History

After the recognition of the Russian Tabby in 1985 we set about producing the first registered brown tabby Russian cat.  To do this required a mating between a black cat and a blue tabby.  With this mating it could be expected that around half of the kittens would be brown tabbies.

Ch. Riverlight Boris (Blue Tabby) was mated to Riverlight Tyenka (Black) and produced a litter from which a male was selected: Riverlight Konstantin (striped Brown Tabby).  This was the first generation of Brown Tabby registered with the GCCF of SA Inc.

Since then further breeding has led to the production of 7th generation kittens by early 2006.

In recent years we have focused our attention on perfecting the spotted markings and attaining good type.

Riverlight Ermolov is good example of the quality of the modern Russian Brown Tabby.  He has good body type, upright ears, strong whisker pads, straight profile and the greenest of green eyes.  On top of this he has an excellent "Russian" temperament, which he is passing on to his offspring.

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Riverlight History

The tabby Russian gained acceptance on the 25^th of March 1985 with a breed number of 16d.  This included blue and brown tabby and all 3 tabby patterns, blotched, striped and spotted.  This also gave them championship status with the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy of S.A. Inc. (GCCF of SA Inc.).

It was not until 1987 that our first Brown Tabby Russian was born: Riverlight Konstantin 1^st generation striped.  His sire was Champion Riverlight Boris (Blue Tabby Striped) and his dam Riverlight Tyenka (Black).

Konstantin was mated to Rovene Viktoria (Blue Tabby Blotched) and produced Riverlight Maya on the 10^th of October 1989, 2^nd generation Brown Tabby Blotched.  Unfortunately in early 1991 Konstantin succumbed to a Urinary Tract Disorder.  Crystals block the narrow end of the urethra allowing the backup of urine toxins, which leads to kidney failure and death in as little as 24 hours.

Maya was our only brown tabby and I wanted to breed another quickly.  My vet suggested mating her to our black boy.  This mating should produce a higher number of brown tabbies than mating her to a blue boy.

Riverlight Sebastopol (black male) was mated to Riverlight Maya and on the 21^st of April 1991 she gave birth to 5 kittens: 4 girls and 1 boy all brown tabby.  The girls were all blotched, however the boy was spotted and he was the one we kept.  Riverlight Alexeieff 3^rd generation brown tabby unfortunately also suffered from Urinary Tract Disorder, but medication worked well for him and he lived until the 25^th of July 2005.

In all the years Alexeieff was with us he only produced two litters.  The first was to Riverlight Savina (blue female) producing seven kittens but only one brown tabby, a girl with spots like her father.  We did not keep her but sent her to New Zealand.  Riverlight Leather n’ Lace at her first show, The New Zealand Cat Fancy Show on the 18^th of July 1999, won the “Breeders Award of Merit”.  We were delighted to have such a prize with a rare colour of Russian.

I purchased a pretty blue girl, Anou Kiri Kinnishka, and mated her to Alexeieff.  The mating produced two brown tabby girls on the 12^th December 1999.  Riverlight Alexia and Riverlight Aleisha, were both spotted and 4^th generation Russian Brown Tabby.

Aleisha (shown left) went to her first show on the 19^th of March 2000 at the Cat Fanciers Society and won Reserve Russian kitten: what a delight!  Aleisha stayed and was mated to a blue male GdCh Barrabool Lord Percival and the 28^th of December 2001 gave birth to Riverlight Benilov, 5^th generation brown tabby spotted.

As Benilov grew and developed into a Russian of good type, however his markings did not develop into clear rounded spots.  After careful thought I decided to mate Riverlight Catya, 7^th Generation Spotted Blue Tabby, to Benilov.  On the 30^th of August 2004 Riverlight Ermolov was born.  Ermolov is a 6^th Generation Spotted Brown Tabby but is our first “warm” tone, with wonderful pale brown markings.  I mated him to our black girl, Riverlight Delena and on the 1^st of February 2006 a girl was born: Riverlight Gaylene, 7^th generation Spotted Brown Tabby, but a “cold” tone.

I also mated Riverlight Benilov back to Riverlight Catya and on the 12^th of August 2005 Riverlight Franskya was born, 6^th generation Spotted Brown Tabby, but also a “cold” tone.

I would like to produce more of the brown tabbies in the “warm” tone as I find Ermolov a very attractive cat.  Mating him to black was unfortunately not the mating to do to gain this colour and even repeating the mating that produced Ermolov did not give me another with the warm tone.

I have decided to mate my brown tabby girls to different blue boys keeping only brown tabby girls.  Then perhaps by mating Ermolov to them my first matings of brown tabby to brown tabby will produce more of the “warm” tone colour.

The Russian Brown Tabby has the look of a jungle cat but the wonderful loving nature of the Russians.  I have found them surprisingly difficult to breed as matings to blue and brown tabby quite often don’t give us brown tabby.  However I am enjoying the challenge of developing more “warm” toned spotted brown tabbies like Ermolov.

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Bloodlines

To see how the the Russian Brown Tabby has evolved through 7 generations click here.

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Gallery Photos

For pictures of the Russian Brown Tabby click here

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