Q&A: Questions and Answers

[Xythus]

Five years ago, a friendly, homely but wild cat made herself at home underneath my backyard shelter. Our family doesn't hate cats or animals, and while we were not fond of them taking residence there, we still left food and fresh water for her outside. She looks JUST like this cat's coloration:

 

(these are not actual pictures and I do NOT own them!)

 

 

Then, one day, she had kittens! The cutest things I ever saw! But...they were both different colored than momma..?

 

Kitten 1:

 

Kitten 2:

Linked for size sorry

 

Is that even possible? What kind of cat did she breed with for her children to have such drastic color differences? o_o

 

Sorry if this is a dumb question...I'm an aquarium / bird person, so I don't know a lot about cats.

Edited August 28, 2012 by Xythus

[StormWizard212]

^ I assume that the male she bred with was that kind of colorization.

 

I've got a breed of dog that has 4 different colour variations, and every now and then one pops out in a litter that was the colour of one of the grandparents, not one of the parents. I don't breed myself, but when I went to look at my pups after they were born, one had siblings that were different coloured to both parents. Both parents were brown and white, one pup was black and white.

 

It's just about recessive jeans and that sort of thing. Either the cat's mate was that colour, or someone else back in the family history was.

Edited August 28, 2012 by StormWizard212

[Infinis]

Five years ago, a friendly, homely but wild cat made herself at home underneath my backyard shelter. Our family doesn't hate cats or animals, and while we were not fond of them taking residence there, we still left food and fresh water for her outside. She looks JUST like this cat's coloration:

 

(these are not actual pictures and I do NOT own them!)

 

 

Then, one day, she had kittens! The cutest things I ever saw! But...they were both different colored than momma..?

 

Kitten 1:

 

Kitten 2:

Linked for size sorry

 

Is that even possible? What kind of cat did she breed with for her children to have such drastic color differences? o_o

 

Sorry if this is a dumb question...I'm an aquarium / bird person, so I don't know a lot about cats.

Welcome to genetics It is highly likely that the father had one of those colourations. It's also a possibility that those kittens are what are called "genetic throwbacks," which is basically where a cat inherits a gene passed down in the line of one (or both) of the parents that doesn't present in the parents because it's recessive to the dominant gene. (The same thing can happen with people...sometimes a family with mostly dark hair and dark eyes can always give birth to a blond hair blue eyes kid.)

[Xythus]

Cool..... So you're saying... if a black cat bred with an orange cat, their baby then bred with a gray cat, their baby then bred with a white cat, their baby bred with a multicolored cat, etc...then any future offspring holds all those color possibilities???

 

 

If only fish breeding was like that. :x I've bred fish before (bettas) and its only mom, dad or some of both.

[7Deadly$ins]

Cool..... So you're saying... if a black cat bred with an orange cat, their baby then bred with a gray cat, their baby then bred with a white cat, their baby bred with a multicolored cat, etc...then any future offspring holds all those color possibilities???

 

 

If only fish breeding was like that. :x I've bred fish before (bettas) and its only mom, dad or some of both.

If the color is recessive, the male needs to carry it, too. It isn't entirely random. And it does exist in fish, as well. It exists in anything, pretty much. Peas, cats, humans...

[TikindiDragon]

Feline genetics 101

 

Black (B-D-) is a dominant colour. It requires at least one copy of both the dominant black ( gene and the dominant dense (D) gene.

 

Blue (looks grey B-dd) is recessive. It requires at least one copy of the dominant black gene (, and two of the recessive variant an the dense gene (d).

 

Chocolate (looks brown - bbD-) is recessive. It requires two copies of the recessive varian of the black gene (, and at least one of the dominant dense gene (D)

 

Lilac (looks pale grey bbdd) is recessive. It requires two copies of the recessive variant of the black gene (, and two copies of the recessive variant of the dense gene (d).

 

Tabby is determined by the presence of the dominant Agouti gene (A), and further genes that determine pattern. If a cat carries one copy of the Agouti (A-) gene, it will show as tabby. Only if a cat carries no agouti (aa) will it appear a solid colour.

 

Red (O) is a sex-linked incompletely dominant gene. It resides on the X chromasome. Males will be either red, or not red. Red over-writes whichever colour was underneath. So a cat that is B-D-O will appear red, a cat that carries two copies of the recessive variant of the dense gene will appear a paler colour, known as cream (--ddO).

Females may carries two copies of the O gene. Where one is the dominant red (O), and the other the recessive not-red (o) - making the girl Oo - she will appear tortoiseshell. If she carries two copies of the O gene (OO) she will apeear a solid red.

The red colour *always* shows a tabby pattern, regardless of the presence or not of agouti.

 

Now - onto those pictures.

 

Assuming the girl really does look *just* like that picture, then she's a tortie tabby (B-D-A-Oo). The two kittens are a black (B-D-aaoo) and a red (--D---O). She would be perfectly capable of producing those colours regardless of who she was bred to. From the kitten we can determine that mum carries only the one agouti gene, so would be B-D-AaOo.

 

May I ask what gender the ginger kitten is?

 

Edit: bloody smilies interfering with my genetic notations!

Edited August 29, 2012 by TikindiDragon

[7Deadly$ins]

I was waiting for Tikindi to show up. I would assume the ginger kitten is male -- isn't that usually the case?

[TikindiDragon]

I was waiting for Tikindi to show up. I would assume the ginger kitten is male -- isn't that usually the case?

It's more common, because a male can *only* be ginger, and he can only get the gene from his mother. For a girl to be ginger she has to get the gene from both parents - so dad would have to be a ginger, and mum would have to be a tortie, or a ginger herself.

[7Deadly$ins]

It's more common, because a male can *only* be ginger, and he can only get the gene from his mother. For a girl to be ginger she has to get the gene from both parents - so dad would have to be a ginger, and mum would have to be a tortie, or a ginger herself.

Ah, I see. I know a dabbling of feline genetics here and there, but mostly only in color variations in the Bengal breed.

[Obscure_Trash]

It's more common, because a male can *only* be ginger, and he can only get the gene from his mother. For a girl to be ginger she has to get the gene from both parents - so dad would have to be a ginger, and mum would have to be a tortie, or a ginger herself.

Huh. That's fascinating. You learn something new every day!

[TikindiDragon]

Ah, I see. I know a dabbling of feline genetics here and there, but mostly only in color variations in the Bengal breed.

*laughs* Tabby genetics are a lot more complicated than the basics I posted up here You're jumping in at the deep end!

 

There's a bunch of genes that control white, siamese & burmese patterning, more colours (cinnamon, caramel, silvers etc), several genes for tabby patterning... you get the idea. The last post really was just the basics.

[Xythus]

TikindiDragon, thanks for all those helpful explanations! Yes, the orange one is a boy and the black and white one was a girl. And I can confirm that the mother looked just like that, because they frolicked daily in our garden and we can see them right at our dining table.

 

I Learned so much about cats today o_o

[TikindiDragon]

TikindiDragon, thanks for all those helpful explanations! Yes, the orange one is a boy and the black and white one was a girl. And I can confirm that the mother looked just like that, because they frolicked daily in our garden and we can see them right at our dining table.

 

I Learned so much about cats today o_o

Mum is definately a tortie-tabby then. Only way she could have a ginger son.

 

I suspect Dad was probably a plain black tom (he can't have been ginger, or all his daughters would have been tortie), as that would have given a larger chance of black (as opposed to tabby) kittens.

[satyr76]

I was looking for ways to get rid of writers block, and Write or Die seemed pretty helpful. The website said there was an iPad app in the app store, but my search got no results, and the links on the site seemed broken. Is Write or Die still available for the iPad, and if not, are there any similar apps I could get?

[RheaZen]

I was looking for ways to get rid of writers block, and Write or Die seemed pretty helpful. The website said there was an iPad app in the app store, but my search got no results, and the links on the site seemed broken. Is Write or Die still available for the iPad, and if not, are there any similar apps I could get?

It says it's not available in the US.

[Salicana]

My boyfriend and I are thinking about getting a tablet to replace our laptops. My Macbook Pro's logic board died, and he accidentally spilled coffee on his laptop which caused the keyboard to die. You can still turn his on and get to the log-in screen, but you can no longer log on. Is it worth getting a tablet? Which one should we get? Also, how would we go about selling our laptops for parts (if it's worth it)?

[eritated]

My boyfriend and I are thinking about getting a tablet to replace our laptops. My Macbook Pro's logic board died, and he accidentally spilled coffee on his laptop which caused the keyboard to die. You can still turn his on and get to the log-in screen, but you can no longer log on. Is it worth getting a tablet? Which one should we get? Also, how would we go about selling our laptops for parts (if it's worth it)?

Getting my iPad was totally worth it to me. It seems to me that you can do pretty much everything you can on a computer, with a few exceptions. It is more on the expensive side, though...

[RheaZen]

It depends on what you want to use it for. I can use mine quite well to take notes, etc. but it won't work on all things (notably it cannot handle Flash). It is, however, extremely light, which is a bonus if you're carrying it around.

 

There are a number of accessories you can buy as well, to compensate for some things that the iPad can't do very well - for example, a keyboard so that you don't have to type on the screen, and a stylus to write/draw with if you've got fat fingers.

[satyr76]

I've been using an iPad as my main computer, and it works fairly well. There are definitely accessories you'll want, like Rhea said. Overall, I like my iPad more than laptops, mostly because it's insanely portable. |D

[Sorrowgrave]

Orange cat+orange cat=More orange cats.

 

I've had orange tabbies and my mom has a spotted orange cat.

They either turn out goldish yellow , orange tabby, or solid orange cat.

 

From personal experience female orange cats have a decrased fertility, litter sizes was one to three kittens.

[rainpeltstar]

How exactly do you go about building your own computer... From parts?

[7Deadly$ins]

How exactly do you go about building your own computer... From parts?

This is a pretty indepth topic, but it's pretty easy to find guides. In essence it's basically connecting the wires to each other and putting things into their proper slots. It isn't as complicated as people might think, but it isn't exactly easy either.

[Varekis]

My boyfriend and I are thinking about getting a tablet to replace our laptops. My Macbook Pro's logic board died, and he accidentally spilled coffee on his laptop which caused the keyboard to die. You can still turn his on and get to the log-in screen, but you can no longer log on.  Is it worth getting a tablet? Which one should we get?  Also, how would we go about selling our laptops for parts (if it's worth it)?

It's definitely worth getting a tablet though I wouldn't buy one to replace my laptop personally. Just some random notes:

 

I use an iPad and it's great for portability and completing some of my basic tasks. It also has arguably more "better" developed apps because more developers are interested in creating content for iPad due to their market dominance and all (for now anyway). Like all Apple products, they've spawned a huge variety of accessories that can be used with it too. I use the Logitech Tablet Keyboard and find that pretty good - solid and it has keyboard shortcuts. Stylus pens are a pain because of their size, but I've heard the HAND stylus is pretty good because it has the slimmest tip so far if you're willing to shell out for it. Oh, and you can use AirPlay Mirroring to hook up to a TV if you ever get tired of looking at the tiny tablet screen.

 

I've also heard good things for some of the Android tablets too like the ASUS Transformer Prime or something. If you're using it as a laptop replacement, that might be interesting because you can dock it at home like a laptop/PC. Android has a more open sourced app store (I kinda don't really like this aspect of it), their tablets have Flash and can be paired with a mouse. Don't know as much about them though.

 

If you only use your laptop currently for basic word processing and online searching, I'd say a tablet would be enough. I find going on DC on a tablet really annoying though (esp scrolling through pages of dragons e_e)

[TikindiDragon]

Orange cat+orange cat=More orange cats.

 

I've had orange tabbies and my mom has a spotted orange cat.

They either turn out goldish yellow , orange tabby, or solid orange cat.

 

From personal experience female orange cats have a decrased fertility, litter sizes was one to three kittens.

Yup. That's because an O gene is the only thing knocking round. The shade of orange, though, will have depended on what genetic 'colour' they are underneath the orange. And the solid orange is actually the result of very, very supressed tabby patterning. All cats carry a variation of the T gene (which causes the patterning) and all O cats will show that. The production of red 'self' cats has been the result of carefully breeding cats that didn't show a pattern to other ctas that didn't show a pattern.

 

I know of no genetic basis for decresed fertility on OO girls, though. Anecdotaly I'm pretty sure I know of some large litters of siamese from red-point/red-point pairings.

[Zaxian]

My boyfriend and I are thinking about getting a tablet to replace our laptops. My Macbook Pro's logic board died, and he accidentally spilled coffee on his laptop which caused the keyboard to die. You can still turn his on and get to the log-in screen, but you can no longer log on.  Is it worth getting a tablet? Which one should we get?  Also, how would we go about selling our laptops for parts (if it's worth it)?

Firstly, if it's just the keyboard that's dead, can you not just plug in a usb keyboard?

 

Otherwise, atm I'm not too convinced about a tablet as a laptop replacement.

 

I'm typing this on a BlackBerry PlayBook, (bought because it's cheaper relative to other tablets of the same power, because it didn't sell well, and it can run flash - though the BB app store is a bit lacking) but I only use it to surf the Web and have my laptop for everything else. The Asus prime transformer is supposed to be good, and I believe it comes with the keyword dock making it a bit more of a pc replacement than some. The iPad is obviously good but more expensive. You might want to hold off a bit until windows 8 comes out (end of october) to see what the new Microsoft Surface tablets are going to be like (in terms of price and spec) because they'll be running a more pc-like OS, and will come with a version of office.