What color is my kitten?

Ddamay

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Hello everyone, Im new to this website. I have 4 kittens. One of them has this gorgeous color (black on black tabby?) I cant seem to find an explanation about her color and rarely see this color combination. Her mummy is a patched classic tabby and dad is a bicolor gray and white.
Thank you and hope you all have a nice day.
20201109_213902.jpg
 

kuroko

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that might be black smoke tabby not 100% sure tho just guessing
 

StefanZ

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The problem here isnt his color, but how come he is broken mackerel / spotted, when momma is classic tabby, and daddy no tabby nor all white? (All white may cover tabby)
 

lutece

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The problem here isnt his color, but how come he is broken mackerel / spotted, when momma is classic tabby, and daddy no tabby nor all white? (All white may cover tabby)
All cats have pattern genes. Solid cats (homozygous for non-agouti) have pattern genes that would determine what their tabby pattern would be if they weren't homozygous for non-agouti. Dad might be blue and white without tabby markings, but he still has pattern genes; presumably in this case he has at least one allele for mackerel tabby.
 

lutece

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Hello everyone, Im new to this website. I have 4 kittens. One of them has this gorgeous color (black on black tabby?) I cant seem to find an explanation about her color and rarely see this color combination. Her mummy is a patched classic tabby and dad is a bicolor gray and white.
Your kitten is either a brown mackerel tabby (black-based mackerel tabby), or a very dark blue tabby. The stripes on the body look black in the picture, but the foot looks blue. Are the darkest hairs on the kitten black, or dark gray?
 

cataholic07

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That kitten would be a brown mackerel tabby with a grey background. :)
I hope you get both parents fixed if they aren't purebreds.
 
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Ddamay

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The problem here isnt his color, but how come he is broken mackerel / spotted, when momma is classic tabby, and daddy no tabby nor all white? (All white may cover tabby)
I have no idea. Lol. Mum and dad were strays, I took them in. I live in Indonesia by the way. There are a lot of strays here. Mum was very skinny when I found her and dad's left eye is wounded. We are scheduled to spay and neuter and also to remove dad's left eyeball but the vet's office is still close because of the pandemic. Below is a pic of mum and dad.
20201024_060541.jpg
 
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Ddamay

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All cats have pattern genes. Solid cats (homozygous for non-agouti) have pattern genes that would determine what their tabby pattern would be if they weren't homozygous for non-agouti. Dad might be blue and white without tabby markings, but he still has pattern genes; presumably in this case he has at least one allele for mackerel tabby.
Thank you for your explanation. I still have a lot to learn about cats.
 
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Ddamay

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Your kitten is either a brown mackerel tabby (black-based mackerel tabby), or a very dark blue tabby. The stripes on the body look black in the picture, but the foot looks blue. Are the darkest hairs on the kitten black, or dark gray?
Thank you for your reply. Her darkest hairs is black as you can see in the picture below.
20201116_192557.jpg
 
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Ddamay

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That kitten would be a brown mackerel tabby with a grey background. :)
I hope you get both parents fixed if they aren't purebreds.
Thank you for your reply. Yes! I really support spay and neuter program here in Indonesia. But alas, I was too late 😔 I will definitely take mum after the kittens are 3 months old. I still try to make another appointment for dad. I really want fix him. Both his left eyeball and 2 other balls 😄
 

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Beautiful parents to have, if you are a cat. Especielly momma seems to be a beautie. :)
 

lutece

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Update : I think you got it right. She's a black smoke tabby 😄 The white roots starting to show.
Technically, "black smoke tabby" is not a possible color. Cats can be either smoke, or tabby, but not both:
  • Black smoke is a solid black cat with the inhibitor gene giving white roots. Black smoke cats can have ghost markings like other solid black cats, but smokes aren't tabbies.
  • Silver tabby is a black-based tabby cat with the inhibitor gene giving white roots.
However, from your picture, I don't think you are seeing white roots -- the picture looks like normal grayish undercoat. My guess is that the kitten is probably a dark black-based tabby (also known as brown tabby).

Note that the inhibitor gene is dominant, so in order for the kitten to be smoke or silver, one of the parents would have to be either a smoke, or silver tabby.
 
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cataholic07

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Please make sure to keep mom away from the male. He can breed with her again (if he already hasn't yet). And you can get her spayed as soon as the kittens are weaned at 8 weeks old. I would not wait any longer than that :)
 
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