What is this cat?

[hipmamaof3]

Hi. Total cat noob here. We are bringing home one of these fluffy blue grey kittens. I have some questions. Most litters I have seen have had cats real close in coloring. I was struck by how gorgeous these kittens are. These pics are terrible. They really are super pretty in real life. 

The mother was a stray who was rescued off the streets when she was noticed to be pregnant. She is blue grey color. Short hair. With white mittens and all white belly. 

The two blue grey kittens have really long fur. Hard to tell from pics but it is super deep and lush feeling. The black and white and tabby are super short haired.

My question is about the blue grey kittens. One is all blue grey. The one we are adopting has a white ruff chin and neck and white mittens and white tail tip. She also has bits or calico like orange reddish spots randomly in her coat. 

What breed/breed mixture are these cats? I am a dog person and can look at a mutt and usually be able to pick out what bits and pieces could be what breed, but is there such a thing for cats? What are cat "mutts" called. I feel that she is something special with this long gorgeous fur and deep blue grey coat. But how is it possible for a tabby to get in there, or a black and white. I have no idea about the father cat or cats. I've just never seen such color extremes in one litter.

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• hipmamaof3
• Aug 21, 2015

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• hipmamaof3
• Aug 21, 2015

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• hipmamaof3
• Aug 21, 2015

cat2.jpg

• hipmamaof3
• Aug 21, 2015

 

[StefanZ]

blue (grey) is diluted black, so the mom carries black...   Tabby is dominant, so she surely doesnt carry tabby, it must come from the father.

We do have two possibilites, if we think there is one father, who was tabby, he had only one tabby gene in that allele pair.   And thus, roughly half of his kitten become tabbies, the others - non tabies.

The other possibility there were more than one fathers.  Which is entirely possible, although not so common as many thinks...

Longhair gene is recessive, so it must come both from mom and dad...   Mom is fluffy, thus she is a double carrier.   I suppose the fatehr was just a carrier, and roughly half the kittens got longhaired.

Why it was just the blue kittens whom become longhaired, alike mom, is an interesting question.  I think sheer coincidence, but...

Ad yes, they are mixes and mutts - moggies in the cat language, although it may be a nice pastime to speculate if they are a little look alike of something.

Or if there is something decidingt thye must have some near ancestry....

But as a rule of thumb, cats have a much wider and deeper gene pool than dogs, as cats didnt become specilaized in breeds and types in the same way as dogs.

 

[hipmamaof3]

Thanks. The mom is a shorthair blue grey. Really short hair. Do you know what kind of common breeds tend towards this blue grey color, with long hair? I only found one searching online that seems really rare and is almost not likely. Russian Blue seems sort of unlikely too.

 

[StefanZ]

Thanks. The mom is a shorthair blue grey. Really short hair. Do you know what kind of common breeds tend towards this blue grey color, with long hair? I only found one searching online that seems really rare and is almost not likely. Russian Blue seems sort of unlikely too.

Ah, short hair? I got the impression you meant long hair, when you said fluffy.   I see now I was a little careless, its the kitten you are adopting, not the mom itself.

So it changes a little my analysis, and explains better the outcome.

Mom shorthair, but has the longhair gene.  Thus dad, also such a carrier, or possibly longhair...

Longhaired cats who or can be bluish:  it may be:   Nebelung, who is sort of a longhaired Russian blue.   Turkish Angora, whom nowadays are allowed in other colors than the classical white.

British Longhair - where they are a not so common as British shorthair.

 

[hipmamaof3]

Thanks. Nebulung seems too rare.British longhair... I looked that up but it seemed they have round puffy cherks and big eyes. These have angular slender long cat faces. Maybe Siberian?

I know they are mutts. But it's fun to guess.