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What's the difference between Blue and Silver?

post #1 of 13
8/7/10 at 1:25pm
Thread Starter 
Okay, I know that Blue is the dilute of Black and Silver is an absence of color, but how do you tell the difference by just looking at a cat? To the general (uninformed) population, they are both gray cats.

This little girl from the shelter is what I would call a blue classic tabby.



This fellow is the one I have questions about. Could he be considered a silver tabby?


I know the flourescent lighting in the room and difference in computer monitors can make it difficult to tell the actual color. In person he has absolutely no red or brown tints on him that I can see.
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post #2 of 13
8/7/10 at 4:46pm
I can't help you with the colors, but boy are they ever cute!! This is why I don't know that I could ever volunteer at a shelter. I'd have a hundred cats in the blink of an eye.
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post #3 of 13
8/7/10 at 6:01pm
I don't know the technical terms, but I'd call the top one gray and the bottom one silver. I don't know that general population would think that blue is a cat color.
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post #4 of 13
8/7/10 at 6:45pm
The second one isn't silver, it's a blue mackerel tabby. The different tabby patterns affect the colour.

I specialise in breeding blues and silvers - I'll show you some pics

Here's my Blue Silver Classic Tabby Bicolour - for silver notice the frown marks on the head



Here's a Blue Tabby Bicolour I've bred - he's got a warmer colour (the addition of white usually brings more oatmeal colour to the blue taby coat)



Blue Van of mine - really dark blue here



Another Blue tabby bicolour



Black silver tabby





Blue Silver Tabby van




I've got 100's more photos but hopefully these help with the comparisons
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post #5 of 13
8/7/10 at 8:14pm
okay persians always make me laugh! They just look disgruntled so often!

All of them are adorable, both the shelter kitties and the show kitties, thats all I have to say!
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post #6 of 13
8/7/10 at 8:25pm
Thread Starter 
Sorry, Sam, the pictures really didn't help much. I'm still not seeing exactly what makes one cat blue and another silver. And you have one listed as a black silver and one as a blue silver. What does that mean? I guess I was thinking blue and silver were mutually exclusive, although I don't know where I got that idea.
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post #7 of 13
8/7/10 at 9:50pm
I realised I didn't exactly answer the question - silver comes in all sorts of colours - black, red, blue, cream, lilac, chocolate. Blue is a solid colour, whereas silver also comes in smoke, cameo, shaded, tabby. Silver cats have a very distinctive undercoat - almost white. That's the determining factor. To understand silver cats, it would probably be best to do a google search for the genetics of silver, instead of me regurgitating information.

I guess what I was trying to show from the photos that silver comes in lots of different colours. Heck I even have a Blue Cream Silver Makerel Tabby Bicolour! and also the difference between silvers and blue tabbies, like the 2nd example you posted.
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post #8 of 13
8/7/10 at 9:52pm
To find silver on a cat (it's not the most common colour in the domestic cat population) you look on the ears for white under the colour, on the top of the head, all through the fur. It's hard to find on some cats who are "low grade". It's also easy breeding pedigrees because we know straight away. It can be hard on blue tabbies to distinguish between the ivory undercoat and a silver undercoat however.
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post #9 of 13
8/7/10 at 10:06pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by WellingtonCats View Post
To find silver on a cat (it's not the most common colour in the domestic cat population) you look on the ears for white under the colour, on the top of the head, all through the fur. It's hard to find on some cats who are "low grade". It's also easy breeding pedigrees because we know straight away. It can be hard on blue tabbies to distinguish between the ivory undercoat and a silver undercoat however.
Okay, that's making a little more sense. But now I want to know what's the difference between silver and smoke?
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post #10 of 13
8/7/10 at 10:25pm
see, i've always considered Cable a black/silver tabby [DSH] but she does have some 'tarnishing' on her tummy. Mouse, otoh, was most definitely blue.
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post #11 of 13
8/7/10 at 10:31pm
Can't help with the colors. All I can say is that both the cats are gooooorgeous (as are Sam's cats, of course).
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post #12 of 13
8/8/10 at 3:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by GoldyCat View Post
Okay, that's making a little more sense. But now I want to know what's the difference between silver and smoke?
Silver and smoke are caused by the same gene, the inhibitor gene which inhibits the production of pigment and causes the underside of the hair shaft to be without pigment which causes a white/silver color. You could say smoke is a form of silver.

You call a cat smoke when the cat is not a tabby and has the inhibitor/silver gene. When the cat is a tabby and has the inhibitor gene you use the word silver.
Black cat + silver = smoke
Blacktabby cat + silver = silvertabby

Shaded silvers and chinchillas are also tabbies but in those cats the silver covers more of the hair shaft than with a silver tabby, it only leaves a bit of color in the tip of the hair.
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post #13 of 13
8/8/10 at 1:23pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mimosa View Post
Silver and smoke are caused by the same gene, the inhibitor gene which inhibits the production of pigment and causes the underside of the hair shaft to be without pigment which causes a white/silver color. You could say smoke is a form of silver.

You call a cat smoke when the cat is not a tabby and has the inhibitor/silver gene. When the cat is a tabby and has the inhibitor gene you use the word silver.
Black cat + silver = smoke
Blacktabby cat + silver = silvertabby

Shaded silvers and chinchillas are also tabbies but in those cats the silver covers more of the hair shaft than with a silver tabby, it only leaves a bit of color in the tip of the hair.
I learn something new every day. Thanks.

I started doing a little research on smokes a few months ago after a judge told me that Miss Patchwillow is a smoke. Somehow the term silver never came up in that. I thought it was a separate color description.

One time a judge mentioned that she wanted to use Cali to demonstrate the silver pattern, but Cali was so scared the judge didn't want to handle her any more than necessary. (I don't take Cali to shows any more). Hey, she's got just about every other color/pattern under the sun, why not add silver to the mix. Another judge told me that technically she could be considered a brown patched mackerel ticked tabby. I guess I'll have to take a closer look to see if I can find where the judge was seeing silver on her.
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