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Difference between blue and silver?
- Thread starter happyliz
- Start Date
This really only will make sense if I explain the genetics behind what these color terms mean in the cat fancy .
Blue is one of the possible base colors, a dilute of black. Silver is actually a modifier. It's not a base color by itself, it's something that modifies the cat's base color. ( So you can have , for example a Blue Silver Tabby.)
BLUE A solid blue cat is a cat that would have been black, but got a dilute gene from each parent, which made the color a diluted version, a usually cool grey color that is called Blue. By selective breeding, breeders can influence the shade of blue, whether it's a darker or lighter grey but the major genes causing the cat to be Blue are still the same -- a Black gene plus 2 Dilutes. ( Actually, blue cats can have a silver-looking color but that's not the same as the official color names that include the word Silver. ) Some blue cats: A purebred / pedigreed British Shorthair, a purebred Korat and a Blue Domestic Shorthair ( you can see the Korat is a blue cat with silver-tipped fur -- which can also just happen by chance , not only with selective breeding -- but silver tipping on a blue coat is not the same thing as a Silver Tabby or Silver Shaded or Chinchilla. )
SILVER "Silver" is coming from a very different genetic cause -- a gene called the Inhibitor gene, because it inhibits the melanin from developing on part of the hair shafts. particularly on the areas that would naturally be lighter anyway. This effect contributes to the colors / patterns that have the words Smoke and Silver.
A Smoke is a solid (non -agouti = non-tabby) cat that has white or nearly white at the roots
Then you have the Silvers, which are agouti ( tabby). There are different names depending how much of the color is inhibited.
It has a lot more affect on the agouti hairs ( the lighter part of the tabby pattern) and instead of those hairs being sort of tan as usual, they are practically white. and the other hair is white at the roots.
This can produce the silver tabby, where there is a dark tabby pattern but the background color is very light silver or white. A famous example is in the Black Silver Classic Tabby American Shorthairs.
There's also Blue Silver Classic Tabby (this is a British Shorthair probably female or young male)
The most extreme amounts of inhibition of the pigment ( influenced , at least theoretically, by another gene called Wide Banding) produces something called Chinchilla or Shell. where the base color is only at the very tips ( about 1/8 inch or 3 mm) . it makes a cat that is almost white but with a little extra sparkly effect
In between a Silver Tabby and a Chinchilla is the Shaded Silver.
Blue is one of the possible base colors, a dilute of black. Silver is actually a modifier. It's not a base color by itself, it's something that modifies the cat's base color. ( So you can have , for example a Blue Silver Tabby.)
BLUE A solid blue cat is a cat that would have been black, but got a dilute gene from each parent, which made the color a diluted version, a usually cool grey color that is called Blue. By selective breeding, breeders can influence the shade of blue, whether it's a darker or lighter grey but the major genes causing the cat to be Blue are still the same -- a Black gene plus 2 Dilutes. ( Actually, blue cats can have a silver-looking color but that's not the same as the official color names that include the word Silver. ) Some blue cats: A purebred / pedigreed British Shorthair, a purebred Korat and a Blue Domestic Shorthair ( you can see the Korat is a blue cat with silver-tipped fur -- which can also just happen by chance , not only with selective breeding -- but silver tipping on a blue coat is not the same thing as a Silver Tabby or Silver Shaded or Chinchilla. )
SILVER "Silver" is coming from a very different genetic cause -- a gene called the Inhibitor gene, because it inhibits the melanin from developing on part of the hair shafts. particularly on the areas that would naturally be lighter anyway. This effect contributes to the colors / patterns that have the words Smoke and Silver.
A Smoke is a solid (non -agouti = non-tabby) cat that has white or nearly white at the roots
Then you have the Silvers, which are agouti ( tabby). There are different names depending how much of the color is inhibited.
It has a lot more affect on the agouti hairs ( the lighter part of the tabby pattern) and instead of those hairs being sort of tan as usual, they are practically white. and the other hair is white at the roots.
This can produce the silver tabby, where there is a dark tabby pattern but the background color is very light silver or white. A famous example is in the Black Silver Classic Tabby American Shorthairs.
There's also Blue Silver Classic Tabby (this is a British Shorthair probably female or young male)
The most extreme amounts of inhibition of the pigment ( influenced , at least theoretically, by another gene called Wide Banding) produces something called Chinchilla or Shell. where the base color is only at the very tips ( about 1/8 inch or 3 mm) . it makes a cat that is almost white but with a little extra sparkly effect
In between a Silver Tabby and a Chinchilla is the Shaded Silver.
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