What are the colors of cats: description, photo

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-15 22:35

There are a great many colors of cats, while the color of the "fur" is the result of genetics or the work of breeders. Even for those owners who do not want to connect their lives with exhibition activities, it is important to at least a little understand the question of what exactly gives the animal this or that shade. We offer you to get acquainted with the most common colors of cats, find out their names and some interesting facts.

Main options

There are several main varieties of pet colors:

• Solid (monochrome).
• Tubby.
• Silver (shaded).
• Color points.
• Tortoiseshell.

Let's get to know each of them in more detail.

Single color (solid)

A distinctive feature of this color of a cat is the uniformity of color, there are no patterns or spots on the coat. When preparing an animal for an exhibition, this coloring is the simplest, becauseit is visually easy to note whether the pet meets accepted standards. It is customary to single out “commercial colors” - those colors that are popular with a certain breed and outshine the rest. For example, the blue color of British cats is one of those. Other options are acceptable by the standards, but are not very popular with breeders and buyers.

Distinctive features are as follows:

• Even tone, no hint of pattern or blemish.
• Each hair is dyed evenly from root to tip, the color is the same everywhere.
• The color of the lips, paw pads, nose and eyelids matches the tone of the coat.

And if for owners this color of cats is the simplest, then for breeders it involves a lot of work, thanks to their efforts it is possible to obtain a shade that meets the standards.

Solid varieties

Do not think that black cats or anything else are boring and the same. Representatives of monochrome are also very diverse.

First of all, it is customary to distinguish three color options depending on the color saturation:

• Full.
• Diluted (M altese).
• Diluted modified (caramel). The main color is brown.

Classification is also possible by the color of the coloring pigment:

• Black (pigment is eumelanin).
• Red (faumelanin).
• Tortoiseshell (both pigments).
• White (pigment suppressed).

Colors,related to continuous, quite a lot. Here is a description of some of them.

• Ebony. The coat is completely black, the eyes of the animal are orange, green, copper. There is a red tint in the light.
• Chocolate (brown). The coat and nose of the cat are colored in a rich dark brown color, the eyes are most often orange.
• Cinnamon (cinnamon). This coloration is not recognized by the standards for thoroughbred animals.
• Gray (blue).
• Purple (lavender).
• Light purple (fawn or faun).

This is not an exhaustive list of variations, and new breeds are constantly emerging, so it is acceptable that colors will change as well.

Red Group

Getting a red or cream shade of solid color until the breeders succeeded, the animals are always tabby.

Most often, the red color is inherent in cats, since the red color gene is inherited from mother to son. The color is also called ginger, red or orange. The animal is characterized by copper-colored eyes, brick pads and a nose. Cream color is possible only in purebred animals, while apricot, on the contrary, is considered unacceptable for thoroughbreds.

Tubby

Otherwise, this color of cats is called "tabby". It is one of the most beautiful options, all kinds of patterns, spots, drawings are applied to the animal's fur. For some breeds, this may be an imitation of the skins of wild "relatives" - cheetahs, leopards, tigers. The secret of such an unusual color is the coloring of eachhairs in a special way, zoned - dark and light shades evenly alternate on one hair.

It is customary to distinguish 4 tabby colors, for convenience, the information is presented in the form of a table.

Name	Description	Examples of breeds
Brindle	Small thickness transverse stripes adorn the whole body A dark solid strip runs along the spine The tail and paws are decorated with thin rings	Black Tiger Siberian
Marble	Symmetrically arranged wide stripes, "necklace" on the chest. Sometimes - on the shoulder blades "wings", rings on the tail	British, Siberians
Spotted	The coat of the animal is decorated with numerous spots, while it is desirable that they be rounded and evenly scattered over the body. Both common and rare are acceptable	Orientals, mau
Abyssinian color	No clear pattern, may be separate stripes on the tail or muzzle. Each hair is dyed in zones	Abyssinian, British

Breeders have gone even further, creating amazingly beautiful colors, in which round rosettes adorn animal hair - dark spots, in which the middle is several tones lighter than the edging. Among thesecats are Bengal, very beautiful animals, the price of kittens is very high.

Shaded Silver

Among the colors of British and Persian cats is shaded, the specificity of which is that each hair is not completely colored, the lightest area is the base. You can also find the name of this color "chinchilla".

Several options are possible among the silver ones:

• Tabby. An unusual pattern is formed on the animal's fur due to the darkened tips.
• Smoky. The entire hair is dyed, in addition to the base.
• Smoky vice versa. The lightest color is the tip of the hair.

Cats with this color look very elegant.

Color points

Let's continue our consideration of the names of cat colors. Among the most interesting and attractive can be safely attributed color-points, in which dark fragments of wool (they are called points) are located on a light background. Such dark areas can be placed in various places of the cat's body. Within the standards, these can be:

• Ears.
• Tail.
• Muzzle.
• Paws.

The main color is acceptable different: brown, red, white. Some breeds have their own color name, for example, the Himalayan color is known.

With white fragments

Let's continue to consider cat breeds and colors. A whole group of animals belongs to the owners of amazingly beautiful wool, including various white spots, which can be both large and small. The cat itself is considered colored, and the snow-white fragments are nothing more than the absence of pigment. These color variations include harlequin (the cat is ¾ white), van (color spots less than 25%), bicolor (even distribution of dark and white). Also snow-white can be "socks", "medallion", "mask".

Tortoiseshell

The tortoiseshell color of cats is very popular, it is a combination of various spots: black and chocolate, red and cream with purple. A striking coat is created, so even, and covered with bizarre patterns - stripes, spots, "marbled".

Color allows for a huge number of variations, there are tortoiseshell bicolors, pointy, smoky. The breeds for which this color is the norm include Orientals, Bobtails, British.

Scottish and British Diversity

Let's consider the specifics of the colors of animals of different breeds, first of all, the colors of Scottish cats, of which there are several:

• Single color (white, black, purple, blue).
• Tubby (brindle, spotted, marbled, red, creamy blue, brown).
• Silver.
• Silver chinchilla.
• Smoky (black, blue, cameo).
• Shaded (gold and silver).
• Bicolor.
• Van.
• Harlequin.

All these colors of Scottish cats meet the standards, and therefore animals can take part in exhibitions.

And what variations are acceptable for the British? There are several of them:

• Single color blue, the classic variant for the breed, the coat is evenly colored, but a slightly lighter undercoat is acceptable. The skin is always blue. In the photo, the color of the British cat looks very beautiful.
• Lilac plain. It occurs infrequently, this is due to the absence of a special gene that gives an amazing coffee-pink color, so most often lilac kittens are born only in the catteries of the luckiest breeders. Animals are characterized by purple pads and nose, copper or orange eyes.
• Solid colors include chocolate, black, cinnamon, fawn, white.
• Tortoiseshell.
• Shaded silver and gold (including chinchilla).
• Color-point with a predominance of snow-white, the second color is most often gray or red. A distinctive feature of such animals is blue eyes.
• Tubby (marble, brindle).
• Colors with white fragments: bicolor, harlequin, van.

British tabbies are very beautiful, with amber or orange eyes and a dark area in the shape of the letter "M" on the forehead. The marble color of British cats is peculiar, spots in the form of circles are located on the sides, marks are obligatory on the cheeks and the back of the head, and two stripes adorn the back. This palette is highly valued by breeders.

In the photo you can see that the colorsBritish cats are very diverse. If you want to buy a kitten of a rare color, you should definitely get acquainted with the documentation, which will be provided in a reputable cattery without further ado. Belonging to one or another elite color among the British must be confirmed by a DNA test, especially for cinnamon and deer.

Lop-Eared

There are a lot of acceptable colors of lop-eared cats, first of all, they are monophonic (blue, black, lilac, white, chocolate), color-points, bicolors and marble tabby are no less popular. A few white hairs are acceptable for a black Scottish Fold kitten, but this exception is not made for chocolate and blue kittens.

Peach-cream folds are very beautiful, amber and orange eyes are possible for this color. A rare color is cinnamon, so the price of such a pet will be high.

White Scotties are cute and adorable, but potential owners should be aware that the animal is often hard of hearing or completely deaf. There are also harlequins, vans, ticked, tabby among the lop-eared.

Color-points are not common, but lop-eared kittens of this color look quite attractive. Blue, lilac, chocolate or red markings adorn the tail, paws and ears of the animal. And among the elite, rarest, is the color-point color with white.

Interesting facts

We invite you to get acquainted with some interesting facts about the color of cats andbreeds:

• It is very difficult to get a uniform red color, animal genetics hinders the desire of breeders to "dress" cats with the same amazing "fur coat" as foxes.
• White cats are "discolored" cats, their fur is not colored, but devoid of pigment.
• The tabby color is similar to a human fingerprint. It is impossible to meet two animals in which the colors would coincide completely, each cat is unique.
• Cat genetics allows you to predict the color of future kittens: the cat will repeat the colors of the mother, the cat will become the owner of a combined color, in which the features of the mother and father will be combined.
• Beautiful multi-colored color (tortoiseshell, topty point) is characteristic only of cats or sterile cats.
• The tiger tabby coloration is commonly called "whiskas" because kittens of this coloring took part in the advertising of the popular food.
• Tabby is a natural, natural, wild color that helps cats to camouflage and hunt. However, coloring does not have any negative effect on the nature of pets. It is also believed that cats of this color have the best he alth and longevity.

There are a huge number of colors of cats, we met with photos of many of them. On the video you can get acquainted with information about how the color of the pet affects the atmosphere in the home.

Some colors were bestowed by nature itself, others - appeared as a result of the work of breeders. There are few primary colors, but there are a lot of variations of their combination, so cats do notstop surprising us.