Black Cat - Rusting

[sivyaleah]

Our 7 month old purebred black Maine Coon's coat has started having a rust color tinge to it. When we got her, the breeder wasn't sure if she would turn out to be black smoke (which it appeared she would be) or solid black. We registered her as black smoke because that was what she appeared to be.

Up until the last week or so she clearly looked black smoke - you could see the silver tones in her ruff area and britches and when she got spayed her belly fur was clearly a grayish color. I'm wondering now if she is indeed solid black and the smoke tone was instead a fever coat.

Anyway, in the past couple of weeks I've noticed an almost chocolate tone to her when the light hits her fur in specific ways that I didn't notice before.

I know there are a few reasons why this could happen but none really make sense to me.

First, is a deficiency of tyrosine but she's eating a balanced diet so I find this doubtful.

Second, is fading from sunlight. Our home gets terrible light in it - very few of the windows get direct sun and the ones that do for very few ours at a time. She doesn't tend to hang out much in the windows anyway so I'm tossing that one out also.

The last one is hybridization - but I have her pedigree already and it goes back many generations. Her father is black smoke, her mother solid black. I find it hard to believe that there was any chance of a rogue mating in the line especially since the breeder has been in business for decades and is well known and well respected with several grand champions to her credit (a few, in Luna's background).

So, wondering if our community breeding experts and genetic buffs might know about this; if it's something which I should mention to the vet - perhaps it is some kind of nutritional deficiency?

 

[lutece]

It's totally normal and expected for solid black cats, especially longhaired cats, to have a lighter color to some parts of the coat, particularly the undercoat, and the longer parts of the coat such as the ruff and britches. This lighter color may have a grayish or brownish tone.

It's also normal for black cats to look a little more brownish and chocolatey in the sunlight, and for any ghost tabby markings to be more apparent.

This is such a normal feature of solid black cats that I've been told by cat show judges that if they see a solid black longhaired cat without any lighter shading to the undercoat at all, they suspect that the cat has been dyed!

This lighter shading is very obvious in Persian cats because of the length and abundance of their coats. Here are a couple of CFA National Winning Persians that I just grabbed off the latest breed winner page for solid colored Persians. But you will see some degree of shading in any longhaired black cat, and many shorthaired black cats as well.

 

[She's a witch]

My solid black dsh started changing color into brownish when he was about 1yo. I was worried like you and google didn’t help as I got the possible reasons and nothing matched. My vet has calmed me down saying he’s was still very young and his coat was still developing and it’s totally normal for a black cat to have brownish parts. I wish google knew this I think after he changed his coat one summer he ended up with beautiful black coat with brown ghost tabby markings as lutece mentioned. I even wanted to create a thread about it as it seems it’s really little information about young black cats turning brown for not apparent reasons but I couldn’t really take good enough photos of his tabby markings, not enough light in PNW to capture that Anyway I stopped worrying completely. Here’s how brownish my cat ended up being:

:

 

[sivyaleah]

Thank you both lutece and She's a witch this is EXACTLY what I'm referring to. In fact, the photos of She's A Witch's cats coat color looks just like Luna's does.

I googled a ton of articles and also could not find anything that made sense to me. I figured someone here that knew about genetics would have an answer or someone who had a solid black cat that had seen it before would as well. Luna is now 7 months old and pretty much has lost her kitten coat at this point but certainly hasn't grown a full Maine Coon coat yet either and won't for quite some time to come.

Thanks for putting my mind at ease. Here's a couple of pix to show you what I'm talking about anyway so you can see.

This one was taken nearly 3 weeks ago. She look pretty solid black here, Most of her smokey parts are not seen on this photo - she still has it on her britches and her ruff area but not as much as it had been.

These two were taken today and you can really see the chocolate coloring in them. She's also VERY dusty LOL. She was rolling around the floor today. A LOT.

 

[lutece]

She's so pretty! I can see why you would wonder about that color, but I do think it's normal. The soft-looking texture of her coat in the pictures suggests to me that we are looking at a lot of undercoat. This could partly be due to the winter season, and I think she is probably also going through a coat transition. As she grows more of her adult guard hairs, her coat may become darker again.

 

[She's a witch]

Wikipedia page for solid black coat mentions brown ghost tabby pattern in solid black, and it put my mind at ease more than my vet the power the Internet has over us...

 

[sivyaleah]

She's so pretty! I can see why you would wonder about that color, but I do think it's normal. The soft-looking texture of her coat in the pictures suggests to me that we are looking at a lot of undercoat. This could partly be due to the winter season, and I think she is probably also going through a coat transition. As she grows more of her adult guard hairs, her coat may become darker again.

Thanks!
Her coat is SO silky soft. I actually had some concerns about getting a black cat because the only cat I ever had an actual bad allergy reaction to was all black and had a very similar type of fur texture. So far so good though.
Now if I could only get her used to being groomed. Every time I try she chomps on whatever implement I'm using. I try to do it in small doses but she really thinks it's a toy to be battled with She's still very much at an oral stage; looking forward to that ending!

 

[sivyaleah]

So, following up on this.
By coincidence today, the breeder posted a photo of another black kitten she still has for sale (frankly, I think Luna is better looking lol). Anyway, one thing let to another and I wound up on the CFA website in the Breeders section in the area about genetics and coloring and lo and behold, found this:

"BLACK - Kittens are born black, but often develop rusty or coppery coats, white or silver hairs, or a lighter ruff and/or undercoat until full adult coat appears at 12-18 months. "

So, there you have it! And the breeder last said she thought Luna would wind up being solid black so seems she may be right all along even though she sure was looking smoke. May have to get her registration changed down the road if that turns out to be the case!