Trying to figure out my cats' father's heritage. Points, white socks, white patches?!

[fizzletto]

Here is a picture of my two babies, Cookie and Minka.

They are brother and sister, but from different litters (he's 2 years older than her).

Their mother is a pedigree Tonkinese (champagne mink). Their father is a Domestic Short Hair (black with white patches).

Here is a picture of Cookie and his littermates (he is on the far right, blue collar):


And here is Minka with her littermates (she is the odd one out, cream colour):


So, their father obviously has the dominant white patching gene; most of the kittens had adorable white chests and/or white marks on their faces. I know this is a very common gene so I'm not expecting to find out where he got this from.

What's interesting, though, is about 50% of kittens produced by this pairing turn out solid, and 50% are pointed. As I understand it, most of the time when a pointed cat mates with a DSH, the resulting kittens don't have points, as the pointing gene is recessive. So, in this case, their father must have some kind of oriental cat in his ancestry who gave him the pointing gene, right?

Another interesting observation is that the father must also carry a separate white 'mitting' gene which gave 7 out of 11 kittens white feet. Unless the white patching gene can sometimes cause white socks?

Do you think it's likely that their father is part Birman or Ragdoll, as he carries both the pointing gene and the white mitting gene? I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of him, but I've been told that he doesn't look oriental in any way. He is just a generic-looking black and white DSH so it is impossible to tell by looking at him. Are there any other breeds of cat who have points and white feet? And finally are there any distinguishing dispositional traits of Birmans/Ragdolls/etc that I can look for in my cats to give me a clue as to what breed(s) they might have in them?

Edit: I also thought it might be relevant to point out that both Cookie and Minka have cute little 'tufts' of fur sticking out in between their toes. I don't know if this is a characteristic of any particular breed but as far as I'm aware Tonkinese cats don't exhibit this so it may be relevant here.

[spotty cats]

Points can be carried forever, showing up when meeting another carrier or pointed cat, doesn't mean there's Siamese closely related.

The father was with white, so the kittens would be too. Unlikely father had any pedigree blood in him, tons of moggies show up with white socks.

[spotty cats]

The statistic for mating a colour point to a carrier is 50% points, 50% non pointed according to a breeder I know. I don't breed points, or cats with white myself.

[fizzletto]

Originally Posted by spotty cats

The statistic for mating a colour point to a carrier is 50% points, 50% non pointed according to a breeder I know. I don't breed points, or cats with white myself.

Yes, that's the statistic, but I just thought it was interesting that their father was a carrier, because not many DSHs tend to carry the pointing gene. He must have some kind of colourpoint breed in his ancestry. Maybe not his parents or even his grandparents, but somewhere back along the line there was some pointed cat. I just wish I knew what it was!

[OliverandCo.]

wow. I want your kitties. They're SO pretty!!

[fizzletto]

Originally Posted by OliverandCo.

wow. I want your kitties. They're SO pretty!!

Aww thank you so much! I'll tell them you said that Not sure you'd want these though - Cookie is a 12-pound bulldozer and makes an ear splitting racket day in day out and Minka is a tiny 6.5 pound cat who looks and acts like she's still a baby kitten, going around biting people's feet and legs and running away! She drools a lot too!

I love them to death

[Luvmyfurbabies]

They are exquisite! That's the only way I can describe them. Like decoration for the house. Just beautiful!

[OliverandCo.]

heh, trade for Oliver then. He will shred your hands and chew your feet without mercy, he will walk in your way and follow you like a dog, he will get into things he shouldn't because he's Oliver.

[spotty cats]

Originally Posted by fizzletto

Yes, that's the statistic, but I just thought it was interesting that their father was a carrier, because not many DSHs tend to carry the pointing gene.

There's loads of pointed domestics around, as well as many carriers, really not unusual at all.

I'd expect a breeder outcrossing to domestics to colour test