This section is primarily intended to answer the question, "What colour is my cat?" It also explains basic colour terminology and gives some information about how the colours and patterns work together. There are many colours and patterns that are genetically possible in the cat, so this section only covers the colours that you are most likely to see. There are additional color mutations that are seen only in certain breeds; these colours are covered in the colour genetics section.
Note: Cat fanciers use the term "red" for the color that is commonly called "orange," "marmalade," or "ginger". We also use the term "blue" for the colour that is commonly called "gray" or "maltese."
1. Tabbies
If your cat has stripes, it is a "tabby." (Some people call these "tiger cats.") All tabbies have thin pencil lines on the face, expressive markings around the eyes, and a tabby "M" on the forehead. If you look up close at the light parts of a tabby's coat, you will see that the individual hairs are striped with alternating light and dark bands, like the fur of a rabbit or a squirrel. This banding is called "agouti." Tabby is thought to be the "wild type" (the original color) of domesticated cats.
There are four different tabby patterns:
- A "mackerel tabby" has narrow stripes that run in parallel down its sides. This is what some people refer to as a "tiger."
- A "classic tabby" cat has bold, swirling patterns on its sides like marble cake. This color is called "blotched tabby" in the UK.
- A "spotted tabby" has spots all over its sides. Sometimes these are large spots, sometimes small spots, and sometimes they appear to be broken mackerel stripes.
- A "ticked tabby" (sometimes called "Abyssinian tabby" or "agouti tabby") does not have stripes or spots on its body. However, like all tabbies, it has tabby markings on the face and agouti hairs on the body. This is the color of the Abyssinian cat, but it also appears in non-purebreds and does not mean the cat is Abyssinian.
Tabbies come in many different colours. You can tell what colour a tabby is by looking at the color of its stripes and its tail tip. The colour of the agouti hairs (the "ground color") may vary tremendously from cat to cat, some cats may have a washed out gray ground color and others will have rich orange tones.
- A "brown tabby" has black stripes on a brownish or grayish ground color. The black stripes may be coal black, or a little bit brownish.
- A "blue tabby" has gray stripes on a grayish or buff ground colour. The gray stripes may be a dark slate gray, or a lighter blue-gray.
- A "red tabby" has orange stripes on a cream ground colour. The orange stripes may be dark reddish orange, or light "marmalade" orange.
- A "cream tabby" has cream stripes on a pale cream ground colour. These stripes look sand-colored or peach-colored rather than orange.
- A "silver tabby" has black stripes on a white ground colour. The roots of the hairs are white. You can also have a blue silver, cream silver, or red silver tabby (red silver is also known as "cameo tabby") depending on the colour of the stripes. In all cases, silver tabbies have a pale ground colour and white roots. To make sure, part the hairs and look at the roots.
2. Solids and Smokes
If your cat is pretty much the same colour all over, it is a "solid." Some people, especially in the UK, use the word "self" instead of "solid."
- A "solid black" is just that: black all over. It may be coal black, grayish black, or brownish black. Black cats can "rust" in the sunlight, the coat turning a lighter brownish shade.
- A "solid blue" is blue-gray all over. It may be a dark slate gray, a medium gray, or a pale ash gray. This colour is also sometimes called "maltese." This is the colour of the Russian Blue, Chartreux, and Korat, but it can appear in almost any other breed as well, and is also seen in non-purebreds. Solid blue does not indicate that a cat is related to any of these breeds.
- A "solid white" is white all over. Sometimes white cats have blue eyes, sometimes they have green or gold eyes, and sometimes one eye is blue and one eye is green or gold! This last colour is called "odd-eyed white."
Most solid colored cats are the result of a recessive gene that suppresses the tabby pattern. Sometimes the tabby pattern is not totally suppressed, so you might see indistinct "shadow" tabby markings in certain lights even on a solid black cat. If you look at a black leopard in a zoo, you might also see these shadow markings, because the black leopard has a similar spot-suppressing gene!
The tabby-suppressing gene is not effective on red or cream cats, so you won't see red or cream cats without tabby markings.
Solid white cats are the result of a different gene that suppresses colour completely. Young white cats often have vague smudges of colour on the top of the head where the color is not completely suppressed. Sometimes this persists even in an older white cat.
If your cat is pretty much solid black or gray, but the roots of the hairs are distinctly white, it is a "smoke." (It's normal for the roots on a solid cat to be grayish; true smokes, on the other hand, have definite white roots.) Smokes are the solid version of silver tabbies. These cats are very dramatic because when they move, the hair parts and the white undercoat can be seen.
- A "black smoke" is a solid black cat with white roots.
- A "blue smoke" is a solid blue (gray) cat with white roots.
3. Cats with white markings
Clearly delineated white markings (as opposed to shaded points, like the Siamese) can appear on any color. Just add "and white" to the cat's basic colour to describe the cat. So for example your cat might be a "black and white" or a "cream tabby and white."
Cats with white markings might have larger or smaller areas of white. If you want to describe your cat's color more precisely, there are different names for the different amounts of white:
- A "mitted" cat just has white paws.
- A cat with a white spot on its chest has a "locket."
- A cat with one or more little white belly spots has "buttons."
- A "bi-color" is about half white.
- A "harlequin" is mostly white with several large patches of colour.
- A "van" is almost all white with colour patches only on the head and tail.
- A "tuxedo cat" is a black and white cat with white paws, chest, and belly. It might have some white on the face as well.
- Some people call black and white cats "jellicle cats" (after T.S.Eliot)
4. Torties, patched tabbies, and calicos
If your cat is randomly patched with different colors, you probably have a tortie, patched tabby, or calico.
For cats without white markings:
- A "tortoiseshell" or "tortie" is randomly patched all over with red, black, and cream. The patches may be very mingled, or they may be more distinct.
- A "blue-cream" (also called "blue tortie" or or "dilute tortie") is randomly patched all over with blue and cream. This is a soft, pastel colour.
- A "brown patched tabby" looks almost like autumn leaves, with patches of brown tabby and patches of red tabby. This colour is also known as "torbie" because it is a tabby tortie.
- A "blue patched tabby" is a soft colour with patches of blue tabby and patches of cream tabby.
- A "tortoiseshell and white" or "blue-cream and white" has only small white areas. The body has mingled colours.
- A "calico" has more white. As a rule, the more white there is on the cat, the larger and more distinct the red and black patches will be. You'll notice that the large black patches are solid black, and the large red patches are actually red tabby.
- A "dilute calico" has the same amount of white as a calico, but instead of red and black patches, it has blue and cream patches. The blue patches are solid blue, and the cream patches are cream tabby.
- A "patched tabby and white" or "torbie and white" may have any amount of
white. A patched tabby with a lot of white, like a calico, has large
distinct patches of color, and is sometimes called a "patterned
calico," "calico tabby," or "caliby."
Are tortoiseshell cats always female?
Tortoiseshell and related colours (blue-cream, patched tabby, calico etc.) are the result of a sex-linked gene and require two X chromosomes to appear. Generally speaking, these colors will only appear in females. Very rarely, these colors may appear in male cats, but these males are genetically abnormal (they have XXY instead of the normal XY) and are almost always infertile.
CAT COLOUR GENETICS
Domestic cats exhibit a rich variety of coat patterns and colours. The names given to these colors and patterns are increasingly based on genetic theory. Many people have expressed confusion over the names that cat fanciers apply to the coat colours and patterns, so this article has been written to help explain the names given to the possible colours and patterns, and why these names are applied.
This article attempts to introduce and describe the colors and patterns of domestic cats and the names that are given to them. It does not attempt to explain the mechanisms of inheritance nor the formulas for calculating the possible outcomes of particular breedings.
The colours in hair, skin, and eyes are caused by the presence of melanin. Melanin is deposited in the hair shafts in the form of microscopic granules which vary in shape, size, and arrangement, giving a variety of colours.
There are two chemically different kinds of melanin: eumelanin and phaeomelanin. Eumelanin granules are thought to be spherical in shape and absorb almost all light, giving black pigmentation. Phaeomelanin granules are thought to be elongated "footballs" in shape, and reflect light in the red-orange-yellow range.
Several genes can cause variation in the density of the the melanin granules,
so other colors can be produced. The most variation is found in the black-based
(eumelanistic) colors. The following table lists the commonly accepted names
for the basic colors, by genotype:
Mutations of the gene for Black give rise to Chocolate and Cinnamon. These colours are thought to be due to a smaller number of eumelanin granules in the hair shaft. The Chocolate colour is a medium to dark brown colour; it is sometimes called chestnut. Cinnamon is a terra-cotta or burnt sienna colour. These are alleles at the (B) locus; Chocolate is recessive to Black, and Cinnamon is recessive to Chocolate.
A mutation of the gene for Dense coloration produces Blue, Lilac, and Fawn. These colours are due to clustering of the particles of pigment in the hair shaft. This is called dilution or Maltesing. Blue is the dilute form of Black; it is commonly seen as various shades of gray. Lilac is the dilute form of Chocolate; it is described as dove or light taupe gray, and is sometimes called frost or lavender. Fawn is the dilute form of Cinnamon; it is described as "coffee and cream" or caramel color. Dilution is a mutation at the (D) locus; dilution is recessive to dense coloration.
In comparison, the red-based (phaeomelanistic) colours have much less variation. Red is usually described as orange or "marmalade", but some red cats have rather pale pigmentation and so people may describe them as yellow. Cream is the dilute form of Red, and is described as a buff color. The symbol for the gene for Red/Cream is (O); Black is recessive to Red.
The Red gene (O) is carried on the X chromosome; for this reason it is sex-linked. Males normally only have one X chromosome and so if a male carries the Red gene at all, he will be Red. Females have two X chromosomes; if both X chromosomes carry the Red gene, then the cat will be Red. However, many females carry the Red gene on only one chromosome, which allows the black-based pigmentation to show through in patches. This combination of red and black is called Tortoiseshell.
A typical Tortoiseshell is a patchwork of black and orange, usually in a random pattern. Some "Torties" have large patches of orange, others are mostly black. The Tortoiseshell can be modified by dilution, which gives a patchwork of blue and cream rather than black and orange. Such dilute Torties are usually called Blue-Cream. Finally, the black patches of a Tortie may actually be any of the black-based colors, so you may see a Chocolate Tortie or a Cinnamon Tortie, and, if dilution is also present, a Lilac-Cream Tortie or a Fawn-Cream Tortie.
2. White Cats
White fur is the absence of any pigmentation. A solid white coat may be caused by any of three genetic mechanisms, which are completely different:
- Albino white. This is recessive, and has been mentioned in the previous section.
- Complete white spotting. The white spotting factor (S) is an incomplete dominant, which is affected by polygenetic modifiers and usually results in a cat that is only partially white. However, it can be so complete that it results in a completely white coat. White spotting will be discussed in a later section.
- Dominant white. This mutation overrides all other genes for pigmentation, and produces a white coat and blue eyes. As its name implies, this is the effect of a dominant gene (W).
In the dominant white, the other genes for color and pattern are still present, but they are completely hidden. The only way to determine the underlying genotype is by test matings with coloured cats of (reasonably) well-known genotype.
Breeding two dominant whites will mostly produce solid white kittens, but if both of the parents are heterozygous (W/w), then the underlying colours may appear on a few of the kittens. Unless the genotypes of the whites are known from pedigree or test breeding, the results are unpredictable.
Dominant white is found in mixed-breed cats, of course, and notably in Persian and Oriental Shorthair breeding programs. At one time the dominant white Oriental Shorthair was considered a separate breed by some associations, called the Foreign White. The dominant white can produce much deeper blue eye colour than the albino, so it is considered desirable. It is believed that the best blue eyes in solid white Oriental Shorthairs are those that are masking Chocolate.
Deafness in white cats is associated with the white spotting factor (S), and with the dominant white (W), but not with the albino white (c/c or ca/ca).
3. Ticking and Tabby Patterns
All of the foregoing discussion has described solid colours. However, the solid or "self" coloured cat is not the most common. More cats have ticked fur than solid colour, and in most of them, the ticked fur alternates with the solid colour in some sort of pattern, which is called tabbying.
First, ticking is the result of the agouti gene (A) which causes the individual hairs to have bands of light and heavy pigmentation. The agouti gene allows full pigmentation when the hair starts to grow, then slows down the synthesis of pigment for a while, and then turns it on for a while. As the hair approaches its normal length and stops growing, pigment synthesis stops. The result is a hair shaft that has dense pigment at the tip, then a band of yellow to orange, then a band of dense pigment, fading to yellow to orange at the root.
The agouti band can be seen in both the eumelanistic (black-based) and phaeomelanistic (red-based) colors. In both cases, the agouti band marks the period where the production of melanin has slowed down. It is fairly well accepted that the colour in the agouti band of a eumelanistically-pigmented hair shaft is still eumelanin, not phaeomelanin, but it is the fact that the granules are sparse and "shredded" that gives them the yellow to orange color. The agouti band is not an alternation of eumelanin production with phaeomelanin production in the same hair shaft.
In eumelanistically-pigmented hair shafts, the agouti band is normally a drab yellow-beige colour. However, the colour of the agouti band can be a richer orange due to the effect of "rufousing" factors. These are polygenetic factors that have not been isolated and identified, but breeders have been able to select for them to produce "warm" background colors in the tabbies. In particular, the Brown Tabby patterns are genetically Black, but the selection of individuals with strong rufousing has produced a rich brown color in the ticked hairs.
The mutation that causes solid color is called non-agouti (a/a), and is recessive. The effect of non-agouti is to suppress the ticking, so the same density of pigment is found all along the hair shaft, except at the root, where it normally begins to fade in any case.
The tabby pattern is determined by the tabby gene (T), which causes the ticked hairs to alternate with stripes, blotches, or spots of hairs of solid color. The commonly-recognized types of tabby patterns have been given descriptive names:
- Mackerel Tabby. Ticked hairs alternate with solid hairs in stripes, as on a tiger. This is the most common tabby pattern.
- Classic Tabby. Ticked hairs alternate with solid hairs in a blotched pattern, often with a circular "bullseye" on the side, or a "butterfly" on the back. This is called a Blotched Tabby in the UK.
- Ticked Tabby. Ticked hairs are found uniformly over the entire coat, giving a flecked or freckled appearance. This pattern is sometimes called the Agouti Tabby or Abyssinian Tabby.
- Spotted Tabby. Ticked hairs alternate with spots or rosettes of solid color, as on a leopard or jaguar.
4. Shading
In the typical tabby, the ticked hairs have bands of lighter pigmentation, but they are not devoid of colour. Typically, the lighter bands are a drab beige-yellow color, but rufousing can make them closer to orange.
At the other extreme, shading causes the agouti band to be lighter in colour. Shading can also cause the agouti band to be wider, so that the light color extends all the way to the root. The effect is to produce a hair shaft that has a coloured tip, in whatever color is determined by the colour genes, and then much lighter below the tip. When the light colored portion of the hair shaft is near-white, it is called Silver, when it is yellow or a warm cream colour, it is called Golden.
Several genetic theories have been proposed to explain the inheritance of shaded coloration. The earliest theory proposed a Chinchilla gene (Ch) which was thought to be an allele at the albino locus. If correct, this would imply that shaded sepia, mink, and pointed colours were impossible. Breeding experiments have disproved that theory. A more recent theory proposed another single dominant gene, called the inhibitor gene (I), but this theory was inadequate to explain the variations of shading and did not correlate with the experiences of breeders, so current theories propose at least two genes. None of the current theories have been experimentally proven, however.
All of these theories seek to explain the genetic factors that apparently suppress the synthesis of pigment after a certain point in the growth of the hair shaft. This effect interacts with the agouti and tabby patterns to produce varying degrees of shading, which are commonly called "Chinchilla", "Shaded Silver", "Silver Tabby", and "Smoke".
In the Chinchilla, all of the hairs are tipped with colour, and then light-colored below the tip. Since both the ticked and the solid hairs turn light-coloured before the point where the agouti band would begin, so the tabby pattern is not visible. The tipping is so light that the coat looks white at a first glance, but sparkles with colour on closer inspection.
In the Shaded Silver, all of the hairs are tipped with color at about the point where the agouti band would normally begin. As in the Chinchilla, both the ticked and the solid hairs turn light-colored before the point where the agouti band would begin, so the tabby pattern is not visible. However in the Shaded Silver, the coloured tips are long enough that the normal colour is clearly visible, particularly along the head and spine.
In the Silver Tabby, the ticked hairs are tipped with colour and then light-coloured below the tip, but the solid hairs have normal colouration. The tabby pattern is actually enhanced by the greater contrast between the almost-white ticked hairs and the full colour of the solid hairs.
The Smoke pattern results from the action of shading on a solid (non-agouti) coat. All of the hairs have full colour well beyond the point at which the agouti band would appear, and then turn into a near-white undercoat. Such a coat looks like a solid colour until you blow on it or the cat's movement reveals the contrasting white undercoat.
The same range of shadings can be seen with the Golden undercoat. These are called "Golden Chinchilla", "Shaded Golden", "Golden Tabby", and "Golden Smoke". Rather than the near-white of the Silvers, these have an undercoat that is described as warm cream or apricot.
The shaded patterns are most striking on the eumelanistic colours, because of the contrast, but they can also be applied to Red and Cream. These colours are sometimes called "cameos", but the names for the cameo colors can be equated to names commonly used for shaded eumelanistic colours:
- Shell Cameo = Red Chinchilla
- Shaded Cameo = Red Shaded Silver
- Cameo Tabby = Red Silver Tabby
- Smoke Cameo = Red Smoke
Since shading can be applied to both black-based and red-based colours, naturally it can be applied to tortoiseshell, dilute tortoiseshell, torbie, and dilute torbie.
In theory, Golden undercoats can be applied to the red-based colors, but it is debatable whether breeders will find that combination worthwhile. The lack of contrast in a Red Shaded Golden would make the effect of shading almost impossible to see. However, Golden can be seen in the undercoats of the black patches of a Tortoiseshell Shaded Golden or a Tortoiseshell Golden Chinchilla.
5. White Spotting
White spotting is a very common mutation that causes patches of white in what is called a "piebald" pattern. The range of variation is quite remarkable: from white toes, to white feet; a white streak on the nose or a white chin, to a white bib; a white belly and legs, to white over most of the body, leaving only a few patches of colour; or even a completely white coat.
White spotting can be thought of as a mask over the colour that the cat naturally carries. People who have cats with just small patches of tabby markings on the head and tail and white everywhere else tend to think of them as white cats, but they are really tabbies all over. The tabby pattern is simply hidden by the white spotting.
White spotting can occur in combination with any of the colors and patterns already described. The customary way of describing the pattern is to add "and White" to the name of the color and pattern of the cat. Thus, a "Red Mackerel Tabby" would become a "Red Mackerel Tabby and White" and a "Lilac" would become a "Lilac and White".
The "Tortoiseshell and White" is given a special name (in the US); it is called "Calico". Consequently, a "Blue-Cream and White" is sometimes called a "Dilute Calico".
The white spotting factor (S) is a dominant mutation with variable expression. Cats that are homozygous (S/S) tend to have more white area than cats that are heterozygous (S/s) for white spotting, but there are other modifying genes that can affect the degree of white spotting. Non-genetic variations have been noted. Some people have observed that the white area may increase as the cat gets older.
The white spotting factor can create blue-eyed or odd-eyed cats, if it reaches one or both eyes. The white spotting factor is associated with deafness, if the white areas reach the ears. Since it usually covers the eyes if it covers the ears, the deaf cats caused by white spotting frequently have blue eyes (but not always). The deafness may affect one or both ears. It is caused by a degeneration of the cochlea (inner ear) which begins a few days after birth. The deafness is irreversible.
Note that white spotting can be present on a cat that is also a dominant white. Of course, white spotting on white is invisible.
6. A Note about Genetic Notation
An individual cat has a pair of genes for each particular trait, one inherited from each parent. A true-breeding black cat would be symbolized by (B/B), and a chocolate (brown) cat would be (b/b). These are called homozygous because they have received the same gene from both parents. A black cat that carries the recessive gene for chocolate would be symbolized by (B/b) because is received different genes from its two parents.
A cat carrying a recessive trait, such as (B/b), is called heterozygous. It is indistinguishable from the homozygous individual, except through breeding experiments. When the presence of a dominant gene determines the visible trait, I have sometimes written the genotype in the form (B/-), where the dash indicates that the value of the second gene is unknown or does not affect the visible result.
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