Firestar's Family... with Real Genetics

Today I am going to be breaking down Firestar's family tree and explaining how the cats should look genetically, because the Erins like making interesting looking cats, not genetically accurate cats. So that's what this website is all about, fixing the Warriors family tree. I will be using this kitten generator: https://sparrows-garden.com/kitten-generator.html to generate the actual genetic chances of a couple's kits. So without any further ado, let's get into it!

Crystal

So let's start at the very top of the family tree with Crystal, Jake's mother. Since she has no known parents, she will keep her canon design of a ginger and white she-cat. Her wiki artwork makes her look like a tabby, but that is just an artist's representation, so I will go purely off allegiance and information given in the books. The important genetic information is as follows: ll, XOXO, Bbl, DD, aa, McMc, Wswg.

Jake, Ferris and Whiskers

We don't know anything definite about the father of Crystal's kits so Jake keeps his canon design of a ginger tabby and Ferris and Whiskers' patterns remain unknown. However, Crystal doesn't carry the tabby gene as that is dominant, so for Jake to be a tabby, his father must also be a tabby, although we don't know what colour he would be as Jake's red gene, which he got from his mother Crystal, is masking his true pelt colour. His father would also have to be short-furred as Jake is short furred and short fur is dominant so his mother couldn't be a carrier. His genes are as follows: Ll, XOY, Bbl, DD, Aa, McMc, wwg.

Nutmeg

With Nutmeg it's the same as with Crystal, she has no known parents or family. So I will be using the wiki description to decide her genes. Here they are: LL, XoXo, bb, DD, AA, McMc, Wsw.

Firestar

And now it's time for the cat himself, Firestar. Would he have looked like the flame coloured cat we know and love if genetics had decided his pelt colour? Well the answer is... no. Because red is sex-linked, i.e. it is passed on from mother to son and father to daughter, he can't be red. However, he would still be a tabby, but he would look almost exactly like his mother. He would also be short-furred. This could drastically change what his family lineage looks like in the future. I tried to add some white areas from his mother and some from his grandmother Crystal. I will cover his sister Princess and nephew Cloudtail's genes in another post. His genes are: LL, XoY, bbl, DD, AA, McMc, Wsw.

Leafpool

Sandstorm would look exactly the same, as she has no canonical parents, so we move to Leafpool. My personal favourite character. She would look almost the same but have patches of tortoiseshell all over her body. This is because the red variant for tortoiseshell is XOXo, and Sandstorm is red but not tortie so she would have XOXO, and Firestar's red gene is XoY. When the two are combined you get a tortoiseshell. Her genes are: LL, XOXo, bbl, Dd, AA, McMc, ww.

Squirrelflight

And finally, Squirrelflight, Leafpool's bold, feisty and fearless sister. I always imagine Squirrel as being the older sister for some reason. She would be a slightly lighter and more red version of her sister Leafpool, and would also have some white patches as well as the ginger patches of the tortoiseshell patterning. I also gave her and Leafpool green eyes, as both of their parents have green eyes. I don't know if that's how cat eye genetics really work since I can't find a definite article about it on the internet so we'll just roll with it. Her genes would be: LL, XOXo, blbl, Dd, AA, McMc, Wsw.

So that's Firestar's immediate family! Did anything surprise you or interest you? Head on over to the forum and let me know!