Cat Color Questions

[fluffy nebelung]

This may not be the appropriate forum for these questions, and if it isn't I apologize!

I've got a handful of questions that I would like answers for.

They may be ridiculous, but bear with me.

There are also some of my newest notes. I'd like to know if these are all true.

Notes -

A.

Albino cats can have red and/or blue eyes. If blue, they're not average blue cat eyes, and may have a ring of red or a VERY pale blue ring around the pupil.

B.

Pointed is a form of albinism.

C.

Leucism is similar to albinism, but unlike albinism, only affects the fur/hair/feather/scale pigment.

D.

Piebaldism is a form of leucism, as leucism can affect all or some pigment.

Questions -

1. Are white cats considered leucistic, regardless of eye color?

2. If white cats are considered leucistic, is that the same as 'dominant white'?

3. Are bicolors considered piebalds?

4. Are tabby-and-whites/tuxedos/tricolors considered harlequin?

5. Are calicoes and tortoiseshells a naturally-occurring coat color, or are they all chimeric mutations?

6. Are black cats considered melanistic?

7. Are points (flame/seal/blue/lynx/etc.) naturally-occurring, or are they somehow related to siamese cats?

8. Are pointed cats with white in certain locations (muzzle for snowshoe/mitts for birman) considered those breeds, or is it purely coincidental?

9. Is blue a naturally-occurring color in cats?

10. Are pointed (or non-pointed) cats with frosty blue eyes descendents of siamese cats/other registered pointed breeds?

11. Is it true that litter-siblings share the same eye-color, regardless of breed?

12. Are domestic shorthairs/longhairs and moggies the same thing?

 

[StefanZ]

 
12. Are domestic shorthairs/longhairs and moggies the same thing?

Yes, essentially its so.    Moggie is the everyday vernacular.  Some say it lovingly, others a little mocking.

 

[StefanZ]

 
4. Are tabby-and-whites/tuxedos/tricolors considered harlequin?

Nay, there is a scale, a try to define the different amounts of coloring.  So its a ladder so to speak.

Van patter, (essentially there between ears + tail, dark, rest white

Harlequin  The same, + some spots usually on the backside

Tuxedo will be mostly black / colored, and the rest white...

Bewildering?  The reality of cat colors IS bewildering, so nothing peculiar the tries to systmatize are also bewildering..

 

[StefanZ]

 
7. Are points (flame/seal/blue/lynx/etc.) naturally-occurring, or are they somehow related to siamese cats?
 
10. Are pointed (or non-pointed) cats with frosty blue eyes descendents of siamese cats/other registered pointed breeds?

Yes, as I understand it, the point gene as we discuss here, comes originally from siameses, and had become quite wide spread around the worlds cat populations.

All other siamese-pointed breeds are created, naturally or by breeding, using the point gene from siameses.

I presume there is some possibility for spontan mutations - but they are surely rare - and why speculate??

There is also another point gene, the Burmese point, but its apparently not so common.  The hereditary esseentielly similiar, but its another gene. The eyes not so clearly blue as I know.  (to say the truth, I cant much about burmeses).   In this moment the idea dawned on me, the fertility on burmanese- crosses is perhaps lower. This would explain why that gene isnt common at all in the general cat population.  Although Burmese were quite common in England and probably also other countries,  before the explosion of other purebreds  after the 1950-ties.

And in England they have the tradition of letting their cats out, even the purebreds.

 

[StefanZ]

 
5. Are calicoes and tortoiseshells a naturally-occurring coat color, or are they all chimeric mutations?

I may be this question needs to be rewritten.  Its apparently naturally occuring, they arent no rare true chimeric mutations.

But as I understand it, this parlty random mosaic of colors  is a sort of chimera.   I have a weak memory of my biology professor, whom wasnt explaining it very well, but he as an exemple of complicated hereditary fall out, took the tortoise-shell cats.  Different group of cells had different color genes.   Ie, a sort of chimera.

 

[StefanZ]

 
9. Is blue a naturally-occurring color in cats?

It depends on what you mean.

As you surely know, blue isnt no true color, its a diluted black.

But the combination of black and the diluting gene is apparently a quite common combination.

There are several breeds boasting the blue coat, and there are also lotsa of moggies whom entirely by themselves carry this coat, without any active breeding behind them.