So before i started looking for a mainecoon kitten i was aware of a few tortie males i had found here and there when i first discovered the breed.

Later on when i asked about this at first i was told 'you dont get male tortie, because you don't get red females, tortie is the female version of red colouring'
refusing to accept this because i had seen tortie males MYSELF before hand; i asked another breeder(who was rather bitchy about it actually, assuming i was looking for a cat to breed to death pretty much going by her reply and tone; though i had said nothing of the sort)
She basically told me that you CAN get male torties, but it's very rare and they'd be 'useless'(she was referring to breeding, i wont use her exact words... useless was one of them so i will repeat that one only.. ¬_¬)
She also said 'tortie tends to be in females mostly because it is actually the female version of the red you get males with, because you dont get red females'(something along those lines, but again she was really freaking rude, having heard it twice about red females i thought okay so tortie males come along sometimes because of a genetic fault in the colouring, so there was some truth in what the first woman told me about not getting red females.. it makes sense, and i accepted that as that and let the matter go)
but yesterday and today i saw red females.. full red colour and tabby patterning! not tortie but just like our red males colour/patterning!(hes not a mainecoon, and by 'our' i mean my mom's/her boyfriend's cat)
the one i saw today was BRIGHT RED oh my goodness she was beautiful! absolutely stunning!
but i'd been told they didn't exist!!

My mom just told me that one of her breeder friends has informed her that some people get rid of their kittens?!
the 'reason'(excuse, in my eyes, and if that offends you so be it) :
"to stop that from being passed on"
....doesn't having them neutered/selling them as pet only stop it being passed on anyway? so why have them put to sleep just for that?
Trying to console me my mom did say that some people are in it for the animals and some people are in it for money, but i really don't understand it, why take the time to breed a litter and put so much effort into it, if youre just going to kill them if theyre not the colour you wanted??? or if they're a rare colour?!!
and YES i'm talking about full pedigree not crossed kittens!
have you ever known of people doing this?!

i think its really screwwed up that people are claiming these kittens dont even exist!!! when they do! they clearly do! it's just rare? perhaps?
why're people and even websites that're supposed to have factual information about mainecoons saying this?!
it's like someone being spiteful and claiming something doesnt exist because theyve never been successful in breeding one!(this is an example of how i feel it is, i'm not saying EVERYONE says it for this reason)

im starting to really wish people had to have a liscence and certain bloody degrees to be able to legally breed cats!
and then to be monitored in their breeding too!
because there seem to be some really screwwed up disgusting people breeding cats who do not give a crap about their animals at all just money money money!
but even then im sure someone would buy a tortie male for a pet, not everyone is looking for a breeding cat!!! i thought it was pretty much half and half!
same goes for a red female.. surely someone is going to want them! ofcourse someone is going to want them!!! so even then 'money' can't be the only reason they're doing this or theyd have to be insaine for that to make sense to them that a tortie male because he's sterile would be impossible to sell, and therefor theyd get no money for him...

i feel like i've discovered some dirty secret amoungst the breeder society or something, that people arent meant to know these colours exist in both male and female and could be assasinated at any moment O_o
it's so stupid claiming something doesn't exist when it actually does :/
All of the mainecoon, all of the CATS i have seen in general are all beautiful anyway! regardless of their colour or pattern, how could they be seen as a mistake? just for them being different to the usual/normal regarding colour.

can anyone actually shed any light on this? what's going on?!!
i'm utterly astonished O_O;
i'm aware in my post i am referring to mainecoons, but i'm asking breeders in general for a reason; i want to know what all of you think regardless of the breed you're raising/breeding O_O what any of you might know about it?
what about the cats you breed? has your breed ever had people claiming a colour doesnt exist then youve gone and discovered it does maybe even though a kitten of your own turning out to be that colour?
if so then what happened to that kitten, did you rehome it, or keep it? or..?
if you had it killed, why?
if you rehomed it, was it really so difficult to home? did you lose out on any money homing such kitten?
if it happened again what would you do this time around?(if homing it was difficult, would you keep it? or would you have it 'disposed' of? again, why?)
if you had a kitten killed because of its colour im not going to yell at you(i strongly! disagree with it if the kitten is healthy, but i will not yell or put you down over it), i simply want to know why? :/

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Well well. That was some post.
Unfortunately, I cant shed any liht on the matter as I only breed siamese- and yes, we do get red females.

Hope someone knowledgeable can help you with this

I have never heard of any breeders who deliberately kill kittens because they aren't the right colour or because they are denying the existence of certain colours or patterns I really can't believe that anyone would do that.
Like gaga, I breed Siamese and there are certainly red females. Tortie males however is another matter. I have always understood that torties are generally female but if a male tortie is born it is usually sterile. Someone who knows more about genetics may be able to put me right on that if I am wrong.
I can understand that a breeder would not want a sterile male and that there may be restrictions on showing a tortie male but I would imagine that these kittens would then be sold as pet only not put to sleep.

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How we behave toward cats here below determines our status in heaven. - Robert A. Heinlein
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Yes red girls do exist, I have one and I specialise in reds and torties. If you read up on simple cat genetics you will maybe understand better. There is no secret or conspiracy. It is simply that to make a red girl she needs two red genes when a boy only needs one. A girl with only one red gene is a tortie so for a girl to be red she needs a red father and a red or tortie mother to give her those two red genes. I can't believe anyone kills their kittens over colouring. Here is a good link about genetics in Siamese however it would also apply to Maine Coons or any other cat.
Siamese Cat Breeder | Basic Genetics of Balinese and Siamese Cats | Rosie Meekings

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I think you'll find that killing kittens goes against everything a breeder believes in and strives to achieve. I have never ever heard of it or even considered that it would happen. Where are you based? - I noticed you used the word 'Mom' which I thought might place you in the U.S. I know that every breeder I have ever known places the health of the kittens, advancement of the breed and enjoyment of having cats in their life as the foremost priorities.

A tortie bred to a red stud could have red girl kittens as they can each give a red chromosome.

There are male torties out there but they are exceptionally rare, less than one percent of torties I think Wikipedia says??

Never ever heard of killing kittens in this manner. I think that very few DOG breeders have in the past done things like this. It was something that was in that Pedigrees Exposed programme, wasn't it? There are often kittens born with colour faults that would not be used to breed from or even show but make fab pets.

/I cant read all of your post, but Ive had two red females although 'rare' they can be found & so can tortie males, although its something like 1 in a million, as its a sex linked gene.

I think I may actually have a male tortie here now, his 100 % a boy and looks very tortie-ish, very exciting

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you can get red females i have a number of them over the years, but male torties are very rare and they are also infertile i heard once 1 in 200 torties are male.
i know years ago someone did show a male tortie maine coon.
as regards to getting rid of female reds i cant see any decent breeder doing that maybe just selling them as pets, if that

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Hi Neko,

As already said, you can get red girls. In moggies it is quite a 'rare' colour because both parents need to pass on the red gene. But in pedigrees it is far more common due to intentional stud selection. Tortie boys are possible but incredibly rare. I think technically, a tortie boy is a genetic accident and they are always sterile. Some people may deny the existence of tortie boys and red girls because of a basic misunderstanding of the genetics behind them, not because they are being spiteful.

With regards to the killing of kittens to stop colours being passed on, I don't know where that story originated, but it sounds like an urban legend to me. I've certainly never encountered breeders deliberately killing kittens for any reason, least of all their colour. Are you sure you heard correctly, that they are killed? Not just being removed from breeding programmes?

replied twice saying pretty much the same thing(sorry) xx

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