Tortoiseshell Cat Skin ?

merlin2000

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Is the Tortoiseshell pattern in the cats skin ?

I've been looking at Tippi's shaved patch after her spaying and she appears to have a Tortoiseshell skin , I thought it was the fur that carried the colour ?

Sorry if I am been a bit thick here , but I am confused by what I am seeing
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Norachan

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Yes, cat's skin is usually a pretty close colour to the colour of their fur. My tabby cats have all got stripes on their skin and the black and white cats are grey under the black fur and pink under the white.

Pretty cool, huh? 

How did the spay go? Does she seem OK?
 
GemsGem

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Yes the hair shaft can have different bands of colour. This is because your girl has the tabby pattern. The agouti gene is responsible for creating the tabby pattern.

Agouti refers to several bands of colour ( ticking) on a single hair. Which if you like creates the tabby pattern on the coat. A cat with the agouti gene will be expressing some form of tabby pattern, and a cat that doesn't have the agouti gene will be solid coloured.

If you look at pictures of the sphynx breed of cat ( the hairless cats ) they show you just what cats look like underneath all that fur. They come in all colours and their skin colour shows exactly what colour hair they would have if they were to grow some.
 
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Do you know what colour Smoke skin would be? Rhys looks black, and his lips, nose and paw-pads are black. But his undercoat is pure white. Do you think his skin would be white or black/grey? l can't tell from parting it - maybe l should shave a small patch.
 
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merlin2000

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GemsGem said:
Yes the hair shaft can have different bands of colour. This is because your girl has the tabby pattern. The agouti gene is responsible for creating the tabby pattern.

Agouti refers to several bands of colour ( ticking) on a single hair. Which if you like creates the tabby pattern on the coat. A cat with the agouti gene will be expressing some form of tabby pattern, and a cat that doesn't have the agouti gene will be solid coloured.

If you look at pictures of the sphynx breed of cat ( the hairless cats ) they show you just what cats look like underneath all that fur. They come in all colours and their skin colour shows exactly what colour hair they would have if they were to grow some.
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I looked at some sphynx cats , it was very helpful . So it's a combination of both gene and skin colour that gives you the colour of your cat
 
GemsGem

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Merlin2000 said:
I looked at some sphynx cats , it was very helpful . So it's a combination of both gene and skin colour that gives you the colour of your cat :)
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It's quite hard to explain but a cat's eye, coat and skin colour(s) are all linked together. The colour(s) a cat will be is determined by the amount of pigmentation the cat inherits through different genes - there's a lot of different genes involved with the final colour a cat will be.

Here's a link that I hope explains its a bit better than I can

http://pets.thenest.com/skin-pigmentation-cats-11322.html
 
GemsGem

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Andrya said:
Do you know what colour Smoke skin would be? Rhys looks black, and his lips, nose and paw-pads are black. But his undercoat is pure white. Do you think his skin would be white or black/grey? l can't tell from parting it - maybe l should shave a small patch.
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I'm not really sure to be honest. But I would guess that Rhys would look like he had a sort of colour point pattern going on if he was shaved lol :lol3:

Meaning his face, ears, tail, feet and bottom of legs would be black/grey colour skin and the trunk of his body would be much lighter coloured skin. :D


I'm not sure on this but this seems be the most logical idea of what a smoke's skin would look like.
 
GoldyCat

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Interesting question. I had to go check it out. I have a black smoke & white DSH and a blue smoke & white DSH. They both have very light skin under the smoke parts as well as under the white parts.
 
happybird

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I have always thought it is neat when I blow on Frannie's fur. It is so much lighter underneath and makes a bullseye pattern. Unfortunately, she doesn't think my blowing on her fur is neat. :lol3: Her skin is striped and very pretty. My torbie, Wheezie, has patched and striped skin and I love checking it out while I brush her. It's cool. :D
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mrsfpmister

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My cat had part of his shoulder, chest, and leg shaved for surgery, and I never knew the stripe patterns were also on skin till then! He's a red mackerel tabby :)
Funny I'm not then only one curious about this!
 
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