Grand Premier Morninglory Casey Jones
Owners Pat & Rob Greening

The Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF) standard for Blues as with all Self cats is covered under the  Self Longhair Standard of Points  which requires the cat to be a solid cobby (square in body appearance when viewed from the side), with a long flowing coat. The head should broad with rounded contours, a short broad nose and full cheeks. The lovely expressive eyes should be full, rounded and copper coloured. The breed standard is also subject to the List of Defects which forms the preface of the GCCF Standard of Points for all breeds. The listed defects are considered to be undesireable features and withholding faults which for Persians includes depressions or protrusions of the skull, entropian, reduced nostril size, extremes of type which result in deep nose breaks or abnormally high noses, i. e. "upper edge of the nose leather above lower edge of the eye" (GCCF Standard of Points) and mouth faults such as twisted, undershot or overshot jaws and improper angulation of canine teeth.

Temperment & living with a longhaired cat
As a companion a Blue Persian is loving and intelligent. Although their placid natures can often be mistaken for disinterest or 'something lacking in the brains department', they can be playful and surprisingly calculating when they want something. but will rarely tolerate being handled roughly - and why should they? While they enjoy the freedom of a safe enclosed garden, they will adapt quite happily to living in a flat or as 'an indoor' pet. This of course ensures a greater degree of safety and their coats are easier to manage.

While the Persian breeds are often less vocal and may be less active than their foreign cousins, they require regular grooming and special attention to their coat and eyes. The frequency with which a Blue may need to be groomed will depend on the coat texture, length and often whether or not the cat has access to the outside. These sessions may take about 15 minutes several times a week or in some cases a cat may require daily grooming. Most cats enjoy their grooming sessions provided this is a regular routine and, provided the cat's coat is not neglected or left to get matted, most of the loose hair will come out in the brush. However, some of it is bound to end up on the furniture or on you so a good clothes brush is essential. It is also likely that your new kitten will be trained to a litter tray and this will probably be a permanent fact of life. If you are looking for a cat, which for a minimum amount of extra effort, will be a beautiful, loving companion for many years to come - enjoy your 'Blue'. However if you feel unhappy about the extra care, then think again - a Persian may not be the cat for you.

Champion Morninglory Merlin

Breeding for a Blue
Many of the breeders who laid the groundwork for the breeds we have today had little theoretical knowledge of genetics, but based their breeding policies on practical experience of the visible effects of their selection process. It was clear to them that certain types of matings produced the results they were looking for and others did not.

It is possible that a number of factors were involved in the emergence of the "Pure Blue" breeding - that is exclusively Blue to Blue matings. (A Pure Blue pedigree is considered to be a minimum of 5 generations Blue to Blue breeding). Early breeders knew or quickly discovered that Blue to Blue usually produced Blue kittens. Those matings that did not, as in the case of two Colourpoint bred cats, were considered undesirable by anyone involved in a Blue breeding programme. In addition, as self (or solid coloured) cats and Blues in particular were often used to improve the type in other colours, the type in the kittens resulting from mixed colour litters often fell somewhere between that of the two parents. Therefore, although showing an improvement in type over the non Blue parent, which was exactly what those breeders were looking for, the progeny from such matings was often of less good type than the Blue parent and consequently less sought after.

Even in the early years, the pale profusely coated blues were much prized and more likely to take home certificates. The desirability of the paler coats was reflected in the early literature and right through most of the 20th century. Certain lines such as Camber and Dunesk were renowned for their beautiful coats. Today, the genetic reasoning for selection is more obvious. We know the Blue colour is a recessive characteristic which means with certain exceptions (such as colourpoint or chocolate bred cats) , Blue to Blue produces only Blue. However, coat and colour inheritance is not that simple. Varying degrees and depth of colour are obvious in virtually all breeds. There are denser Blacks, Smokes with greater or lesser contrast, darker or paler Reds, Torties, Blue Creams, and even Colourpoints vary in depth of colour on their points. The depth of colour appears to be controlled by a group of genes: often referred to as polygenes.

On a scale of 1-10 for example, if the darker shades are the result of mating >5 (5-10) polygenes and the paler shades the result of matings from <5 (1-5), there is a clear case for matings in the colour range you are trying to achieve. If you mate within the <5 group you are selecting for a particular colour range (pale) while within the >5 range you are selecting for a darker coat. If you mate cats from the two groups together, you are selecting for a wider range and eventually a random result. This is particularly evident in the fact that the pale coats which were once the rule on the show bench are now the exception. However, because the effects of these genes are to a great extent visible, it is possible to actively select for pale sound coats. This also appears to hold true for the soundness of coat colour, in that the degrees of contrast or soundness appear to be controlled by more than a single gene. In other words, cats with a greater or lesser expression of the polygene will show more or less contrast. It is therefore reasonable to say that you cannot over a period of time breed for both sound pale coats and dark coats or coats with good contrast without falling short on one side or the other. In addition, the 'iridescence', which creates a truly blue coat, is not obvious in other colours and the Blue colour easily degenerates to grey.

Genetics of the Blue Persian
All cats have two genes for tabby. This is true whatever the colour /breed of the cat. The tabby pattern is not necessarily displayed because other, overriding genes are present. Whether or not the tabby pattern is displayed is dependent on the dominant Agouti gene, in that each hair is banded alternatively black and yellow so that the whole appears indistinct. In the cat, if the dominant Agouti gene is present, the tabby pattern is readily seen against this background, but it instead of the Agouti the non-agouti gene is present, then the Agouti pattern disappears and the tabby pattern and the background are the same colour so the tabby pattern is normally imperceptible. Imagine you have a black and yellow lamp, but the yellow is only visible when the lamp is switched on - when the lamp is switched off it appears black - the lamp is still black and yellow, but you can't see the yellow so the lamp appears to be black. The Blue Persian is the classic example of a non-agouti cat.

Another factor in colour is the presence or otherwise of the physical or chemical constitution of melanin, which is the colouring factor This is either eumelanin (which gives black, blue, chocolate or lilac), or phaeomelanin, (which gives red and cream). The process by which the hair acquires colour is, adjacent to the hair root, the malanophore which produces malanin. As the individual hair grows from the root eumelanin is deposited in the hair and it is the manner of this deposition which affects the colour. Whether the hairs are straight, curly, or wavy depends upon the shape of the hair follicle, (the tube from which the hair emerges). If the eumelanin granules—which are roughly spherical—are deposited evenly as the hair grows, the optical effect is black. If the granules are deposited in a group or clot or clump and then follows a space, and then another group and then another space and so on, the optical effect is blue, The further the groups are apart, the paler the blue, and the closer together the groups are in the hair shaft, the deeper the blue.

Generally speaking, if Blue cats are mated to Blue cats (excluding cats who carry the Chocolate or Colourpoint gene) then all the kittens will be blue.There is some suggestion that is is possible in a Self Longhair to identify which tabby pattern may be present when the kitten is very very young and before there is any appreciable coat growth. This is a factor which may be of interest if the Blue is used in the breeding of other colours, e.g. Bluecreams and I believe the tabby pattern carried by the cat may to some degree have an effect on the degree to which a breed such as the Bluecreams may be patched or intermingled.

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