ICE PROJECT

The Ice project was presented and accepted by the REFR (Rare and exotic feline registry). It consists of integrating the gene of dominant blue eyes into the British and Chinese Tank breed and working on the type in order to obtain, after several generations, a standard and typed cat with a breathtaking look! Stay tuned, the craziest cat of your dreams will soon come true!

THE ORIGIN

A fully colored cat with blue eyes ... A fantasy that makes more than one dream ... However, blue eyes in cats are almost exclusively the peculiarity of colorpoint cats, such as the Siamese or some white cats exposed to deafness and health problems. It sometimes happens that a kitten is an exception to the rule, but this type of cat is very rare and remains a domestic cat with no other peculiarity than its eyes.

In addition to this, you need to know more about it.

This is where the Ice project comes into its own! Pass the dominant blue eye gene from a domestic cat to a purebred cat and work the type over several generations of the breed to obtain a distinctive and beautiful cat with exclusive eyes.

Up here is Mistral from Aerlin Cattery, a domestic cat with the “blue eyes” allele and Orpheus from La Catterie de la Grace, a third generation British Ice. These cats have been integrated into the project and are the pioneers in Quebec through Miss Kitty Cattery. Since 2017, the Ice generations have been working on the Chinese tank to the delight of adopters! The Chinese tank Ice has conquered the hearts of hundreds of families and never ceases to amaze the gallery! This is just the beginning of an adventure that will continue (maybe, who knows?!) right into your home!

The "blue-eyed" allele is at first glance dominant, since these cats married to others with classic eyes and of various origins pass it on to about half of the kittens. The rule to follow would simply be never to marry two carriers together, as is already the case for many dominant genes, starting with the white W gene.

As for the temperament of Ice, expect a little ball of love! Peaceful and playful, with astonishing docility, they will melt your heart! These endearing and curious animals will charm you with their ease of adaptation to all types of environments. They can be easily handled by children, be around other animals and are affectionate without being too clingy! The perfect cat for everyone.

The evolution of the breed and the definition of the standard become clearer with each generation. We call F1 cats of a first generation resulting from a marriage between the domestic cat and the purebred cat. The kitten inherits chromosomes from the father and mother which gives it characteristics of both a purebred cat and a domestic cat. It will only be considered 25% purebred cat. In order to obtain a typed cat, the generations must be worked on in order to reduce as much as possible the characteristics of the domestic by reproducing F1s with a purebred cat and thus create F2 "2nd generation" which will be at 50% of the race. Each generation that separates the kitten from its initial domestic ancestor is represented by the number following the "F". So on F3-75%, F4-100%, F5-purebred. The more advanced the generations, the more the cat will resemble the desired breed standard and from the 5th generation the cat is considered purebred.