Day 19 See they are real kittens!

bad hair day

Not sure pictures are worth waking up for?

She is pretty sure what will happen if she looks at the camera.

Let me just give this one a kiss.

The white coat coming in.

Now they are stating to look like real kittens. Their hair is getting longer and the white under coat is coming in. When the coat is done it will mostly white with black tips.You can see the beginnings of the pink nose pad. The liner around the nose is still prominent. The kittens have pretty good head control now. They crawl and wobble a bit to get to mom and make nice warm kitten piles.It will be another 10 to 14 days before they start looking to escape the box.

DAY 12 Our Eyes Are Open!

Day12. The kitten still cannot see much, but their eyes are now open. It will be  a week or so before they start moving like they can see. They do react to strong light like a camera flash.

Day 11

Day 11. This is Mom Ali. Ali is short for Alison. We called her Ali because she looks like she has owl eyes. Persians are bred for the large round eyed look. Ali and Ricky are both what people call a doll face. A good doll face Persian does not look anything like a American short haired cat. As you can see from the parents pictures. They have  a large head, round eyes, small ears. All of their features are broad and round. It is to bad that CFA does not allow people to show the traditional doll faced persians as they are truly beautiful. The doll faced Persian avoids the breathing and other issues that come with a pug nosed Persian and is unique in their own way.

Day 10: Here is their Daddy's picture

Day 10: I think you are beginning to see why kittens cry when they first go home with out their buddy's. Persian kittens typically do not sleep by themselves ever. Their is nothing better then a kitten pile to sleep in. At this age their fur is short and sleeping together helps them maintain their body temperature. Later it is just for comfort.
The last picture is their sire Ricky. He is a chinchilla silver. The kittens are all silvers thanks to their Daddy. All silver are tabbies. Dad is homozygous  for tabby, and tabby is a dominant gene. Homozygous means that both gene's at that location are the same.That means he can have nothing but tabby babies. Mom is a smoke bicolor. Smokes are not tabbies but solid with a modifier for the white under coat. Mom is  a bicolor as well as a smoke. Bicolor is a dominant gene. She only carries one gene for bicolor, so half the babies statistically should be bicolor. The modifier for the white under coat is present in both silvers and smokes.

Day 9

silver girl

silver girl

bicolor silver girl

silver boy

 

 

Day 9: The kittens are doing well. You can see that the nose pads are go to be pink in the center now. The mackerel tabby stripping in still apparent. Tomorrow I will post a picture of Daddy so you can see what they will look like when grown.

Day 8 Ali's Babies

The one and only boy!

Day 8 is another sleepy day. I think we have 3 girls and a boy. The first kitten picture is the boy.

Day 7 The babies eyes are starting to open. You can see the little opening at the corner of the eye. It will be  a few days before the eyes are all the way open. They are changing rapidly. The umbilical cord is gone.. Eating and sleeping is pretty much all the kittens do at this time. It will not be long before they are out and playing. The only mammal that sleeps more then cats are bats.

Happy Mothers Day!!!!!

Day 5 they are a good 50% bigger all ready! Silvers have black paw pads. The black markings pads, eye liner, nose liner is one of the things that makes silvers so striking. We check their eyes everyday at this stage. Because the eyes are sealed they are prone to infection. If you catch it early it does not become a problem. It is very importation to wash you hands when handling babies this young to prevent infections.l

Day 4 you can see their little tummies have filled out. They still have the umbilical cord but it is ready to fall off. The first single baby pictures if of a mackerel tabby. The mackerel tabby's turn into chinchilla silvers. The classic tabby pattern silver turns into a shaded silver. All of these kittens are chinchilla. You can see the stripes even on the tummy of the last kitten picture.

Day 3  5/10/12

This is  Momma Ali. Ali is a smoke bi color. Bicolor is a dominant gene.That is why we have a baby bi color. Statistically we should have had 2 bicolors but that is the fun of it. You get what you are supposed to have. Smokes do have faint stripes on the face and legs. They are born with those faint stripes.  They do not have any body markings. The babies Dad is a silver so he is a tabby. Dad is homozygous for tabby. That means all his babies are tabby.Tabby is a dominant gene

Here is day 2 for the babies. They are starting to plump out that is good. We like fat babies They are very fragile at this age. They weigh only 2 to 3 ounces. The top kitten is  a silver and you can see it has the black lines around the nose. Silvers have the nose and eye liner because they are tabbies. They are born dark and get lighter has the white under coat comes in. At this age their tabbieness is clear but when there grown you will have to look for it. The bottom girl is the bicolor. You can clearly see around her nose is white. White is a gene that blocks color. You can also see her little white legs.
5/8/12

Ali's Newborn Babies

Here are Ali's new born baby silvers. Silvers are born dark and get lighter as they get older. These babies were born 5/7/12. They were less then 24 hours old for this picture.There are 3 silvers and one sliver bicolor. You will see in the net updates how to tell which babies is the bicolor. Silvers are tabbies. you can see that at this age but as they get older it is hard to tell because the black stripes becomes tipping.