Do You Think My Kitten Is An Albino?

[Hanaone]

Hi guys Im new here.I decided to join after read few posts in the past from this forum bout An albino cat topic thats interested me.My kitten is 5 months old Hes scottish shorthair also Hes deaf all white pink nose pink paws very pale pink gums very pale blue and very very pale green or yellowish with little blue hue in pupil.
His Dad is british shorthair all white with an odd eye colour dee

p blue and deep green in otherside not deaf ill put His pic below. His mum is silver tabby scottish I dont have her pic. Long short just wondering if hes just a white cat like His dad or He is pure albino I have mixed theory here.Anyone can help me? Thanks

 

[IndyJones]

I think pure albinos have red eyes. Not sure though.

The kitten looks almost exactly like my aunt's old cat Ernie. He was a pure white with blue eyes. He wasn't deaf though till he was in his 20s from old age he could hear a pin drop. He was almost 30 when he died in his sleep.

 

[abyeb]

He is very cute! I don’t think he is an albino, though. Albino cats can’t be odd-eyed. They can only have pale blue, pink, or pinkish-blue eyes.

This article has more info: The Difference Between an Albino Cat and a White Cat | Catster

 

[Hanaone]

Many thanks I really hope He is not an albino due to many health concern. Some article said it possible Albino has very pale blue but yea it doesnt say odd eye colour. I couldnt justify why the eyes is red when I flashed light to his eyes though. The problem He love sunbake infront of the window and I need to get uv film soon.
Ps.He has a weird habit looking at dripping water from the tap and looking inside the toilet bowl.weird child.

 

[JoyM]

Lol... cats are weird in general but each one is unique in said weirdness! I don’t believe she is an albino. Her eyes look like she has heterochromia (2 different colored eyes). Cats with blue eyes (including one blue eye) and are totally white (or nearly totally) have a much higher risk of being deaf. Since she IS deaf, that goes hand in hand with her having the all white with blue eye gene. Albino’s of pretty much all species have pink irises.
I know that the gene that causes a horse and dogs to have large amounts of white or totally white also makes them more susceptible to cancer from sun damage so I think you are correct about needing to protect her from direct sun exposure.

 

[Willowy]

The OP's kitty has light blue eyes. It's his dad who has odd eyes. (Oh, wait, I see the very small difference now. I don't know if albinos can have slight differences like that or not).

He could be albino. His eyes are very light and he certainly doesn't seem to have any pigment on him. But he might just be white because his dad is white. I don't know if there's any way to tell in cats. But either way, do get that UV film for the windows, because white cats can get burns/cancer from the sun just as easily as albinos can.

Do you know what color his siblings were?

 

[Hanaone]

He has 2 siblings all white and all females

. Yes He is the only one has very pale blue eyes and the other side very pale green its not getting darker as what i have expected. I uploaded one pic of Him and the siblings. And tried to uploaded diff pic to see his eye colour.I was tellin my partner why is this boys eyes so pale didnt get darker like his Daddy.

 

[JoyM]

As a general rule of thumb, white cats with blue eyes should have their hearing checked early on. It’s so much common for them to have full or partial deafness.
When I went to the shelter to take my fosters in for a check up, I saw two white kittens in a cage and one had hereochromia (one green eye and one blue one). While I talked to them, the one will heterochromia cocked her head to the side and looked at me funny while her sibling reacted to my voice. I asked if she was deaf and sure enough she was. I don’t have experience with deaf cats but I knew the odds for that coloration and she acted a little different.

 

[Willowy]

Aww, what a precious bunch of babies! Dad must have dominant white to pass it on to all the kittens.

 

[Caspers Human]

Leucistic but not abino.

Leucism - Wikipedia

As a general rule of thumb, white cats with blue eyes should have their hearing checked early on. It’s so much common for them to have full or partial deafness.

... and it's usually on the side that has the lighter colored eye.

In white cats with mixed-coloured eyes (odd-eyed cats), it has been found that deafness is more likely to affect the ear on the blue-eyed side.

Congenital sensorineural deafness in cats - Wikipedia

Casper is all white but he has yellow/green eyes. He's not albino and not leucistic. He is just a white cat.

Deafness is one of the first things I looked up before we got Casper.

To make a long story short, the longer a white cat lives without showing signs of nerve deafness, the lesser the chances of it happening.

Some cats, whether they are white or not, go deaf as they age. A non-albino, non-leucistic, white cat that lives to old age has only slightly more chance of experiencing hearing issues than any other cat the same age.

 

[susanm9006]

Many thanks I really hope He is not an albino due to many health concern. Some article said it possible Albino has very pale blue but yea it doesnt say odd eye colour. I couldnt justify why the eyes is red when I flashed light to his eyes though. The problem He love sunbake infront of the window and I need to get uv film soon.
Ps.He has a weird habit looking at dripping water from the tap and looking inside the toilet bowl.weird child.

Blue eyed cats can show up with red eyes in photos. I am sure someone can explain it scientifically, but I always told by blue eyed Siamese that it was because she was part devil.

 

[IndyJones]

Blue eyed cats can show up with red eyes in photos. I am sure someone can explain it scientifically, but I always told by blue eyed Siamese that it was because she was part devil.

It has something to do with the reflective tapetum layer in the back of the eyes that helps them see in the dark. Oriental breeds including Siamese and snowshoes often lack the tapetum so you see the blood vessels which appear red in photos. Blue eyed dogs like huskies often have this condition too.

Even though his eyes are green Kabby has red glowing eyes too. I think he looks part robot or cyborg. Laser eyes.

 

[lutece]

Aww, what a precious bunch of babies! Dad must have dominant white to pass it on to all the kittens.

I think you mean that dad must be homozygous for dominant white? Nearly all white cats are dominant white (true albino is very rare in cats).

 

[lutece]

Hi guys Im new here.I decided to join after read few posts in the past from this forum bout An albino cat topic thats interested me.My kitten is 5 months old Hes scottish shorthair also Hes deaf all white pink nose pink paws very pale pink gums very pale blue and very very pale green or yellowish with little blue hue in pupil.
His Dad is british shorthair all white with an odd eye colour deep blue and deep green in otherside not deaf ill put His pic below. His mum is silver tabby scottish I dont have her pic. Long short just wondering if hes just a white cat like His dad or He is pure albino I have mixed theory here.Anyone can help me? Thanks

It is most likely that your cat is simply dominant white with a light blue eye color. Light blue eyes, sometimes with a slightly yellowish tint, are not uncommon in blue-eyed white cats with copper eyed cats in their ancestry, such as British, Scottish or Persian cats. Copper-eyed cats have more highly pigmented eyes than gold- or green-eyed cats, and consequently, blue-eyed cats with copper-eyed cats in their ancestry tend to have blue eyes with more pigment in them, which actually make the eyes appear whitish or even slightly yellowish in color. Deep blue eyes have less pigment.

True albino is very, very rare in cats. True albino has been observed in a few cats with Siamese/Oriental ancestry. Although theoretically possible, it is not likely to be seen in a British or Scottish cat.
Here are two references:

• Albinism in the domestic cat (Felis catus) is associated with a tyrosinase (TYR) mutation
• Cat Coat Color - Albino "Among 9229 cats tested by the VGL, only 4 (2 Tonkinese and 2 Siamese) were positive for this mutation."

 

[lutece]

Also, I re-read your note and I just noticed that you said your cat is deaf. Deafness is associated with the dominant white gene. Albino cats are not deaf.

Feline Deafness
"Albino cats are not deaf [...] Deaf white cats show an absence of melanocytes, whereas albinos have a normal distribution of melanocytes but lack the enzyme tyrosinase and so are incapable of producing melanin pigment."​

 

[lutece]

He is very cute! I don’t think he is an albino, though. Albino cats can’t be odd-eyed. They can only have pale blue, pink, or pinkish-blue eyes.

Albino cats have blue eyes, not pink eyes. There was one reported example of a pink-eyed albino cat in the literature in 1951, but this may have been an error.

Albinism in the domestic cat (Felis catus) is associated with a tyrosinase (TYR) mutation
"Albino cats have been reported in the literature (Todd 1951; Turner et al. 1981) but have not been well characterized. Blue-eyed vs. pink-eyed albino cats have not been clearly distinguished in the published reports (Bamber & Herdman 1931; Todd 1951; Leventhal 1982; Leventhal et al. 1985). Thus, it is unclear whether there is more than one non temperature-sensitive albinism allele in cats, as has been reported in mice (reviewed in Beermann et al. 2004), in humans (summarized at http://albinismdb.med.umn.edu/) and in cattle (Schmutz et al. 2004). The albino cats evaluated in this study have blue eyes. As with most blue-eyed cats, reduced pigment in the tapetum produces a ‘reddish’ (as opposed to a ‘greenish’) tapetal reflection or ‘eye-shine’. The c allele has been reserved for red-eyed (complete) albinism, but the difference in the tapetal reflex suggests that the single report of a red-eyed albino cat may be in error."​

 

[Hanaone]

Also, I re-read your note and I just noticed that you said your cat is deaf. Deafness is associated with the dominant white gene. Albino cats are not deaf.

Feline Deafness
"Albino cats are not deaf [...] Deaf white cats show an absence of melanocytes, whereas albinos have a normal distribution of melanocytes but lack the enzyme tyrosinase and so are incapable of producing melanin pigment."​

Thank you Im happy Hes in fact not albino He will have much more chance to have a healthy long life