Page 18 - The Complete Cat Breed Book (DK)

16 INTR ODUC TION T O C A T S

COAT COLORS AND PATTERNS

Cats come in a bewildering range of colors and coat smoke coats, and coats that
patterns—there are endless combinations. Some breeds have a mixture of colors, as seen in
are defined specifically for their color, such as the blue-only torties and bicolors.
Chartreux, and others for just one kind of coat pattern, such White hair lacks pigment, and the white
as the pointed Siamese. In many other breeds any gene (W) is dominant over all other
combination of color and pattern is acceptable. color-producing genes and coat
Coat color is produced by two forms of the pigment patterns. Therefore, cats with
melanin: eumelanin (black and brown) and pheomelanin (red, colored and patterned coats have
orange, and yellow). Except for white hair, all colors—in solid two recessive forms of the white
and diluted forms—are derived from the varying amounts of gene (ww). Solid white is
these two pigments in the shafts of a cat’s hair. considered a Western
A cat’s ancestral coat pattern is tabby. Selective breeding, color (see below).
however, has also created a wide range of other coat types,
mostly produced by the expression of recessive genes.
Popular patterns include solid-color, coats, pointed coats, White coat

Western colors
Coat colors traditionally found in European and
American cats, such as British Shorthairs, Maine
Coons, and Norwegian Forest Cats, are known as Black Red
Western colors. Specifically, they are black and
red, along with their respective diluted forms, blue
and cream. Bicolored (a mixture of white patches
and one of the Western colors) and solid-white
coats are often described as Western too. Today,
Western colors have a global presence, having
been successfully introduced into Oriental cats.
Blue Cream
Burmese cats, for example, are often bred so
that their coats bear Western reds and creams.

Eastern colors
Chocolate and cinnamon—and their respective
diluted forms, lilac and fawn—are traditionally
considered Eastern colors. These colors are thought Chocolate Cinnamon
to have originated in breeds such as the Siamese
and the Persian. Nowadays, however, this separation
of Eastern and Western colors is somewhat blurred,
with cat colors having been transposed through
breeding from one group of breeds to the other. All
but the most conservative cat registries today
accept Eastern colors in Western breeds, and vice Lilac Fawn
versa. British Shorthairs, for example, are accepted
in Eastern colors.