Chocolate brown cat?

[nurseangel]

I am not sure if I am posting this in the right place. Even though I have already adopted a kitten and am not technically cat shopping, I still like to look on Petfinder. A local kill shelter has a cat that they have listed as a DSH but appears chocolate brown in color. I did not know what I call regular cats (I don't say that as a bad thing, all my cats except for the kitten are "regular" cats) came in brown. I thought brown cats were rare and the color would be specific to a breed. I wonder if he is really a breed cat who got out or was surrendered?

 

[Kieka]

Not likely.

A pointed cat could appear brown if they are older and have fully darkened. So if the cats eyes are light colored, usually blue, then it's likely a dark pointed cat.

Black cats can appear brown when malnourished and will get dark as their nutrition improves.

A true brown cat could be naturally occurring outside a breeding program. Almost any cat in a specific breed can happen naturally, most breeds were developed to produce those natural results with regularity. The Havana Brown is a breed known to be brown but it was developed by breeding black and siamese cats. So theoretically, if the area has both of those and they breed you could have a Havana brown look alike in a few generations. It would just take a little while for the recessive gene to be passed around and when the right two mix, bam you have a brown litter.

Since there are currently only four breeders (2 in Illinois and 2 in indiana) of Havana Browns that I know of, unless you are in those areas it would be unlikely that one got loose. Even if they did, I would bet that no kitten leaves without a microchip and that the breeder defaults to their name just in case something happens.

 

[nurseangel]

I am about eight hours from Indiana if you drive straight through (I know, because one of my co-workers goes to her daughter's house there and that's the way she rolls). I don't know about Illinois. It is a very unusual, gorgeous cat. Once DH saw a rabbit outside and said there was a brown rabbit in our yard. I said told him that wild rabbits don't come in brown. I looked outside, and sure enough there was a tame chocolate rabbit (with a wild rabbit) in my yard. He was the sweetest thing. I learned that after Easter, some idiot or idiots turned several tame rabbits loose in a well to do neighborhood up the road.

He is pictured below. You make a good point about being malnourished. That could be the case with him. Or he could be black, and this is a bad picture, but usually they are fairly good at photography. Er, better than me, anyway.

Cat for adoption - FRANKLIN, a Domestic Short Hair in Newton, NC | Petfinder

 

[Kieka]

He's a cutie. I'd guess malnourished, he looks a little skinny. But only way to know for sure would be to adopt and see how he looks in a year.

And yeah, most pet rabbits sold around Easter don't live to be a year old. Growing up we always had 1 or 2 rabbits and most were found on the side of the road from abandoned. We almost always were able to find the original owner and every situation they just let it go.

 

[denice]

Are Brown Cats Rare? What Makes Them Hard To Find?

I looked it up because I got curious. They are few and far between. The color involves recessive genes and a mutation.

 

[Mighty Orange]

He may be a Thai Suphalik. Very rare.

 

[susanm9006]

I watch a few kitten fosterers on YouTube and last year one had a beautiful chocolate boy in a litter with a traditional tuxedo and a couple of tabbies. When he was first born it was assumed he would grow to be black but he kept his beautiful brown as an adult. I don’t think it’s common but I don’t think it means special breed either.

 

[Norachan]

I've got a weird little black/brown thing. Carpet looks different colours at different times of year and in different light, but I guess she's more brown than black. Her sisters and her mum are all grey.

 

[mama africa]

Take a look at this thread nurseangel

A big and warm Hello from Greece | TheCatSite

 

[nurseangel]

I am amazed by the brown cats! They look so different.

 

[Peaches&Mango]

We used to have a brown cat that my mum originally recused from the neighbour when we were little. She said he was always thin and looking a bit worse for wear and had spoken to the neighbours about it a few times and they said it’s their cat she should mind her businesss and it was just because he got pushed out the way by the other cats that he was skinny and he needed to stand up for himself if he wanted more. One day my mum came home and he was lying in the road, looked like he’d been hit and had a metal bar lodged in his mouth my mum scooped him up and took him straight round to the neighbours who said “well we don’t want to pay for that, if you do you can. If you want him have him” so my mum took the opportunity and went straight to the vets and then took care of him from then on as her cat.
He still lived until 18, my sisters and I grew up with him and he was such a friendly and loving cat even though he’d been mistreated by them.
We always got compliments on how he was a gorgeous brown colour, and that he was just a big soppy gentle giant.
I miss him greatly

 

[Mighty Orange]

And this is a Thai Suphalik the suphalik is not the orange one.

 

[nurseangel]

Oh, my goodness! I love them all. And that, of course, extends to the orange cat.

 

[nurseangel]

Peaches&Mango I forgot to say how lovely I think your mum was, to show such compassion. Too many people don't care and the world needs more people like her.