BLUE-EYED BREEDS - HEAVENLY EYES (BRITISH SHORTHAIR, BRITISH LONGHAIR) & SELKIRK REX (Seymour Gene, DBE^ALT)

The DBE gene in the Heavenly Eyes breeding programme comes from Seymour. He was bred to a British Blue Shorthair and produced Nikita'l Daisy (bred by Iryna Merzlenko, developer of the Topaz breed). Nikita'l Daisy introduced this DBE gene into the SuperQueen cattery (Lyudmila Shkrabets) and From Sham cattery (Alla Shishkina). This btreeding programme was approved by the Russian WFA and is aimed at producing British cats in the classic solid colours and with blue eyes.

BLUE-EYED BREEDS - NANOTIGR (Oliver Gene, DBE^ALT gene)

The ancestor of the line is unknown - the breeder closed the cattery and no-one has any connection with him. The Russian breeding community first heard about the Nanotigr DBE line because of photos of an odd-eyed silver shaded cat named Donn Carleone Nanotigr. Donn Carleone and his half-sister, Amelia Nanotigr, also silver shaded odd-eyed, had the same father (Oliver), and their mothers (Beckett and Black Magic Woman) were sisters. Beckett and Black Magic Woman were descended from Silver Ashley of Parliament (a silver chinchilla of German origin) and Grays, a silver patterned cat. They trace back to the famous Andy Wahrberg and other Wahrberg cats, as well as to the Magdebrunnen, Jadwiga, etc catteries. Grays had no chinchilla ancestors, only solids, smokes and patterned cats.

Donn Carleone was bred to cats that are considered undesirable for working with DBE because they already have blue eyes: colourpoint cats and odd-eyed high-white bicolours. Most of the early progeny are unknown and the DBE gene could easily have been lost in the mix. Luckily Donn Carleone's sister, Amelia Nanotigr, produced siblings Roddifer Azazello (BRI n 25 63) and Roddifer Afina (BRI n 63) who became the founders of a new line of DBE cats, which are now in the hands of several breeders including Cotomodda cattery and Kristina Macaulay's Belle Ayr cattery. The Belle Ayr DBE chinchilla BSH have been exhibited at shows.

When the original breeder gave up breeding, the blue-eyed cats went to Angela Savenko (Hermes Cattery), a breeder of bicolours, and were also bred to Selkirk Rex. She sold a blue-eyed black-tipped British Shorthair to British SH/Selkirk Rex Cattery annealtindan (Kaan Altindan) in Turkey. It isn't known whether the Capuchino line descended from Roddiffer have produced any cats with odd eyes. The breeder believed them to be "latents" (having the blue-eyed mutation, but not displaying it), but they had no white lockets which are normally indicators of the mutation.

Donn Carleone and his half-sister Amelia were sired by Oliver who is related to most modern British tipped/shell shorthairs. Oliver's sire (Andersen Imperiya Serebra) came from the Empire of Silver cattery (Lyudmila Shatyr) and is descended from Greendale Sargeant Pepper, Fernando van Ybloske-Eksolby, Kristie von Maringo, Eric von Burgersruh, Witchwoods Lionheart, etc. None of these are associated with blue-eyed offspring. Oliver's mother (Claudia Silver Amulet) is descended from, among others, the Anno Domini cattery (Ukraine) which produced many cats but no unusual blue-eyed kittens. The mother's other ancestors are less famous and include outcrosses to chinchilla Persians.

Oliver (DBE^ALT) distantly links the Nanotigr DBE to the Ermine Trace DBE. Oliver's great-great-grandfather is Captain Ermine Trace. Captain's parents (Eric von Burgensruh, Pearl of Empire's High Hope) were the founders of the Ermine Trace nursery (Eric von Burgensruh is Ermine Trace Olwen's great-grandfather). Eric von Burgersruh was a well-known sire and the link is too distant for him to be the source of the DBE gene, especially as the Ermine Trace DBE gene appears to come from the Schoenweg line.

These are basically British Shorthair/Longhair cats with dominant blue eyes, odd eyes or sectoral heterchromia (iris split into different colours). Solid white is not accepted. It is only recognised by the Rare and Exotic Feline Registry (REFR) and apart from the addition of sectoral heterochromia appears equivalent to the Celestial. It can be crossed to the British, non-folded variants of Scottish Fold (Scottish Straight/Scottish Shorthair) and straight-haired variants of Selkirk Rex (Selkirk Straight).

The genes found in different British Shorthair (etc) programmes are Nanotiger (unknown mutation), Ermine trace (spontaneous mutation), Azure Dream (Igor), Roxi Darlin (DBE^CEL) and Seymour (DBE^ALT). DBE^ALTand DBE^CEL have a lot in common. Igor's gene produces a phenotype similar to the DBE^CEL gene and the Seymour gene (DBE^ALT), dissimilar to the American Ojos Azules. Igor's pedigree is registered as Ojos Azules simply because there were no other DBE breeds at that time. When carriers of Igor's gene and Seymour's gene are mated together, the kittens resemble Altai homozygotes: viable, with a lot of white, often deaf. Deafness is also quite common in Igor's heterozygous offspring.

The Russian WFA expanded the number of breeds which are permitted to include the DBE trait. Initially the (official) DBE breeding programme was restricted to British Shorthairs/Longhairs. It now included Scottish Folds (logical because the non-folded Scottish Shorthairs/Longhairs are interbred with British Shorthairs/Longhairs) and Maine Coons (both original and polydactyl). It is evident from pedigrees that DBE cats have been introduced into the programme and allowed to interbreed even if they have different ancestors and different genes or unknown origins. The early issues with the Topaz breed prove this mixing of DBE genes to be risky. It is necessary to prevent unknown DBE genes to be introduced into a breed's gene pool (i.e. prohibit outcrosses to other DBE genes) and to develop each DBE mutation as a separate breed (with its gene pool closed to other DBE outcrosses).