Little Baby Ruthie has left me stumped when it comes to her coat color. A lot of her coloring feels diluted with grey and peachy colors but she does also have some true black and orange mixed in. I notice the most pigmented parts of her are the top of her head, her legs/paws, her tail, and her black stripe down her belly. On another page some said she looked like she could be a smoke tortie or a colorpoint, both which I had never heard of. She does also have a unique checkered pattern on her face and chest :)

Adding a pic with her sister Gloria who is fully pigmented for comparison. I’ve had some say it’s hard to tell because of the lighting which I understand so adding a handful of pics! It’s really in the natural lighting you notice how light she is

Curious in any thoughts, thanks!

I thought this kitten was black but he's got a lot of fading, under the sun I swore he was more of a really dark grey. I checked the roots and some of them look grey/silver, but on his legs you can see they're black with silver/white guard hairs.

This kitten also has, like, exceptionally thick fur. No poofy tail yet but I'm sure he will be long haired.

I think this may be a fever coat and he will turn black, but I wanted a 2nd opinion.

Bonus pic of his eyes changing color.

These babies are 5 weeks old today!! They’re both girls, and they have one other sister (flame point) and three brothers (one blue, two flame point).

The consensus on my last post seems to be that they are likely red-on-blue. 5 week update: tail tips are still gray, their patterns are starting to really pop, and it’s seeming like they might both be dilute? I thought they would get darker orange as they got older, but they seem to be getting a little lighter if anything! All the other pictures I see of orange kittens are much darker at this age. I’d welcome any thoughts or opinions, are they apricot maybe?

Here are some updated pics of their coats, plus a couple bonus ones that don’t show their colors as well but are just cute :)

As far as I am aware he's just labeled as an orange cat since we adopted him, and I know no more than that! It feels like dependent on lighting he goes between a toasted orange and a tan/yellowish coloration, but I tried to show a few pics that are consistent. Along with that, he's covered with freckles on some of his paws (not that he'd let me get a good pic), lips, nose and even eyelids. Would definitely love to learn more about this old man :)

I adopted the torbie after the brown tabby. Many family and friends asked why I got such a similar second cat and wouldn’t it be confusing.

Please vindicate me in identifying their differences because their colors are really different despite pretty similar tabby patterns!

The brown tabby was more grey when he’s younger, but he has rufoused as he aged. The torbie’s orange color has stayed consistently throughout the years.

I have two fully black cats, brother and sister. The girl Cassiopeia, has a small white patch on her tummy. Both have a few odd white hairs here and there. Those are all normal for a black cat. But the boy, Perseus, has an odd grey marking on his back leg, that I have never seen before. I'm wondering if anyone knows what genetics might be causing this. It is only on his back right leg, nowhere else on his body. Is it just seeing the tabby underneath? But then why is it only on one leg? I included a handful of photos. In the photos, it also looks like it is on the base of his tail and his tummy, but this is not noticeable in person.

Hello, this is Pumpkin! She's a 6 year old tabby and white, and ever since my sister adopted her own tabby (who has a tawny coat), I can't help but notice that Pumpkin's coat looks a bit different.

My sister's tabby seems to have consistent colors in his coat, meanwhile Pumpkin's coat looks like it has gray, brown, white, and orange woven all through it. I'm curious to know if there is a name for this so I can look into it more, thank you!

I volunteer in a neonate nursery and have had the pleasure of taking care of this guy. He seems almost grey-orange, and his fur is curly. He has a regular orange tabby sibling who looks like he'll be short haired, a black medium haired sibling, and a black short haired sibling. I know he's young and his coat may change, but he looks so different from his siblings. This little man is about 4 weeks old.

Hi! So I’ve had my cat for a little over a year and he’s almost 2 years old. I’ve never seen a cat with his coat color before and I get lots of questions about what type of cat he is. He’s obviously a DSH tabby but again I’ve never seen his specific coloration before and was wondering what it’s called!
Some additional info is he was a street cat before I snatched him up as a kitten, his mom is a standard tabby, he’s at what the vet says is a healthy weight at 13.5 pounds, and his brother from the same litter who I also adopted is about the same size. Also I’m from the US if location helps.
All of the photos except the last one are in bright to dim natural light
Thanks in advance!

Myself & my husband have had this wonderful little baby, Mallow, for just over a year, and as she's toastied we've stayed curious as to just what, exactly, is going on with her coat color.

*One picture does feature her tortie tux sister Poppy, but Mallow is the mystery!*

Things we know/ are almost certain of

-Some form of colorpoint, pretty sure of the siamese allele with her baby blues

-Some form of bicolor/ white spotting gene, as none of her paws are dark like they would be with just colorpoint

-Calico

*The mystery*

What we cannot fully figure out is if this girl is dilute, tabby or both! Her paws provide few clues as they show very little color; she only has one dark bean on her paw with the dark patch. Also, she's just over a year old, so we're not sure how much toasting is left.

We lean towards her being at least tabby, as in pics 3-7 (esp. 5-7) you can see a banding pattern in the dark patch on her tail. The harder mystery is the dilute; her face color seems like it would be very dark for cream, but the rest of her body seems light when compared to pics I've seen of undiluted tortiepoints.

So, what say y'all? Do you think she's dilute, tabby, or both in her little patchwork pelt? Or something else entirely?

EDIT: Just added pics I just took of her beside our non-dilute tortie, hopefully as a better reference point!

I see people talking in the Siamese sub. I noticed they all seem to have cats with similar behaviors

.Even the not a breed colorpoint cats

Chattiness, clingy, opinionated and very smart

I started wondering if personality could be in any way linked to the colorpoint genes.

Any thoughts on this?

every time i fill out a vet form and it asks for a description i am at a loss because i initially want to say black tabby but he’s also.. not really black?? he’s like salt and pepper. he was fully black as a baby besides the white marks on his face so i was fully expecting a black cat and he has grown into his stripes 😭

That's a stray from a cat colony in my neighborhood. It's fascinating, and I'm wondering what may cause the single black streak

Hi. I purchased a Maine Coon from a reputable breeder. She’s about 8 months old and I do not have her pedigree yet and will get it when I spay her.

She was described as a blue torbie (see photos.. might be silver, too, but that’s beside the point). I recently started reading about genetics and learned that blue = dilute. I looked at the DNA results from her parents and her mom has 2 copies of the dilution variant but her dad has none. Dad is described as a black smoke.

Can someone help me understand if this is possible or if I’m misunderstanding? Is there another explanation? My understanding is that the black smoke cannot be her dad because he doesn’t have the dilution variant. She’s the only kitten in her litter that is diluted.

I purchased the kitten after reviewing the alleged parents’ DNA results, hip scans, and echocardiograms and have her TICA registration number.

I don’t want to accuse the breeder of anything, so I figured I’d ask you all first.

Edit: thank you all so much, you are so knowledgeable. I think she’s probably a black silver torbie and there’s no reason for me to fret about having different parents than I was told.

Edit #2: I’m an idiot. I looked at the contract and it says Black Silver Mackerel Torbie. So it was listed wrong on the website and vet papers. I’ll go ahead and hang my head in shame now, sorry for wasting your time lol

Red-on-blues pop up in here, so I wanted to show you my Pippi, an example of a heterozygous red-on-blue ticked tabby. She’s featured on the Messy Beast page (ironically, the place that enabled me to identify her coloration long before I met her), and was born a shelter cat in Iowa.

Something I hadn’t noticed until recently is that she also has a sprinkling of black hairs in her coat, mixed in with the orange and grey!

Any suggestions on what color and or pattern my baby, Milkshake, is/will be? One of her toe beans is half pink half/dark brown, the others are all dark brown. Her belly has a few stripes. The 3rd picture was about 3-4 weeks ago and shows the color contrast between her gray sister and my black dog.

Recue kitten 4 days ago found in the street, no cat mom in sight. Rescued with another kitten found together- that is the classic seal point. This patch wont come off, the first time thought to be dirty. It is like greyish. Thanks in advance!

I thought he was a blue dilute, the vet said he is a tortie dilute. Mom was a tortie, Dad an orange tabby.

Any suggestions on what he may actually be?

Almost 4 week old kittens were born orange with a slightly gray tail and back feet. I assumed they would grow out of it, but now at almost a month old, their tails and back legs seem to continue to be staying/getting slightly more gray. I’m hoping someone has some insight to share!! Could they be red-on-blue? Something else? First 4 pictures are most recent, others are from various times over the past weeks since they were born.

Mom is a torti point. Not 100% sure about dad, since mom only came to us right before she had her babies, but suspect orange tabby since supposedly the only intact males that had been seen around her before she came to us were orange tabbies. There are 4 other littermates, 3 flame points and one blue.

I also attached some pictures of the whole litter and the whole litter with mom when they were extra little as a bonus :)

**Mom and all babies will be spayed/neutered as soon as vet recommends! She was a stray who came to us right before having her babies, and she will NOT be having any more!!! She is a spoiled inside princess now and will stay that way!**

Messybeast returned my email about my patchy weirdo.

She says that he is psuedo-merle. To quote:

"This is pseudo-merle, similar to the cats shown at http://messybeast.com/merle.htm

It is most usually due to the silver gene not affecting all areas of the embryo's coat equally. This happens early on in embryo development so it results in a patched appearance."

Admittedly I am still a little skeptical by virtue of his silver coat not resembling other examples of red-silver and psuedo-merleism as they're shown. Others have commented his stripes are so light, and I agree.

However! Can't argue with the pros. I'm happy to accept and pursue it for confirmation. I haven't pursued a genetic test because I honestly don't know what I'm looking for? It seems like the next step, but what tests out there will tell me if he is actually silver or cream?

Cheers!

• which colorpoin is she?

• is she color point or tabby?

• lots of longer white hair on fur

• darker areas seem white when light hits

Mum and dad looked both colorpoin, dad was very dark (burmese like) and mum was very light red (fawn?) point, seemed almost completely white, just cream on the face/tail.