What on Earth is my kitten

Beanie pocket

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I have a 4.5 month old kitten, called Beanie Houdini, and I want to know about her coat since she looks similar to my other cat when he was a kitten but does have some differences. Everyone (including vets) tells me she’s probably going to be either medium or long hair but I don’t know.
Her mother was a sleek and small, short hair tux and the father is a longhair feral black cat. I want to know about her fur type and also I’m curious about her white hairs.
Btw a couple of photos of my babies
 

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FeebysOwner

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Hi and welcome to TCS! Cute cats!!!

'Technically', cats are either short haired or long haired, so based on your kitten's tail, I'd say short haired, when given only those two options. I don't think her tail is bushy enough to think she will be long haired. Even so, there seem to be many cats that could 'qualify' as medium haired, so she may just be one of them!

As far as the white hairs, does there seem to be less and less of them as time passes? If so, that is called a fever coat. There is no definitively known cause, but it is thought that the mama cat had a fever sometime during her pregnancy, and the kittens being exposed to the elevated temperature is the cause. By the time your kitten is full grown, they will likely be mostly, if not completely, gone. Kittens shed their initial kitten coat, and as the adult coat comes it will grow in as the darker color. What is known is that there is nothing at all to indicate that there is any health issues associated to it in the kittens who have fever coats.
 
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Beanie pocket

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Hi and welcome to TCS! Cute cats!!!

'Technically', cats are either short haired or long haired, so based on your kitten's tail, I'd say short haired, when given only those two options. I don't think her tail is bushy enough to think she will be long haired. Even so, there seem to be many cats that could 'qualify' as medium haired, so she may just be one of them!

As far as the white hairs, does there seem to be less and less of them as time passes? If so, that is called a fever coat. There is no definitively known cause, but it is thought that the mama cat had a fever sometime during her pregnancy, and the kittens being exposed to the elevated temperature is the cause. By the time your kitten is full grown, they will likely be mostly, if not completely, gone. Kittens shed their initial kitten coat, and as the adult coat comes it will grow in as the darker color. What is known is that there is nothing at all to indicate that there is any health issues associated to it in the kittens who have fever coats.
It doesn’t seem like her hairs are going away and I looked it up and apparently those are tipped with white when she has these longer and thicker completely white hairs I’m also surprised about how sleek she is I’ve never met a kitten with sleek fur
 

Meowmee

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I have a 4.5 month old kitten, called Beanie Houdini, and I want to know about her coat since she looks similar to my other cat when he was a kitten but does have some differences. Everyone (including vets) tells me she’s probably going to be either medium or long hair but I don’t know.
Her mother was a sleek and small, short hair tux and the father is a longhair feral black cat. I want to know about her fur type and also I’m curious about her white hairs.
Btw a couple of photos of my babies
Gorgeous kittens 😀 I would say she is a domestic long hair tuxedo bicolor, but she’s going to be medium hair. Overall she does look like short hair, however, her fur looks longer and she has the paw tufts. My Merlin was a short hair, but he had very plush fur. He shed a lot when I combed him and he had long paw tufts too. However, his tail hair was not as long as your cat’s.

She could be more a cap and mantle bicolor pattern than a tuxedo

Anyway, medium cats are genetically long hair.

As for the white hairs, that could be from a fever coat or something else like that or maybe she could be shaded or tipped in someway. I’m not sure I often get those confused. If her roots are white, she’s a smoke. It’s often harder to tell in a shorter haired cat. I think shaded and tipped actually means they are white or lighter at the bottom and the color is on the end. According to one of the links I found. The difference between smoke and shaded is that smoke is solid, and there is no visible tabby pattern.

Here are links.

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Kris107

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The white hairs look like guard hairs, no? I don't think it's too uncommon for those to be white on a black cat.
 
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