact that is the result of the breeding technique of the common ancestor. Some stud males or queens had been producing extraordinary kittens and therefore had been used in various generations. Your goal as breeder must be to breed such a common ancestor, to breed a queen or a stud male which produces very good kittens and therefore can be used in several generations.

Outcross

You cross cats with each other which come from completely different lines.
This technique has to come into effect when line breeding or inbreeding does not improve anything more, that means when your breeding program has come to a certain stagnancy.

Cross breeding

You cross cats of different breeds.

Example 4:

Breeding of Silver Shaded British Shorthair

The silver shaded British Shorthairs had been bred, when silver shaded Exotics or Persians had been bred to the British Shorthair to introduce the silver shaded colour into the British Shorthair.

Breeding of British Shorthair Colourpoint

The British Colourpoint had been born, when Colourpoint Exotics or Persians had been bred to the British Shorthair to introduce the Siamese gene c^s into the British Shorthair.

Breeding of Tabbypoint Birmans

The tabbypoint Birmans had been bred when silver Persians had been bred to Birmans to introduce the agouti gene into the Birmans and to keep the blue eye colour of the Birmans. Silver Shaded cats must have at least one agouti gene A and had been bred from Silver Tabbies by selecting always the most diffuse pattern to continue with the breeding program. The green eyes of the Silver Shaded fit very well with the blue eyes of the Colourpoints (Birmans carry Siamese gene c^s, Birmans are Colourpoints).

Breeding of a spotted pattern which is ticked

The Ocicat is the result of cross breeding the Oriental spotted and Abyssinians to get a spotted pattern which is ticked also in the spotted areas.

Breeding with hybrids and carriers

Mostly this technique is used to improve the type of an already existing colour variety. For example to improve the Colourpoint Persians they are bred with solid coloured Persians whose type is more developed. The kittens out of this mating are so called hybrids, they are solid but each carries the Siamese gene c^s, too. In the next generation either two hybrids are bred together or a Colourpoint is bred with a hybrid:

		male
		C	C
female	c^s	Cc^s	Cc^s
female	c^s	Cc^s	Cc^s

All kittens of the F1-generation (first filial generation) are hybrids, i.e. Colourpoint carriers.

In the F2-generation you can continue in two ways:

Case 1:
Two hybrids are mated: Cc^s X Cc^s

		male
		C	c^s
female	C	CC	Cc^s
female	c^s	Cc^s	c^sc^s

Note:
In this litter you get solid cats which are hybrids and you get also pure solid cats which are not hybrids. Mostly you don’t know which one of the solid coloured cats is a hybrid or not. Only a test mating with a Colourpoint will show if the kitten you might have kept is a Colourpoint carrier or not.

Case 2:
A Colourpoint is mated with a hybrid: c^sc^s X Cc^s

		male
		C	c^s
female	c^s	Cc^s	c^sc^s
female	c^s	Cc^s	c^sc^s

All solid cats are hybrids, carry the Siamese gene c^s.

Still this technique is very useful for breeding the Colourpoint British Shorthair, to breed hybrids with British Blue, to improve the look of the Colourpoint British Shorthair, but most important to improve the coat texture of the Colourpoint British Shorthair.

Example 5:
Another example is how you might breed cinnamon silver spotted cats, f.e. in the Ocicats or the Oriental Shorthairs, to improve the spots. Here you use so called cinnamon carriers, best is to use black silver spotted cats which carry cinnamon because of the better contrast.

1st step:
You have a black silver spotted female: BB CC Ii
First you cross her with a cinnamon spotted male: b^lb^l CC ii

		male
		b^l C i
female	B C I	Bb^l CC II
female	B C i	Bb^l CC ii

Note that all black silver spotted kittens carry the cinnamon gene b^l.

2nd step:
From this litter you keep a black silver spotted male and breed him back to his mother.

		male
		b^l C I	B C I
female	b^l C I	b^lb^l CC II	Bb^l CC II
female	b^l C i	b^l b^l CC Ii	Bb^l CC Ii

Mostly the cinnamon spotted kittens what you get now have clearer and more distinct spots.

Example 6:
Breeding with carriers is also used when breeding chocolate Persians or Exotics, as their type has to be improved.

In that case a chocolate cat is bred with a solid cat. All the litter will carry the chocolate gene b. You keep the best chocolate carrier to continue with your breeding program, similar as shown above with the Colourpoint carriers.

		male
		B	B
female	b	Bb	Bb
female	b	Bb	Bb

All kittens of the F1-generation (first filial generation) are chocolate carriers.

Now you can continue in two ways:

Case 1:
Two cocolate carriers are mated:
Bb X Bb

		male
		B	b
female	B	BB	Bb
female	b	Bb	bb

Note:
In this litter you will get solid cats which are hybrids and you'll get also pure solid cats which are not hybrids. Mostly you do not know which one of the solid coloured cats is a hybrid or not. Only a test mating with a chocolate cat will show you, if the kitten you might have kept is a chocolate carrier or not.

Case 2:
A chocolate is mated with a chocolate carrier:
bb X Bb

		male
		B	b
female	b	Bb	bb
female	b	Bb	bb

All solid cats are chocolate carriers.

Example 7: In this example you see how this breeding techniques are combined with each other when you want to breed Exotics.
	You can see that the Persians PER1 and PER2 are used in several generations as common ancestors. These two Persians are also used for inbreeding, when you look at the Exotic EXO4 which is bred to her grandparent, the Persian PER2.
Also inbreeding is used when you look at the Exotic EXO5 which is bred to her great-grandparent, the Persian PER1. By the way you'll always have to breed Exotics with Persians to maintain the coat texture which should be soft and have a very dense undercoat so that the coat of the Exotic is not lying flat to the body.

You can use the same techniques for breeding Balinese if you want to improve their type. Your breeding plan could look like as follows:
	You see here it is the opposite way around, we use the shorthair Siamese to improve the type of the longhair Balinese. We use the Siamese SIA1 and SIA2 to get so called variants (shorthair cats which carry longhair), in the example our Siameses SIA3 and SIA4, which both carry the longheir gene l - technique of breeding with carriers.
We also use the technique of inbreeding when you have a look at our 3rd generation where we breed the 2 Balinese girls BAL3 and BAL4 each to her grandfather. With the longhair carriers the Siamese SIA5 and SIA6 we use the technique of breeding with carriers as well as inbreeding as both cats are half siblings and both cats carry the longhair gene l. As common ancestors the two Siameses SIA1 and SIA2 are used in our breeding program.

[A] [B] [C] [cb & cs] [D] [I] [L] [Mc] [O] [S] [W] [XY]

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