# British shorthair colour mating



## Karley (Oct 25, 2018)

Hi Everyone! 

I was just looking for some advice with breeding different colour British shorthair.

I have a beautiful golden tipped queen and I was wondering if anyone knew what colours I would get by mating her with a blue stud?

Many thanks in advance


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## gskinner123 (Mar 10, 2010)

It depends upon various factors. Does your girl mask spotted or ticked? Ditto the blue stud? Do either carry chocolate and does your girl carry dilute? Is she homozygous for agouti?

Assuming both parents are on the full register, under the GCCF BSH registration policy any self kittens from mating (if the queen carries self of course) would be reference register; tipped kittens would be supplementary.


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## QOTN (Jan 3, 2014)

Karley said:


> Hi Everyone!
> 
> I was just looking for some advice with breeding different colour British shorthair.
> 
> ...


Is she pure for agouti and does she carry dilute? Does she carry any other colour?


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## Karley (Oct 25, 2018)

Thank you for your reply. She does not carry dilute she is pure agouti. She carry’s silver tipped and golden tipped. Not to sure what the stud carries but he is a solid blue. 

Both parents are on the full register. 

I just wasn’t sure if it would be best to take her to a tipped stud. 

Thanks in advance


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## SusieRainbow (Jan 21, 2013)

Karley said:


> Thank you for your reply. She does not carry dilute she is pure agouti. She carry's silver tipped and golden tipped. Not to sure what the stud carries but he is a solid blue.
> 
> Both parents are on the full register.
> 
> ...


Do you know if they are blood compatible ?


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## Karley (Oct 25, 2018)

SusieRainbow said:


> Do you know if they are blood compatible ?


Yes I have checked they are blood compatible


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## gskinner123 (Mar 10, 2010)

Silver cannot be carried so you can take that out of the equation.

Assuming neither parent carries chocolate (ignoring cinnamon as that's highly unlikely for a tipped) or colourpointed, then all kittens would, based on genotype, be golden tipped.

That said, however, unless both parents are ticked based cats, you are going to lose a good deal of wide banding (the polygenes responsible at least in part for the colour tipping being on the ends of the hairs) and phenotypically the kittens will likely resemble brown spotted.

Unless you're planning the mating for a specific tipped breeding programme (for example, you want to improve upon certain characteristics by using a self) it is definitely not an ideal mating, bearing in mind also that goldens have green eyes and a blue self should have orange eyes.


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## gskinner123 (Mar 10, 2010)

I forgot to add...with golden tipped breeding, one would usually try to select for parents of as rich gold colour as possible - this is polygenic and a result of selection for rufous polygenes. Using a self is likely to result in poorly coloured goldens.


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## Karley (Oct 25, 2018)

Thank you all for your replies I think it will be safer to put her with a golden tipped stud. Thank you all for your help. Would it be ok to put her with a silver tipped stud?


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## gskinner123 (Mar 10, 2010)

Silver tipped is fine. The drawback is that he may not carry golden (the stud owner should know) but at least you will know all of your kittens will carry.

Having bred other colour BSH for a long time, I embarked four years ago on tipped breeding. Wanting to improve upon size, bone and coat I did choose to 'outcross' to self, knowing it would be a long road. 

I am now on my third generation (of tipped x tipped) and it is only this year I could say that I have had a few kittens that are worthy of being shown, where we have finally, with the necessary little bit of luck thrown in, regained the proper eye colour...fortunately one of my two foundation girls is ticked based which has helped but we had many a heavily "spotted" kitten along the way.


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## Karley (Oct 25, 2018)

Thank you for your help I really appreciate it. It’s nice to hear stories from people rather than a guessing game


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## Tigermoon (Apr 2, 2013)

Personally I wouldn't mate a tipped cat to anything other than a tipped cat unless you are an experienced breeder. Working the colour back to a good shade after crossing a tipped to a self is a long drawn out one, and really you need to have a very specific aim in mind when doing so.


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