Cat Color Change

[Kris107]

Posting this on behalf of a friend who does not live in the US. She lives in a country where there are cats that roam free. One of the cats adopted her a few years ago. The cat lives outside for the most part but has some access to the house and is fed and cared for by my friend. He comes and goes and does his own thing. A few weeks ago, he showed up a different color.

Before he was more "normal" tabby color (see head and tail), not this reddish-brown color. He's not a color-point. My first thought was maybe he got something on him (walked through or someone threw something on him) that changed his fur color??? I thought I'd ask the world-wide Cat Site group whether they've had a cat change colors or if anyone had any other ideas.

 

[maggie101]

I thought maybe it was the lighting? She is a darker color underneath. Odd

 

[RetroCat]

That’s a very beautiful tabby! Some kitties can change colors. My Dreamer had a brown mane and a tabby tail when he was a kitten; now he’s a solid black kitty.

 

[iPappy]

Depending on what the temperatures are doing, I've known a handful of cats and dogs that literally do change colors depending on their shedding pattern. They grow more coat in and and are lighter or darker, and when that sheds out in the summer they become lighter or darker than they were. Very pretty kitty btw

 

[Meowmee]

Posting this on behalf of a friend who does not live in the US. She lives in a country where there are cats that roam free. One of the cats adopted her a few years ago. The cat lives outside for the most part but has some access to the house and is fed and cared for by my friend. He comes and goes and does his own thing. A few weeks ago, he showed up a different color.
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Before he was more "normal" tabby color (see head and tail), not this reddish-brown color. He's not a color-point. My first thought was maybe he got something on him (walked through or someone threw something on him) that changed his fur color??? I thought I'd ask the world-wide Cat Site group whether they've had a cat change colors or if anyone had any other ideas.

He’s a beautiful cat I have seen some color changes in some of my tabby and solid cats but nothing that happened that fast or that dramatically so I googled it and found this about saliva staining which can cause the fur to turn orange or red.
I don’t know if that’s what’s going on here, but I thought it could be.

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Possible causes of coat discolaration with your cat

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Merlin‘s ginger tabby coat I noticed was starting to become lighter in areas and Wizard’s fur, he was an all black cat, in the sunlight had some reddish brown highlights sometimes, but only very subtle ones because he was what I call a real black cat. While Xena, who is long hair and black and white has areas that are more gray and even some that look brown now which I think is called rusting- that could be what’s going on with this cat.

 

[maggie101]

Depending on what the temperatures are doing, I've known a handful of cats and dogs that literally do change colors depending on their shedding pattern. They grow more coat in and and are lighter or darker, and when that sheds out in the summer they become lighter or darker than they were. Very pretty kitty btw

Yes,I think that's what happens to my cat Coco but not the other 2

 

[BeccaCat]

My cat changes color all the time. Sounds bizarre, but I may have the world’s sweetest, most bizarre kitty. She is Tonkinese and gets lighter in the summer and darker in the winter. However, she does have some orange spots that pop up, seemingly at random. She has a lot of health issues, so maybe it’s caused by one of her medications. But yes, I’d say they can definitely change color.

 

[Krienze]

Gracie was all white on her back when she was younger. As she got older, she got more brown and grey colors back there - kind of reminds me of mashed potatoes and gravy haha.