Barbara Redalia, Tuleburg cattery, breeder of Himalayan - Persians. Specializing in chocolate and lilac varieties. Read more about how her interest in chocolates began.

We are a small cattery in Sebastopol, California, near Santa Rosa. We have been breeding Himalayans for 20 years, and specializing in chocolates/lilacs for the last 4 years. Our first chocolate was Ch. Kissncats Chocoloco of Tuleburg. After Chocoloco we received "Kissncats Chocolate on the Inside" from Dorothy. Next we received as a replacement, for a cat that did not breed, Ch. Foxy Touch-O-Blueberry, a bluepoint chocolate carrier, who is the mother of our GC Tuleburg Lilac Totoro. We also have a bicolor male that carries chocolate, Ch. Tuleburg Fudge Baron, and a black smoke male, Ch. Tuleburg Baba Rebob that carry chocolate. Some day we expect to see chocolate and lilac smokes!

When did your love for these colors begin?

I tried to obtain chocolates many years ago, while we were living in Stockton, but the "carrier" I purchased at that time did not produce anything chocolate, and in retrospect, may not have carried chocolate at all.

Do you have a mentor, if so who?

Dorothy Woofter (Kissncats) and Janet Tyra (Tyland) have been influential and very helpful in planning my work with chocolates, and in providing me with good quality chocolates with which to begin my chocolate breeding program.

Do you remember your very first chocolate/lilac brought into your program?

That would be Ch. Kissncats Chocoloco of Tuleburg. Her brother is GC Kissncats Chocolate Hugs, owned by Dorothy Woofter.

Do you have a favorite color division? (bi-color, himalayan, solid, parti-color, smoke, tabby)

I love all the chocolates and lilacs--perhaps the ones I have not produced yet (smokes) are most intriguing.

Do you have any particular favorite cats in your program?

GC Tuleburg Lilac Totoro

Since all Himalayans are born white at birth, at what age do you determine their color?

It can be very hard to distinguish the blue points from lilac points until their "frosting" goes, and their paw pads have a definite color. The chocolate and lilac points should have the whiter body coats in addition to pinkish paw pads. We make every effort to be sure before we ship any out!

Do you have any advice when determining a spoiled seal point from a chocolate point?

The paw pads on a chocolate point must be mauve-pink.

Do you have any advice when distinguishing a pale blue from a lilac Persian?

Solid lilacs have a pinkish cast to them. This can be easy to miss in bad light or in a photo.

At what age do you determine their quality (pet,breed,show)?

We can sometimes, with unbridled enthusiasm, call them at birth, as far as head and body type go, but there may be something that turns up later, like a hernia, a missing testicle, or a tail kink that converts that initial show kitten into a pet!

What is the most difficult part of working with these colors?

Breeding stock of good type is hard to obtain and expensive. It can truly be difficult to tell lilac point from blue point kittens with any degree of certainty. I have known some breeders of chocolates and lilacs to say that one might not be sure until the cat is bred.
Perhaps that is why some prefer to work mainly with the solid lilacs and chocolates?

What is the most rewarding experience working with these colors?

Sharing these beautiful colors with people who have never seen them before and are enchanted is a lot of fun. We hardly have to advertise.

What is your most important advice about these colors you'd like to give?

Buy the best quality male kitten you can afford as a stud, even if it is just a chocolate carrier, and breed it to a solid color chocolate or lilac female. That way you will become able to distinguish the colors from one another by (probably) seeing kittens of different colors in the same litter, and the chances are that half the litter will be chocolate or lilac.

Is working with these colors for everyone? Do you have any advice to offer anyone just starting with these colors?

Any Himalayan breeder who wants to whiten the colors of their pointed kittens should find them useful from this point of view, even if they are not enchanted with the chocolate and lilac colors themselves.