July 2023: dam - Zephyr Nutella (light black)
sire - Zephyr Brazil (pink eyed chestnut?)

litter 2023-ELA2: A test litter for the chestnut project.
Expecting (best guesses) agouti, chocolate agouti, silver fawn, dilute silver fawn, and possibly various shades of chestnuts.
Ella
Brazil
details: 12th June - mated, litter due 5th July
3rd July - moved into the maternity cage having gained 80g
5th July - litter of 9 born early morning, all top eared
12th July - colours are beginning to show, and atm it seems none of these are chestnuts, so Brazil probably isn't one
17th July - now that coats are through, the paler kittens look to be RED (i.e. buff/topaz) based rather than PED (i.e. champagne/silver fawn)
26th July - the mystery boy is looking possibly russian blue at this point, albeit a rather brown toned one
31st July - I now think that Brazil is not a chestnut, and hence the varieties in the litter are exactly what they look like
13th August - after discussions with other breeders, it now seems that buck 4 is actually a dark shade of the self version of chestnut (so one parent must be a chestnut after all), which are going to be called ash
buck 1 - champagne
buck 2 - silver fawn (tail marked blue)
buck 3 - silver fawn (tail marked blue blue)
buck 4 - dark ash
buck 5 - chocolate

doe 1 - champagne (tail marked red)
doe 2 - champagne (tail marked red red)
doe 3 - chocolate agouti (tail marked red)
doe 4 - chocolate agouti (tail marked red red)
Click here for the family tree.

03/07/23: settled in the maternity cage

05/07/23: a few hours old

07/07/23: two days old
the bucks:
 the does:

09/07/23: 4 days old

10/07/23: 5 days old
the bucks:
 the does:

12/07/23: 7 days old
the pink eyed kittens:
 the black eyed kittens:

13/07/23: 8 days old, the litter palette: chocolate agouti, dilute silver fawn or topaz, dilute champagne or buff, the mystery grey or cool mink, and chocolate

17/07/23: 12 days old

19/07/23: 14 days old
the bucks:
the does:

24/07/23: 19 days old, free range toddle with mum

26/07/23: 21 days old
the pink eyed kittens:
the darker kittens:

28/07/23: 23 days old

31/07/23: 26 days old, individual pictures
buck 1:
buck 2:
buck 3:
buck 4:
buck 5:
doe 1:
doe 2:
doe 3:
doe 4:

05/08/23: 31 days old, free range play with the other litters

09/08/23: 35 days old, individual pictures
buck 1:
buck 2:
buck 3:
buck 4:
buck 5:
doe 1:
doe 2:
doe 3:
doe 4:

13/08/23: 39 days old, sexes now divided, and the boys from all three litters are living together (the girls still live with their mums, but have joint playtimes)
the bucks:
the does:

16/08/23: 42 days old
the bucks:
the does:

21/08/23: 47 days old
the bucks:
the does:

29/08/23: 55 days old, individual pictures
buck 1:
buck 2:
buck 3:
buck 4:
buck 5:
doe 1:
doe 2:
doe 3:
doe 4:


I will not be keeping any kittens from this litter, although several bucks are being homed nearby so that I can arrange a mating if necessary.