Albino Cat

From my understanding siamese cats ARE albino's. There are in the albino gene series, but the gene isn't fully expressed. So really there are various 'grades' of albinism. Also, siamese cats have very little pigment in their eyes.

About eyes:
http://www.oldstylesiamese.com/siameye1.html

About albino series:
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF8/836.html

I've seen some pretty DEEP blue/purple eye color in siamese

But then I've seen light blue. The lighter the blue in any white cat, the less pigment and more lite sensitive problems.

Those deep blue eyes are stunning!

But the article on eyes says that the more pigment a meezer has in its eyes, the lighter their eyes would be. I get how they explain it, but it just seems so backwards.

Weird, that doesn't make sense to me

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

I've seen some pretty DEEP blue/purple eye color in siamese

But then I've seen light blue. The lighter the blue in any white cat, the less pigment and more lite sensitive problems.

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Bijou and Mika both have the deep blue (none of our photos are touched up - that is the true colour of their eyes).

I adore white kitties - they are so majestic looking IMO.

Hi all,

I own an albino cat (vet confirmed) he is quite something! His name is Bunny and he is the sweetest cat ever but man oh man is he ever smart......wherever you don't want him to do he is doing it! He is the sweetest smartest cat I have ever owned and I would not give him up for the world You do have to be careful with them in the sunlight. I let Bunny sunbathe under a chair usually. He does not go outside (neither of my cats do) It is better this way. He does seem to be more fragile than my Calico. ]
His eyes are always red in the "black" part......even out of pictures.





Julia

Oh my goodness, that is the most striking pair of eyes I've ever seen!!

How does the vet determine if your cat is an albino or not? Looks to me like a normal blue eyed white cat - just light blue eye color. And most BEW will have some extent of red in the eyes. Spooky had red in his eyes at times (not just in pictures) and he was NOT an albino - he was a normal BEW.

Well in reply to your post....I didn't question the vet at the time because I just brushed off the idea but I thought about it later and realized that Bunny is a rare cat. About the how do you know if it's albino question :

"ALBINO CATS

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 ("ca"), pink-eyed albino ("c"), Burmese pattern ("cb"), Siamese pattern ("cs")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).

Cited from : http://www.messybeast.com/whitecat.htm

Also....he is not just a normal cat with blue eyes because the red in his eyes in those pictures is always present. The camera definately accentuates it but it is always present...he is really quite a rare find

I took him from the animal shelter because they were going to put him down due to respitory illness but I convinced them to let me take him anyways (they were afraid of having a returned animal I guess) He is all better now and has been dubbed as "Denis the Menace" due to his blue eyes and vivid personality.

Interesting thanks.

Actually, this is very cool. I saw an albino dog in PetSmart the other day - I think the gentleman said it was a Maltese - small fluffy dog, of course all white fur. Its nose was a bright bubblegum pink, which is why I noticed it in the first place. I couldn't see the eyes, but the gentleman confirmed it for me.

He said he has to be very careful with the dog out in the sun -puts sunblock on that pink eraser nose, etc.

Originally Posted by Cooie

If a cat has ANY color to his eyes, he is not an albino.

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Actually, that is not quite correct. An albino cat can have pale blue eyes, it is just not common.

I own a 20 week old pure white Devon Rex girl with blue eyes and she has excellent hearing :-)

Interesting information on white cats and deafness:

There is an established link between the white coat color, blue eyes and deafness. The deafness is linked to the gene for blue-eye(s) and not to odd-eyed cats. Not all blue-eyed whites will be deaf since there are several different genes causing the same physical attributes (whiteness, blue-eyedness) so it all depends on the cat's genotype (its genetic make-up) not its phenotype (its physical appearance). Some people claim that 99% of blue-eyed white cats are deaf. This is inaccurate because blue-eyedness and whiteness can both be caused by different genes. It all depends on what genes the cat has inherited. These are the actual figures from scientific studies around the world. The percentages are given in ranges because results are different in different areas, partly because of the different genes found in the cat population. Where a cat is classed as deaf, the deafness may affect one or both ears.95% of the general cat population is non-white cats (i.e. not pure white) and congenital deafness is extremely rare in non-white cats.

Of those white cats with one or two blue eyes, 60-80% are deaf; 20-40% have normal hearing; 30-40% had one blue eye and were deaf while 60-70% had one blue eye and normal hearing.

Originally Posted by Jonesie

The deafness is linked to the gene for blue-eye(s) and not to odd-eyed cats.

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This is NOT true. Deafness is linked to the white color. This article explains it very good.

In short, all white cats can become deaf but blue eyed ones are at greater risk. Odd-eyed white cats can become deaf (sometimes only unilaterally, on the same side as the blue eye). Yellow eyed white cats can also become deaf, I've raised one myself.

There are many articles on the subject. Here is another one that talks about deafness in white cats: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homep...ton/royrob.htm

I am just glad that my little girl is not deaf as I am planning on breeding her next year if I find a suitable Devon Rex stud.

Correct me if I'm wrong but an albino is not the same as a white animal. On a white cat, white is the coloring. An albino as what would be thought of as a defect, or it's true genetic coloring would be missing due to this defect. Correct? And the deafness is connected to actual white cats and not albino cats?

I found another good article on my hunt:

The determination over whether a blue-eyed white cat will be born deaf is not based upon their physical appearance; rather it is determined by the precise combination of the various genes determining both the coat and eye color of the animal.

White cats may fall into one of three basic categories:-

Albino - True albino cats are unlike other cats in that their genetic makeup contains a mutation that causes a total absence of color in the coat (white) and eyes (pink or bluish pink). Albinoism is not assocated with a higher risk of deafness but these cats do have their own health issues as their eyes and skin are very photosensitive and they must be protected from bright sunlight.

Dominant White - Cats that are white due to carrying the white (W) coat pigment gene are said to be Dominant White. In this case the white gene masks all other coat colors. Cats carrying the W gene are not always born totally white, they may have colored spots on their heads but these often disappear with age. Dominant White cats may have blue, orange or odd (different colored) eyes. Those which have blue eyes and are totally white at birth have the highest chance of deafness. Dominant White cats with odd eyes are frequently deaf on the blue-eyed side;

White Spotted - Cats may also carry the dominant piebald (S) gene also called the white-spotting gene. In this case the white color coat will mask the cat's base color but will do so in patches - cats carrying the S gene may have various degrees of spotting the highest of which will give the impression of a totally white cat. The chances of one of these cats being born deaf is small irrespective of eye color.

And just a little factoid. . . while the piebald (S) gene causes the van pattern in Turkish Van cats, the breed as a whole has never had any incident of deafness, regarldless of eye color.

My kitty is albino...well...everything but his eyes

That's so weird, i just had a look around google and a few people were saying that they had yellow eyed white cats who also were deaf. I assumed it was only in the blue/bi coloured eyes. I'm lucky Charlie seems to have fine hearing. It can be hard to tell if you are walking around with them. We had an od eyed whitey at the shelter and i didn't know he was deaf till someone pointed it out, as he was up on the bench playing around and just happened to turn around when i called. I'm always making little kissy noises when Charlie is asleep to make sure he reacts in some way.

Have a look at this albino kitty..(possibly cute when not hissing) http://bamboobengals.tripod.com/imageS5N.JPG