I am posting this because I have seen several people comment in different threads lately that they are nervous about making unusual pairings of coats and that when they have they get lower coat offspring that they don't think is a good nest or know how to use that lower coat offspring. I just want to reassure you (if you are also feeling like this), that the lower coat offspring really is the key to progressing your lines.

This has been said before by much better and more experienced breeders than myself. These are the people I have learnt from, and believe me I still have a looong way to go before I fully understand this genetics thing. And I still have many coats that I am yet to achieve.

But I am starting to experiment with my lines more and more as I learn from these amazing breeders, (you know who you are, and I am so appreciative of all the help and advice you have given me and others here), and as I am starting to see such great results, I just want to show other small breeders such as myself who still have so much to learn, that it really is possible to get great results if you read and study all the threads in this genetics forum, and think about what the experienced and successful breeders are saying, and put some of those ideas into practice.

This is the first nest of two of my highlands

Kabuki

http://www.worldofmeeroos.com/index.php?q=meeroos/meeroo/2682575

If you look back through the lines you will see one of my "experiments" in action

Parents of the nests highland dad are a red father and a koi mother.
Grandparents are red/amber & painted/kabuki

Parents of the highland mother are an emperor father and a caledonian mother.

Grandparents are koi/koi & cinder/cinder

I had paired this couple together expecting a koi or emperor but hoping for better as I have had great succes with ambers/cinders worked into a line of koi/emperors.

This other family line I mentioned traces back to my first preorder roos and contains fawns, winecoats, reds, autumns, sierras, ambers, highlands, cinders, caledonians, kois and emperors, gave me my first kabuki and my first azure (and a ST azure at that), and has since given more kabukis and ST azures so I know those coats were not a mutation but rather a natural progression of this family line.

So please don't be afraid to make unusual pairings and coax those offspring, don't make the mistake of thinking that because you coax a painted with a snowpaw and get a winecoat, that is not a good nest and stick it in your inventory or sell it cheap, and then re-partner the parents with a roo of the same coat.