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One of my favorite things ever is seeing how different kittens can be from one or both of their parents. Whenever I see one of those "litter reveal" videos, I'm sat! I want to know what the kittens look like!
Recently, one Maine Coon cattery posted a litter reveal that caught me entirely off guard. Mama is a beautiful grey color, while Dad is a stunning white-light orange. However, when it came to their kittens, the universe had different plans:
Greek Garden Maine Coons has some of my favorite cats on the internet, which is really saying something. I see a lot of cats every day! These two, Gaia and Kratos, are both TICA champions. Their kittens definitely have that potential, too.
There are 7 kittens in the litter: 3 boys and 4 girls. Of those 7 kittens, 4 of them are polydactyl, meaning they have some extra toes. Dad's genes seriously put up a fight, too: 3 of the kittens are outright orange, and the rest have definitely been cheddar-blasted.
Related: Stunning Rare Ragdoll-Maine Coon Mix Is a Big Ball of Fluffy Sunshine
They're amazing. Gaia and Kratos are specimens themselves! Gaia is the best mama ever, always wanting to snuggle her babies. They were even sweeter when they were really little:
They used to have to help her be careful around them so she wouldn't actually snuggle them to death. She was certainly thinking about it! Luckily, everyone made it just fine, and they'll be off to their forever homes soon.
How Cats Get Their Coloring
Just like anyone else, cats inherit exactly 50% of their DNA from each parent. From there, it comes down to whose genes are more dominant in what areas. That's how all of Gaia's kittens ended up being a little cheesy.
In this case, orange is dominant over grey: grey is technically a recessive dilution of black. Kittens who inherited their mother's recessive base color still ended up displaying the dominant color in specks!
However, what's completely random is the number of kittens in each litter who will inherit which genes. Whatever the case might have been, they all turned out so pretty!
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