I can sex by colour as I have read about how the genetics of a cat work.
The colour gene is carried on the X chromosone.
Females have an XX and males have an XY.
The father is completely black, therefore carried only the black gene.
The mother is tortie, therefore carried both Black and Ginger genes.

The possible out comes for boys, are all ginger (where they got the ginger gene from mum); or black (where they got the black gene from either mum or dad)

The possible outcomes for the girls are, tortie (where they got the ginger gene from mum, and the black gene from dad); or black (where they got a balck gene from both mum and dad).

This means I know that gingers must be boys, torties must be girls and black (or black and white) can be either.

Just as a note, you can only ever get a ginger female from having a ginger mum and dad. (or tortie mum and ginger dad). And you can never get a tortie male unless there is a defect and he will be sterile.


As for the saliver allergic issue, most people who are allergic to cats actually have a problem with something in the saliver, I know it causes a histamine reaction and something to do with testosterone makes it worse, but I don't know the full detials. The fur is normally only a problem for asthmatics.

Thread HIJACKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I have never bred cats...what is a call? Is that the same as a season?...

My dumb ex husband left our window open one night and our 5 month old kitten went out and didnt come back until the next night (I was petrified for her my poor baby!) That was about 4 weeks ago...when she came back she was kinda rubbing herself over everything and making cooing noises. Our vet said that she was in season but doubts she will have been caught as she is so young. ...Shes a moggy btw!! She hasnt done this since. Just that one night she came home. Oh and shes a house cat btw!

Mate calls, are what a cat does when she is in season, it is how she attracts the male to her.
Just because she is only 5 months old, does not mean she wont have got pregnant. As i have found out when my 3 and a half month old got pregnant (explained in the posts above).
Rubbing herself against you can be a sign of heat (it can also be a sign of affection), however, cats are what we call induced ovulaters, which basically means that if they are mated they very quickly go out of heat. Therfore if you believe she is still in heat, then the chances are, she was not mated.

If you are not planning on mating, the safest thing is to get her spayed, there are many other reasons to spay a cat, including and reducing and eliminating the risk of many cancers. Also helping preventing the spread of FIV and many other dieases.

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SELKCAH NORWEGIAN FOREST CATS

Ive never had an unspayed cat before so to be honest I didnt really have a clue what she was doing!! We were waiting until she was 6 months old before getting her spayed....so I was told its best to wait until this age...not sure why....She has always been a very affectionate cat so with any luck she wasnt caught!! I couldnt spay her knowing there was a chance she could be pregnant

I found most vets wont spay until 6 months old, this is why I have new born kittens!
When I found out she was pregnant, I spoke to the vet about the option of spaying her (and terminating) as all I wanted was what was best for my little girl. The vet said that spaying her would be a fairly major operation (as she was already 5 to 6 weeks pregnant) and she didn't really think it would be a problem for her to have them.
I think I may have got a different answer if we have realised a few weeks before (at week 2 or 3).