Identifying black or near all black cats.

gaogier

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
May 25, 2007
Messages
521
Purraise
108
Hello

A quick question after a brief explanation.

I have something called aphantasia, basically I can’t picture images in my mind, anyway, I have had 1 black and white cat, then we got another, all good as they are different sizes, body builds and noticeable difference in their white bits.

last year, in June/July (2023) we adopted 3 kittens, 1 girl (tabby) 1 white and black, (he died) and one near full black. Due to the health of these 3 kittens (where one died) they were not able to be neutered for heath reasons. Unfortunately (at the time) a male Tom broke into our house in March 2023, a couple weeks later she was obviously pregnant, we were told by the people we adopted the kittens from that we should abort her litter. Errr never going to happen, my sister joked that she would love to have kittens if she did get pregnant, as we were fighting off Tom cats a month or 2 earlier. She did take 2 of the 5, and we kept the other 3.

in the litter, there were 2 black boys (3 boys 2 girls) I could tell the difference as the 2 boys had very faint but different stripes. My kittens are quite big compared to uncle and mum. At 7 months they are all bigger than mum by near 10 weeks (10 weeks ago they were same size as mum) under the uncles neck is a small white patch, and under kitten is noticeable white hairs in the same places.

the boys are just a bit bigger than their uncle, while our girl is about the same size. At night, it is near impossible working out who is who, I can, but others can’t tell who is who if for example they are asleep on the sofa. So without waking them up, how can I tell who is who? They have different faces, and I find funny that one of our neighbours thinks the uncle is a panther… lol

i am not puttin collars on them as have bushes and trees right next door where one of my cats nearly hanged themselves when he slipped trying to free himself after getting a branch caught in their collar
 

Devia Morgenstern

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Dec 16, 2023
Messages
68
Purraise
103
Location
Northen Hemisphere
What my mom occasionally did when she wanted to differentiate between kittens was add a little nail-polish or paint on some part of their body. Don't worry lol, none of them ever suffered any side-effects, other then the material eventually fading off. That could be another option.
Another way would be in how they sleep. Occasionally you'll get that one kitten who always sleeps in this one specific position unique to him/or her.
An additional idea running through my head is, maybe you could give each kitten a specific bed and train them to sleep on that specific bed.
I don't know how old your kittens are, but when their old enough, getting them different colored nail caps.
Lastly, maybe when the time comes to get them spayed maybe you could talk to your veterinarian about giving their ear tips an individual clip.
Those are just ideas off the top of my head lol.
 

amethyst

TCS Member
Super Cat
Joined
Nov 25, 2016
Messages
954
Purraise
2,877
Location
Alberta, Canada
I don't really have any suggestions, but just wanted to say I don't think it's uncommon to have a hard time telling them apart when sleeping. I currently have 2 black cats, unrelated, and although I can tell them apart when they are awake or I can at least see their face, my husband has to see their eyes to tell who is who, one has yellow eyes and the other has light blueish green eyes.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #5

gaogier

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
May 25, 2007
Messages
521
Purraise
108
hello

So i am having a hard time tying to get my cats to eat some decent dry food, so i am feeding them way too much wet food for my liking and budget.

Due to this, I am feeding the cats severa times per day, but they are not all present when i feed them, most of the time, there is 3 cats missing, and when they are eating, or when they are too sleepy to get up for food, i need to make sure, that all of the cats are getting enough food, which means I need to know who is who,

So, I can tell the difference between their faces, and I can tell a difference front view/belly view, just all the other views I need any sort of identifying solutions, I guess as the kittens are just 7 months old, they will have a good amount to grow and will be obvious in the size differences.

I am tempted to shave one of their tips of tails, or something lol.
 

iPappy

TCS Member
Staff Member
Forum Helper
Joined
Jun 1, 2022
Messages
5,219
Purraise
16,260
I have "twin" black cats, and the only way I am able to tell them apart when they're sleeping is look at the ears. Do any of the kittens have larger/smaller ears? My female has small little ears that are almost rounded at the tips, and the male has larger ears with tiny little lynx points.
 
Top