Anyone know anything about albinism?

Do you have any pictures?

Basically as you said there are different types/degrees of albinism, and they can have varying amounts of pigment.

I think this has a fairly good explanation of how this works:

http://www2.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF8/836.html

I believe it is possible for Siamese to have pink eyes rather than blue, although it is not common.

Also wanted to mention that Siamese cats are also born white.

The snowshoe pattern basically involves a cat who has both the genes for the color-point pattern and also the gene for white spotting. 

Hi! I really dont know any thing about albinism, but I also had a kitten that was born white, and developed color point over time, but his were flame points.  He has blue eyes that glow pink or red.  They are not always pink though.  His mama was a tortie, and none of the other kittens looked like him (they were tortie, black, and ginger tabby). I didnt know who the father was.  Theres a thread in this forum a few posts down from this one that explained to me why he got the color pattern he did, even if his mama or dad were not siamese.  That may also explain why your kitten turned out they way he did, even though you havent seen any cats in your area that look like her. The thread is titled somthing like "what is the most common color for a domestic shorthair".  There is a pic at the end of my flamepoint male, but heres a pic of his eyes looking red.  Sorry I didnt exactly answer your question, but I just related to your story.  

Colourpoint (Siamese pattern) cats have blue eyes that very often look pink in photos, especially if a flash is used.  They are born white and colour gradually develops on the points which are the coldest bits of the kitten.

There are several degree of albinism in cats namely Burmese pattern, Siamese pattern, blue-eyed albino and pink-eyed albino.  Of course there is the normal version as well, no albinism.

The normal version of the gene is fully dominant over all the others, but Burmese is not fully domininant over Siamese hence Tonkinese cats.

As your photo shows, coloupoint cats can also have the white spotting gene hence the white blase on your cat's face.  She's the same colour genetics as a Snowshoe or mitted Ragdoll though obviously not either.

The true albino versions are very rare - almost all white cats you see about are the result of a different gene, the Dominant White gene.  If a cat has one copy it can have both white and coloured kittens, if it has two copies all it's kittens will be white.  These cats are often born with a smudge of colour on their head showing what the underlying colour is, but it gradually fades over a few months.  The Foreign White is a Siamese cat with one or two copies of this gene.

There was a very famous 'white siamese' way back which was actually a blue-eyed albino - recessive white.  The cat's name was Anarts Miko and he was imported into the UK from the US.  However this is undesirable - like all albinos there are various health problems - and the gene was gradually eradicated.  This was done by breeding self-colour possible carrier to Siamese cats from other lines without the recessive white.  Any self-coloured kittens couldn't be carrying it, and were the cats kept to breed from.  The reason they couldn't carry is is that the possible carrier self cat would have the genotype Cx where x could be a recessive white.  The Siamese were CsCs, so any self kittens had to be CCs.  Any Siamese kittens could be CsCs, or Csx.

BTW Modern Siamese shouldn't have kinks in their tails or crossed eyes.

PS below I have taken a photo of a friends Siamese cat that shows her wonderful eye colour.  In the photo above the shadows show light is coming from the right of the photographer, behind them, so some of it is reflecting from the back of the cat's eyes.  If the light is coming from behind the cat then so long as there is enough light the colour will show.

In the photo it looks like her eyes are blue around the edges? Are her irises pink or blue?

She's very pretty! If she's outgoing I would suggest you might like to enter her in some cat shows. The show judges also might be able to help you figure out some more about her possibly genetics.

I don't know if you read the "What is the most common color/marking combination for a Domestic Shorthair?" thread, but I posted a few photos of a kitten I rescued in there... She was a lynx-point, but her siblings were regular tabbies. They were feral kittens born in my neighborhood, I also have never seen any Siamese strays/ferals around here before or since.

Her irises are exactly as the photo shows - a good blue.  The pupils in the middle are black unless light reflects when they will look somewhat pink.  The room wasn't particularly bright so her pupils have opened a little leading to 'looking blue round the edge'.

She has been shown to no great effect, and we know what her genetics are - she's a well-bred Seal-point siamese who might have carried chocolate.  However since she's been neutered it's a moot point.  All her siblings were Seal-point as well, as her mother was homozygous for black.

Quote:

Originally Posted by OrientalSlave 

Her irises are exactly as the photo shows - a good blue.  The pupils in the middle are black unless light reflects when they will look somewhat pink.  The room wasn't particularly bright so her pupils have opened a little leading to 'looking blue round the edge'.

Sorry, I mean my reply to be about the OP's cat.

My lilac point BSH used to have eyes that reflected very easily, my black silver shaded point doesn't have that much light sensitivity. Genetically they are the same though.

Casper  in poor day light (no flash), his pupils actually look like they match his nose :D

Luna in bright day light

Luna with flash

Quote:

Originally Posted by MommyTuTu 

My cat has very pale blue irises, I didn't really think to mention that, but it does show A BIT in the picture I posted. I wanted to thank everyone for all the responses, I'm still not sure what to make of her but it's nice to hear some input. I really don't know what the difference between having red pupils and having pupils that "glow red" would be but my husband seems to think they just glow red. I just know that albinos eyes look red in the middle because there's no pigment to stop the reflection of the blood vessels so I don't really understand how they could be more red... but I guess that's just me, so I asked my husband's opinion. I guess I'm just too technical because I kept telling him "but all color is the reflection of light". Her irises though, I can definitely say they ARE blue, have been since birth.

The difference between the two would be that having red pupils, the pupils are always red - no matter lighting, flash (when taking a photo), etc. That is the actual colour of the pupil. Pupils that glow red are not actually red, rather when light hits them from a certain angle they appear to be red. Think red eye in photos, it most commonly happens with people with blue eyes because it's easier for the light to reflect off of the blood vestles in the back of the eye. 

The pupil doesn't have a colour in itself - it's the gap in the iris that lets light through the cornea and lens into the eye.  Any apparent colour is reflected from the back of the eye.  The iris of course is pigmented.  Milky eyes happen when the lens goes cloudy - a cateract.  And the same can happen I believe if the cornea is damaged.

Quote:

Originally Posted by OrientalSlave 

The pupil doesn't have a colour in itself - it's the gap in the iris that lets light through the cornea and lens into the eye.  Any apparent colour is reflected from the back of the eye.  The iris of course is pigmented.  Milky eyes happen when the lens goes cloudy - a cateract.  And the same can happen I believe if the cornea is damaged.

Oops, I meant iris, lol. It's been a long day so far, my brain isn't functioning correctly, lol. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by MommyTuTu 

My cat has very pale blue irises, I didn't really think to mention that, but it does show A BIT in the picture I posted. I wanted to thank everyone for all the responses, I'm still not sure what to make of her but it's nice to hear some input. I really don't know what the difference between having red pupils and having pupils that "glow red" would be but my husband seems to think they just glow red.

The difference is that in "true" albinos the iris is often red or pink. In Siamese or other blue-eyed cats, the iris is blue but the pupil glows pink or red if light hits it. The albino has pink eyes, the Siamese has blue eyes. That's the difference. So your cat would not be considered to have pink eyes, because the eye color refers to the iris color not the pupil color. I'm pretty sure all blue-eyed cats have pupils that can reflect pink/red?

Quote:

Originally Posted by MommyTuTu 

Thanks again for all the responses! This cat definitely has red pupils though, it's not just when light hits it from certain angles. I mean if you back-light her and look her straight on it may look almost like they're black, but I could do the same trick with a Coke can. I also know that albinos typically have blue eyes (irises) rather than red, and from what I read that's even more true in cats.

"Feline geneticist Don Shaw, writing in Cats Magazine, September 1972 to February 1973, looked into the so-called Albino Siamese and wrote that not all so called Albino Siamese were true genetic albinos and that many are blue-eyed whites of Siamese type (what we now call Foreign Whites). However, some Albino Siamese had pinkish-blue eyes rather than the clear blue of other blue-eyed white breeds. His research found that early registrations of "Albino Siamese" mentioned "Chinese Whites" - reportedly cats of Asian origin with Malay type and apparently blue-eyed whites having the piebald (white spotting) gene. Unlike other albino animals, the cat's eye structure always gave bluish tone, even to the pink or ruby eyes normally associated with albino animals; this made true albinism in cats difficult to detect."

I found one article saying that they really haven't studied albino cats enough to know a whole lot about them, I guess that's part of my problem. This is the bit that had me somewhat confused to begin with:

"Albino is generally thought of as pure white, but the situation in cats is more complex. There are five known alleles for albinism: blue-eyed albino ("c^a"), pink-eyed albino ("c"), Burmese pattern ("c^b"), Siamese pattern ("c^s")and full colour (non-albino, "C"). Full colour is dominant to all of the other four alleles. Burmese pattern is incompletely dominant to Siamese pattern; cats that inherit one of each of those genes will be intermediate in pattern and is known as Tonkinese. A quirk of the Siamese form of albinism is that it is temperature dependent with warm areas of the body being paler than cooler areas. For this reason, it is often described as "colour restriction" rather than albinism. Pink-eyed albino appears to be recessive to all of the other albino mutations. Albinism is not linked to deafness in cats ("dominant white" (W) is the gene linked to deafness)."

Mainly in that knowing Siamese don't have the red pupils, which my cat does, yet it also seems like she has the "colour restriction" as they call it here. I'm just going to stick with telling everyone I have a black and white albino cat. Whatever she is, she's got a wonderful personality, I just hope she doesn't have any serious health problems. I've always been sort of interested in getting an albino pet but never did because of the health concerns. I just really wish I knew more, I'd love to find a vet who could learn something from her but I'm definitely not interested in turning her over to any scientist. She's a great pet and a nice conversation piece! Except that I don't really know what to tell people about her. ^_^

It would have been helpful if he had listed the types of albinoism in a slightly different order - pink eyed albino, blue-eyed albino, siamese, burmese and full colour.  From most albino to not an albino at all.  Otherwise the article is accurate.

I'm absolutely sure your cat is siamese pattern with white spots.  There are quite a few pedigree breeds where this pattern appears - Ragdoll, Birman, Snowshoe, some Oriental bicolours and I can imagine there are other breeds I haven't heard of with it.  Compare the photo of your cat with NorthernGlow's Lilac-point BSH and you can see the same thing going on - relatively pale irises and a red tinge to the pupils.

Pedigree cats are selectively bred for better iris colour (among other things), but in moggies this hasn't happened and the iris is often rather pale (it is in blue-eyed albinos as well) and I suspect it's not as light blocking as in a normal cat, so that tiny bit of light leaking through gives the red tinge to the pupils you see unless the light is optimal.

Also the genetics of cats is far better understood than 30 years ago, in common with all animals.  There are a number of gene tests now for cats including for PKD (inherited kidney disease) and some of the coat colours.

The  white patches are inherited completely independantly from the siamese pattern.

Here's another pic of Casper, it's also taken without flash and you can see his pupil is not black. The only fault judges ever mentioned him having was too pale eye color. It's very common in BSHs for the blue to be very pale, the color point is still quite new and rare in the breed so it needs a lot of work to get the eye color deeper.

And one more pic, daylight, no flash

Glad that makes sense.  The other thing about the siamese pattern is the fur is darker on the colder parts of the body.  The kittens are born white, the colour develops on their tails, noses and ears first.  They gradually get darker as they get older, and if they have to be shaved for an operation that grows in dark at first.  How dark they eventually get depends on what sort of temperatures they are kept in, and on their genetic makeup.  I'm not saying there are lots of versions of the siamese gene - there isn't - but other genes affect how dark they get.

If you look on this page you can see some top quallity Siamese and Orientals and you can see how dark Mylynn Montoya is.  He's a working stud, 8 years old I think (maybe more), and an incredibly calm lad.  His ears aren't quite as low set as in the piccie though!

http://www.siamese-cat-breeder.co.uk/trans-pennine-2011-show-results.php

And another page with lots of top-quality cats:

http://www.tposcc.co.uk/halloffame.php

If you look down to Anna-k CH Seido Sutress of Swing you can see in the second picture what beautiful eye colour she has.

BTW the bars are because the cats are in show pens, but as you can see they look relaxed and happy.