Odd eyes- why I decided to LOOK into it for Adora (LOL) and
Odd eyes and outcrossing, inline breeding , my thought on this and my dreams for Adora: yep, I am a science NERD!
Why we produce sphynx and odd eyed cats
without the outcrossing or inline breeding here at Adora- my philosophy :
This type of outcrossing can breed back in HCM which we reputable breeders and veterinarians have fought so hard to get out of our sphynx breed now down to a respectable 25% In sphynx ( which is actually equal to the “general” cat population overall if you take a crossection of street cats, sphynx, Russian blue, Persian etc. 10% of all of them would develop HCM) Here at Adora we are happy to say we have less than 10-15 % of our cats with HCM - we say that knowing that not every owner is diligent at HCM scanning but we do ask our adopters to please let us know if any HCM occurs and that way we can rescan, reassess and retire as needed with our lines. These numbers are hard faught and came with a lot of time-consuming research, love care, top-notch veterinary care, feeding, and of course healthy lines. We are so proud of our mama, paps and babies and we hope it shines through to their families.
Turkish Van, Turkish Angora, the American short hair (ASH) or Domestic short hair ( Dsh) all common outcrosses used to make odd eye sphynx, are a known risk. Every one of which have more HCM in their lines now and can re-introduce higher risk of HCM in sphynx again just to have an odd eye color?- makes no sense if you understand it. These types of haired cats so often are used and are known for it ( HCM) and inline breeding. Yes this is an acceptable practice to many ( yes, acceptable even to TICA and CFA if you can state why you are doing it - ie a better over all conformity hairlessness, nose break, ear set, size, etc. ) to me with my years of medical background it just doesn’t make sense nor to the genetics ... better to keep the gene pool as wide and deep as possible ( with known healthy cats) versus a limited gene pool w inline breeding. Let’s face it as humans , we don’t marry cousins for a reason
I do realize someone can use a Turkish or Domestic short hair that scans HCM clean to start a line, but if this is a known issue with the breed why risk it ?
For me it raising the the heart risk isn’t worth it when it already takes 25% of these amazing lives away from us.
Why some outcrossing does make sense:
This isn’t to say all out crossing is bad ...for example the american curl is a very very healthy breed w very few known PCR genetic defects in the base panel and HCM ISN’T a high risk for American Curls so this outcross made sense to widen a sphynx gene pool that was struggling to lower its HCM risk and it appears to be paying off.
Yes, you can absolutely find an odd eye and sphynx in the United States and probably even cheaper than what we adopt ours for,but you can imagine what we have in them before they ever breed, if we determine healthy enough to breed, if they do, and we’re lucky to break even if we ever do.
The thing is we are happy to help the breed have the healthy expression of gene variety , IF it is seemingly a healthy option. We also retire early because they deserve it and breed females twice a yr if they want to an have their natural cycles . So that is the scoop on our odd eye program and why we know it is special. Not to mention have you met our boy??? Such lovers ️; so if an odd eye baby is what you dream of you found your nerd here and she is a cat lover to boot lol.
Odd eye cats with color on their body are very very rare! (Esp. Without “hairy” breeding or inline breeding )
Adoras long term plan for our clients to have premium options:
I will also say that once we have two confirmed Neg HCM scanned AND breeding males and Gemma and /or Chimera( ie : one of our Adora produced odd eye females are having their first Hcm scans this year ) scan clean and breed this season, we will start odd eye only waitlist. This will be a waitlist for some of the rarest bred cats on the planet folks...some of them are estimated to be one sphynx birth in every 500,000 I am told is the estimate. 🤯 Even my nerdy science brain even has a hard time wrapping around that. I’m not going to “advertise” an open ODD eye list until after those heart scans come back / pairings happen because we strive for all our programs to be something that are excellent and we won’t “advertise” our odd eye program unless it exceeds our health expectations and that of our veterinarians ....
Excellence is what we strive for not just coincidence or luck, as it is with most catteries.
We have a lot of planning ,testing , genealogy, and groundwork that is behind our color / pattern / conformity programs. And yes, odd eye is a special project I have been developing over the last several years. My dream is to have it naturally re - expressed with proper allele alignment in these lovely creatures and not forced with what in my opinion are unsafe hairy outcrosses or inline breeding ( ex- why don’t we marry our first cousins? We have not imported our breeding kittens and we never get adults /sphynx imports because there can be issues with them as well, due to the virulent strains of disease like new viruses, hard core GI parasites, and STD strains that they can bring to the USA that we don’t have vet FDA approved drugs to treat - this is why we haven’t imported here at Adora. There are odd eyes sphynx cats bred and without a lot of checking background -can be deaf, have vision issues up to the point of blindness and depending how the gene was acquired it can greatly increase risk of heart disease. 🥲While these are all known risks to the breed and in breeding we are looking to DECREASE THEM with our pairings FIRST and then express odd eyes, while others look to express odd eyes and see what it does to their health and therein lies the big difference between us and “the other guys”. ( NERD 101!!) We are as careful as we know how to be to bring customers their options while paying attention to all of this. I am a true science nerd to be sure they are a rare breed and this of course increases the rarity and if done correctly shouldn’t have a huge negative impact on long term health. This is just what my vets have told me and and science and numbers look to be true with some breeders. Producing the best healthiest, happiest sphynx is our very first priority here at Adora (as it is w most reputable breeders) ️but with DNA selective breeding as in odd eyes , you had better have a great team to educate you and we do. We are here to serve the breed. we all are doing the best we know how for our kitties, the breed and adopters. This has been a labor of love for last 5-7 yrs for us w our veterinary team and their help. So starting withsweet Finn and his dominant homozygous expressing eyes and all our lovely heterozygous recessive allele carrying and aligning females - you'll get some great options. Most catteries produce odd eyes at approx. 2-3% and we are producing at a significanlty higher rate. My goal is to get there like Sir Mendle with his peas and this should be possible if it is a natural expression of an also natural mutation so we shall see...stay tuned for that hypothesis, lol.
Yes, clearly we plan to expand on this with harlequin and van colored Kings (see KINGS and QUEENS page, Bellerophon and Jasper, Chimera, Gemini who 4 of which were already born here) with odd eye expression as well. Sphynx with "colored" coats and the odd eyes ups the rarity factor 100 fold but decreases blindness and hearing issues!! WHOOP WHOOP! Yes, there is always a health science reason behind the choices people, lol. Wouldn’t a harlequin odd eye dwelf born of a dwelf ( ie: not a bambino crossed with an elf) be the coolest thing ever??? Fingers crossed family, fingers crossed! 🏻🏻🤯️- Leta w Adora Sphynx LLC.
All of this information is based on my research, with the help of our veterinarians, mentors, and my personal experiences and opinion and not meant to supersede your professional veterinarians medical directions. This information is for educational reasons. Please always feel free to do your own research.
