Every Full Colour or Red can also come in a paler shade that
is known as Dilute. The Dilute gene is recessive, meaning
that both alleles need to be dilute (“d”) for the cat to be the
paler colour. If he or she is homozygous for the dominant
non-dilute allele (“D”) – DD – the cat will be the stronger
colour. If the cat is heterozygous - Dd – it will still be the
stronger colour, but will “carry dilute.”
In the example given below two Full Colour cats produce 1
in 4 dilute kittens. Before cat breeders understood genetics,
this gave them quite a shock, and it took some time for
Blues and Fawns to be accepted. |
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www.messybeast.com is a good site for animal genetics.
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