Calling all color experts

A long time ago when she was just a wee baby, I asked about Molly's coloring here...but now that she is seven months old and her colors are coming out more, I am very curious about just what to call them! She still has the dark gray points, but now has developed stronger tabby markings on her whole body that are more of a creamy color. Her eyes are still blue, too. Here are the most recent pics I have of her:





Also, does anyone know what makes a cat's eyes appear crossed at times? Is it just the different coloring that makes her eyes look like they are crossing, or are some cats actually cross-eyed? I'm wondering if this affects her vision somewhat because she does not play the same way as her siblings.

I would go with Chocolate Mac Tabby. Don't let the "points" fool you!

OHHH geez - she's one of those cats that is really mixed up and colorwise doesn't fit the norm....

She is tabby point if she still has blue eyes (at least that part is correct), but the color is really strange. Almost a cinnamon, chocolate or caramel color stripes. At first I'd call her a brown tabby point, but the body color doesn't match the brown tabby coloring.

IMO I'd put her in a cat show in the household pet class and have judges look at her and tell you what color. I'd be curious to know.

Originally Posted by Cocoa Cream

are some cats actually cross-eyed? I'm wondering if this affects her vision somewhat because she does not play the same way as her siblings.

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Crossed eyes show up sometimes in Siamese, I have no idea if it affects vision.

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

OHHH geez - she's one of those cats that is really mixed up and colorwise doesn't fit the norm....

She is tabby point if she still has blue eyes (at least that part is correct), but the color is really strange. Almost a cinnamon, chocolate or caramel color stripes. At first I'd call her a brown tabby point, but the body color doesn't match the brown tabby coloring.

IMO I'd put her in a cat show in the household pet class and have judges look at her and tell you what color. I'd be curious to know.

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That would be interesting to put her in a cat show...but I am totally clueless about showing cats! I have a feeling she'd handle well, though, as she will always let new people pick her up and pet her without a fuss.

I agree that she really is mixed up...that's why she has me all mixed up! If you were here in person you could see that even in different lights her colors shift. Sometimes I think I see areas that are more of a lilac color on her back and hips, but then her stripes are more caramel with the off-white in between. Her points seem to be almost black. Her brother and sister are pretty normal black/brown mackerel tabbies. Her mother (semi-feral, seen only briefly from a distance) appeared to be a brown mac tabby as well. We have no clue about the father, though.

Here are some better pics I took today in natural light.

She has the same colouring as a lot of snow bengals (not the same pattern though, she's tabby rather than spotted).

She's not a chocolate tabby, she's definately pointed.

She probably has a tonkinese type pointing gene rather than the siamese which explains why her stripes show through as much as they do.

ETA: Just to add. I'm not saying she's a bengal mix at all. It's more that the Bengal breed is one area where mixing together tabby patterns and the pointed patterns is being worked on with the eye of minimising the contrast between the body colour and the points.

Which is why you'll see a similar colour there on some cats as on your gorgeous Molly. This type of colouring and contrast can and does pop up in random bred cats (clearly) and in fact got into the bengal breed from domestic cats.

Btw I found a photo of a snow bengal with a similar colouring here: You can see that cat has a similar black tail tip but caramel stripes on his front legs etc.

Ok, I'll buy that - but what color would she be if you don't think she's a chocolate?

I don't really have a colour name.

Again clearly not chocolate since the tail tip is black and the chocolate gene will change all the black in a cat to the chocolate colour.

I'd say tabby point I guess. Except this is a type of tabby point that has not as much contrast between the body colour and the point so the stripes show up much more than in the well bred Siamese style tabby points.

Maybe we can coin a new colour name. Snow Tabby!

Although to be less flip. How blue are her eyes? Are they more of an aqua blue than a bright intense blue?

She might be effectively a tabby mink with aqua eyes. Like the tonkinese mink colour, only it's on a tabby cat rather than a solid coloured cat

I vote for new "color" - Mink Tabby Point

Good call. I like Mink Tabby Point it explains the colour and seems right.

I think she looks like a seal tabby point. Most purebreds are bred to have a good contrast between points and body, keeping the body as white and free of pattern as possible. But in randombred cats it doesn't have to be so, they can have more color break through on the body.
The color of the stripes is modified by the point gene, that's why they are brown instead of black.

I don't think she's chocolate, her tail tip looks black to me, not choc. Her brothers are blacktabby too, not choc.

Mink, could be, but I've seen pointed cats look like this too.

Are her eyes really blue or more the aquamarine you see with mink cats ?

Siggav, thanks for the photo link! Those kittens do look very similar to Molly in coloring! Her eyes are actually fairly light blue, perhaps a hint of aqua, but certainly not bright blue. I like the idea of a "new" color, and I'm sure Molly would, too! Mink Tabby Point it is!

I just found this bengal breeder's photos to be very helpful. The Seal Linx Point color development is also very similar to Molly's. Of course, I know she's not a bengal, but she obviously carries some of the same genes for color! Now I'm wondering how much darker her markings are going to get as she grows.

I'd definately call her a seal tabby point. It's not impossible that she's mink but I think it's more likely she's colorpoint. Only DNA-test will tell for sure.

This is the kind of problem that occur when cats aren't color bred. It can be very hard to distinguish a colorpoint from a mink. In the Devon Rex we see judges making mistakes on this so it really can be hard.

This boy is a seal tabby mink (determined by DNA-test).





Based on my experience in non color bred Devon Rexes I'd call her a seal tabby point.

She looks a lot like my brother's cat Smokey. He was 5-6 years old in this picture and had gotten quite a bit darker than when he was young. Of course, this doesn't help any, since we've no idea what color Smokey was either