Silverpoint?

[QueenMojo]

My "Persian-type" kitten is 5 months old now, but I've always been curious as to whether there is a way to properly describe her colouring (technically I know it's probably impossible to classify it, because as far as I can tell, it's not "standard"). Her mother was a silver shaded and dad was a blue golden shaded. 2 of her brothers from the same litter were also "colourpoint", but both of them were darker, and she had 2 sisters that were regular silvershaded. I suppose I'm just wondering, can a cat technically be "chinchilla/shaded point"? I have seen purebred BSH cats with very similar colouring/markings to my girl, and these were just called "silverpoint."

Interestingly enough, she also has little patches (around the base of her tail, top of head and back of neck, and now on some areas of her legs), that look "creamier" than pure white. I also think the hair tips over the rest of her white body are very slightly off white, because when you part her hair, the lengths appear even lighter/whiter. I don't know much about this; could it be tarnishing or a "golden" colouring coming through? The colouring on the underside of her paws also looks browner in some areas, and sometimes areas on her tail look browner, too. I'm trying to describe this as best as I can because it doesn't really show up on photos.

How would you describe this colouring? Is it just "silverpoint"?

 

[lutece]

Your kitten is really beautiful

It's certainly genetically possible for a cat to be shaded point or chinchilla point. The color description would depend on the registering association. Some breeds / associations don't make a distinction between shaded and chinchilla.

To make sense of some of the color subtleties you are seeing, it might be helpful to first visualize a seal point cat. The color at the points is blackish brown (nearly black), while the color on the body shades to a lighter cream color, often with some light brown shading on the back:


Next imagine a shaded silver / chinchilla cat. The combination of the inhibitor gene (which makes the hair white a the base) with the wide-band genes (which make this white band very wide, covering almost the whole hair) cause the hair to be mostly white, with the cat's normal color only appearing at the tips of the hairs.



Now if you combine sealpoint with shaded or chinchilla silver, you would expect to see a cat with most of the base of each hair being white, but the very tip of each hair having the color it would have if the cat was a non-silver sealpoint. That is, you would expect to see see blackish tips of hair on the "points" (face, ears, paws and tail), with warmer cream / tan / brown tips on the other parts of the cat that are cream / tan / brown on a sealpoint.

(By the way, I just picked these pictures off the internet to illustrate the colors. I can't tell you anything more about these specific cats.)

 

[QueenMojo]

Your kitten is really beautiful

It's certainly genetically possible for a cat to be shaded point or chinchilla point. The color description would depend on the registering association. Some breeds / associations don't make a distinction between shaded and chinchilla.

To make sense of some of the color subtleties you are seeing, it might be helpful to first visualize a seal point cat. The color at the points is blackish brown (nearly black), while the color on the body shades to a lighter cream color, often with some light brown shading on the back:

View attachment 369869
Next imagine a shaded silver / chinchilla cat. The combination of the inhibitor gene (which makes the hair white a the base) with the wide-band genes (which make this white band very wide, covering almost the whole hair) cause the hair to be mostly white, with the cat's normal color only appearing at the tips of the hairs.

View attachment 369871

Now if you combine sealpoint with shaded or chinchilla silver, you would expect to see a cat with most of the base of each hair being white, but the very tip of each hair having the color it would have if the cat was a non-silver sealpoint. That is, you would expect to see see blackish tips of hair on the "points" (face, ears, paws and tail), with warmer cream / tan / brown tips on the other parts of the cat that are cream / tan / brown on a sealpoint.

(By the way, I just picked these pictures off the internet to illustrate the colors. I can't tell you anything more about these specific cats.)

Oh wow, thank you for this detailed description!! For some reason, I never thought of her as being seal colourpoint with the chinchilla pattern restricting the colour, but that totally makes sense now. Do you know why her brothers appeared darker than her, as one did not appear white at all - maybe he had more colour on the hair tips? Or is it possible my girl could be a blue colourpoint? Here's a more recent photo thanks again for your help; I find colourings and genetics so interesting!

 

[lutece]

Do you know why her brothers appeared darker than her, as one did not appear white at all - maybe he had more colour on the hair tips? Or is it possible my girl could be a blue colourpoint?

Either or both of these options would be possible. What color are her paw pads? That would give you a hint about her base color.