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Is he the daddy?

Okay, no pictures of the kittens. We don't have many cats around this area, and we've only seen our own personal barn cats around. No strange cats hanging out. However, our calico tabby (not even sure if I'm using the correct name for her color) had 5 kits today. Our only male is a black smoke (that is what I was told he was). The kits are a tortioseshell, a dilute tortioseshell (instead of black it is a blue-grey, but has the cream and buff flecks), and three that are "orange" but much lighter looking than other orange tabbys we've had. They might be a bit more buff looking...unsure on them at the moment as the light in the barn where she had them is poor and I didn't want her to get nervous and move them.

My mom was wondering if it was possible that we might have a tom hanging around that isn't our boy. We haven't seen another cat in years...and several of our neighbors have asked for kittens this year and last year as they just don't have any and the mice are crazy around here. I'm just curious as to if these two could have produced those kittens or not.

Here is momma and the one who is thought to be poppa. His hair coat is neat, white next to his body, black outwards

http://stauffer.deviantart.com/gallery/…

Daylene Alford Sun, 07/24/2011 - 13:19

As long as all the orange ones are male then he could be the father. If there are any orange females they would have to have been sired by an orange tom. Dilution is recessive so both parents would be carriers. Smoke or silver is a dominant so the lighter colored orange kittens could have inherited that from your tom or it could be something else making them lighter.

TheRedHayflinger Sun, 07/24/2011 - 16:04

I stink at sexing young kittens. I have to wait until they are a few weeks old..lol

The oranges might just be normal, the light in the barn is low, so it may just be my eyes playing tricks.

I was most confused about the dilute tortie..LOL So thanks for clarifying that for me a bit. Horses seem so simple compared to other animals...

The mother of the calico tabby was a "blue"? and white..she was that steel grey/blue color with white on her. Unsure on parentage of our tom...got him from the village bait shop. Didn't want to see him get ran over, and neither did the owners, so I took him home.

I'm going to try to get a few pictures of them in a bit...momma has settled down a lot and if she's comfortable with me handling them, I'll snap a few pics. She's one of my lovebug cats, and she didn't mind us handling her kits last year as they were being born and shortly after...she was just stressed a bit yesterday about something, but is back to her normal self today. My mom said she kept running up to her and running off to the barn mewing, running up to my mom, running off to the barn mewing...my mom thought something might be wrong and ended up following her in, but nope, she just curled up around her kits and started nursing them. She's a very personable cat. I told my mom she was saying "look what I did!!!"

Daylene Alford Sun, 07/24/2011 - 17:46

[quote]The mother of the calico tabby was a "blue"? [/quote]

Yep, it's often called blue. So that makes perfect sense. The tom is a carrier also so you got the "blue and cream" kitten. I have one of those also, a blue and cream that is... I've always thought it was a lovely color.

TheRedHayflinger Sun, 07/24/2011 - 18:20

okay...all five in this reply

Kitten One
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…

Kitten Two (the oddball I posted already)
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…

Kitten Three
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…

Kitten Four (the palest. Kitten 1 is about a shade in between Kitten 4 and Kitten 5)
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…

Kitten Five
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…

This female had a litter earlier in the year, but another female (her sister actually) stole the litter and Cookie totally ignored them after 2 days..this was back in April I think? She had a calico that is neat--the orange is tabby, but the black is solid. And a long haired tabby of some color and a brown tabby with white.

The brown tabby with white has found a new barn to call home up the road, but I've still got the calico and the fluffball here--my aunt is wanting one and the other will probably stay here.

TheRedHayflinger Sun, 07/24/2011 - 18:28

the two possible full siblings I still have (same mother)

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…

neat story behind them...Ashes, the female that raised them, had a litter of two the day before these guys were born. We had to have one PTS due to cleft palette, the other I found dead and still wet, so most likely stillborn. The next day, Cookie is up on the back porch helping Ashes fuss over her baby (this was the day before we found out Ashes kit had a cleft palette) and starts to deliver HER kittens. Cookie is delivering them, Ashes is cleaning them off. The females were nose to butt during this and I actually got video of it on my phone..LOL. After they were cleaned up, Ashes would push them over to Cookie to nurse. They co nursed for 2 days, during which time we figured out that Ashes kitten needed to be PTS...after that, Cookie showed no interest in them, and Ashes raised them up by herself. I've seen females help nurse and raise kittens together, but never one helping another clean up babies while she was delivering them. It was pretty neat.

TheRedHayflinger Thu, 07/28/2011 - 11:08

checked everyone over today to make sure bellies were full and all was well.
The oranges are three very different hues
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…

and the whole litter
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/Po…

the little grey/brown/cream/oddness torti I've named OddBall...haha

Probably in another week I'll take them outside in the evening when it is cool and get some better pics with a camera that isn't on my phone.

Daylene Alford Fri, 07/29/2011 - 08:06

I would bet the very light orange is due to his being a smokey like his sire. It looks in the photo that he has alot of silvering in his coat. That may be what is causing the "odd ball" to look funny also but I can't really tell.

I did try looking through the first set of pictures you posted but atm I'm on a very slow connection (been at my in-laws for the past week)and it makes loading the photos tedious. I should be home Monday so will try to check things. If you can get photos of them outside that would be great!

I do think you tom is the sire of these kittens. Several of them show smokey.

TheRedHayflinger Fri, 07/29/2011 - 11:15

The mother doesn't mind me handling them at all. I'm getting ready to give her a bit of liver and some cat food, and I'll get the kits outside and snap some pics with my mom's good camera.

A side note--our tom has been sleeping in the nest with them when the mother is out and about hunting. He did this with the last litter too.

TheRedHayflinger Fri, 07/29/2011 - 12:50

here is some of OddBall. The orange kitten she is resting her head on is the palest orange with white.

TheRedHayflinger Fri, 07/29/2011 - 15:41

I was thinking the black was just a normal tortie...looks a lot like previous torties we had growing up

TheRedHayflinger Fri, 07/29/2011 - 17:04

the streak down her nose is orange. And she has a cream colored foot and some orange specks on her back

Daylene Alford Fri, 07/29/2011 - 19:50

LoL, They still just look like white markings on my monitor but I'll take your word for it. I still think she is smoke because of the white hairs along the back. I looked at picture of a black smoke kitten the other day that that had those same light hairs but of course now I can't find it.

You will continue to share pictures as they grow? I'm really interested to see how they look as older kittens or even adults if you plan to keep a few.

TheRedHayflinger Fri, 07/29/2011 - 20:02

they'll probably all stay. I'll try to update pics of them weekly. I like handling our barn cats so we can catch them quickly if they need medical attention at all. Also makes handling babies easier if the females have a litter--they tend to have them up near the house and don't mind us fussing over them. We had a ton of kittens last year, and none made it to a year...coyotes mainly I think :( although I have a suspicion that the church next door had members nab a few

TheRedHayflinger Fri, 07/29/2011 - 21:52

sure thing. I have kitten pictures spanning several years as well..I'll try to dig them all out sometime if you think you could use any.

Daylene Alford Wed, 08/03/2011 - 20:41

They are all girls? Is she sure? That would put them having to have been sired by a yellow cat, at least the yellow ones.

TheRedHayflinger Wed, 08/03/2011 - 21:28

she said yup...she lifted up all their skirts..LOL So...that goes back to now--why the variation in hue of orange since you thought the one was a smoke/silver.

Good to know there are other cats out there, just none have been seen by us. Last time I seen another tom was last year and he was a brown tabby.

Daylene Alford Wed, 08/03/2011 - 22:04

I still think some of them are smoke. How old is your tom? Is it possible that he could have sired another smoke in the area?

TheRedHayflinger Wed, 08/03/2011 - 23:46

He is just now two..I got him two years ago in July and he was freshly weaned. He may have though. None of our immediate neighbors have cats (we have few neighbors..), but there could be one living out there somewhere...totally possible. The only orange tom we had at this house was my boyfriends cat Soap...but he's been at his house since early April...and he wasn't one of Gremlin's babies...he was another work rescue (clients cat had kits. Kits got goopy eyes. Boss said they were diseased and was going to have them all put down so I took them home. They were just in a dirty box in a dirty garage)

Daylene Alford Thu, 08/04/2011 - 07:36

It's amazing how far Toms will go. When I was a girl one of our I went over to a friends house who lived several miles down the road and one of our semi-feral toms (who had been missing) was at her house.

TheRedHayflinger Tue, 08/09/2011 - 14:59

Going to try to get updated pictures of them tomorrow. Oh, and my aunt, who lives just across the creek, said that she seen an orange cat up the road at my cousins house a few days ago. Maybe that is daddy? LOL

Dogrose Thu, 08/11/2011 - 05:30

With the colours of kittens you have the black and white smoke could easily be the daddy of all of them.
The mother is Oo and the daddy is o so boys could be O (ginger) or o (non ginger) and the girls could be Oo (tortoiseshell/calico)or oo (non ginger or tortie). Boys only inherit one O allele as it is inherited on the X chromosome.