To
start from the basics, there are two genes involved; the Blue-Eyed
gene from the Siamese and the AOC-Eye-colour gene from the
Burmese.
When
we visited America in 1993 for the First Bengal Congress,
we found the Snow Bengal situation very confusing and so did
the American breeders! They had divided their Snows into three
categories; Blue-Eyed Lynx-Point (one Siamese gene from each
parent), Mink (Tonkinese – one Siamese and one Burmese
gene) and Sepia (one Burmese gene from each parent).
This
had apparently seemed quite straightforward for the first
couple of generations but then the confusion started when
they mated them together. The Blue-Eyed Snow kittens were
still quite easy to identify because, having two Siamese genes,
they were born white with no spots or marbling. They usually
started to show some pattern at about 7 -10 days so, as long
as you were able to remember which ones were born White, you
could be confident that their eyes would remain Blue and not
change as they grew up.
However,
they found it increasingly difficult to decide into which
categories to put the Sepia Snows and Mink Snows. The Burmese
gene had a very strong influence on the strength of the coat
pattern and the Mink Snows were getting a better defined pattern
than the earlier generation of Snows thereby causing a lot
of confusion.
When
it came to writing our Bengal Standard of Points, we hopefully
had learned from their experience. We used just two categories,
Blue-Eyed Snows and AOC-Eyed Snows. This was to simplify matters
as usually they were either born without markings or with
markings.
We have
discovered that some people have been confused because their
AOC-Eyed Snows have sometimes had an opalescent eye colour.
In an ideal world, the AOC-Eyed Snows would have deep Green
or even Gold eyes. However, although some do start off with
a strong eye-colour, we understand that, even in America,
this rarely lasts and we personally have not heard of an AOC-Eyed
Snow maintaining its strong eye colour over two and a half
years of age. The usual final overall effect is a very pale
wishy-washy opalescent blue that confuses some people into
thinking the cat has been wrongly registered. This you will
now realise is not the case. They are only wrongly registered
if they were born with markings and registered as Blue-Eyed.
This eye colour, although not ideal, is not incorrect and
is definitely not that attributed to a Blue-Eyed Snow.
Therefore,
the main and general rule of thumb when registering Snows
with the GCCF is to remember which ones were born “naked”
and which ones “had their clothes on” and register
them accordingly. Something else to bear in mind is that Brown
Spotted and Brown Marbled Bengals can only carry one snow
gene, i.e. either the Siamese gene or the Burmese gene. Also,
a Snow Bengal is only the colour he or she is by virtue of
the genes that he or she has.
An additional
factor has been introduced by breeders selecting for a stronger
pattern on Blue-Eyed Snows which has led to some Blue-Eyed
Snow kittens being born with ghost markings or even a visible
pattern. In some cases, this has been due to the repeated
mixing of Snow genes through the generations. The unexpected
results of your mating may have been caused by an ancestor
being incorrectly registered. GCCF registered breeding cats
have a genetic profile, so if in doubt, they might well be
able to help you with what is genetically possible or impossible
from the parents.
|
)