When black cat is black and not very dark brown?

[catapault]

Here is a picture of Mr Poe, showing black nose leather and black pads. So he's black, correct?

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and here (below) is Domino, pink nose leather and pink pads. But do I recall something that tuxedo and cow cat patterned cats are black cats with a white spotting gene that varies from mostly black to mostly white?

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As an off-topic aside - I remember that with chickens there are two different mechanisms for white, a dominant and a recessive. So it is possible to breed two white chickens and have colored chickens as a result. (Colored gene recessive to dominant white but expresses itself when paired to a recessive white.) Fascinating.

 

[orientalslave]

Originally Posted by JTbo  
 

Brown tabby e.g. genetically black.  A shame the wire goes straight across his nose as we can't see his typical tabby colours.  If his feet aren't white they would have had black pads and black fur underneath.  You usually see some black going up the back of the legs as well.

Nice cat, hope he got a lovely home.  Domestic longhair.

 

[orientalslave]

and here (below) is Domino, pink nose leather and pink pads. But do I recall something that tuxedo and cow cat patterned cats are black cats with a white spotting gene that varies from mostly black to mostly white?

View media item 152802
Where there is white fur there will be pink pads, so a cat with white spotting might be black (he clearly is) but depending on where the white is have pink pads.

As an off-topic aside - I remember that with chickens there are two different mechanisms for white, a dominant and a recessive. So it is possible to breed two white chickens and have colored chickens as a result. (Colored gene recessive to dominant white but expresses itself when paired to a recessive white.) Fascinating.

This happens with cats - white cats can have coloured offspring.  There is a recessive white as well (blue & pink-eyed albino, two different genes) and there was a well-known cat many years back that was the blue-eyed version, but it was bred out.  There are three mechanisms for white cats - dominant white, white spotting covering all colour and recessive white.

http://www.messybeast.com/whitecat.htm

 

[redvelvetone]

Sooooo many cute black cats on this post~ I just wanted to say everyone's kitties here are so cute.

I have a picture of my black cat Magnus where you can see how he is bleached brown and rusty red from the sun. If you see him out of the light though he looks all black.

He does not go outside but he does like to sunbathe by the windows a lot so I guess that is how he is getting bleached.

Also some of the fur on his belly is more grey than black, so I guess he has faulty black coloring if he were a show cat (he's just a mutt though so it doesn't matter)

There is a good photo of a cat on the forum someplace that is a solid brown color. Very beautiful, but you can see he is def. a true brown and not a bleached black cat because his coloring is more regular as opposed to a black cat with lighter spots. You can see how my cat below has "highlights". Just like people with dark hair get reddish lights from the sun so do cats. Actually I have hair a similar color to the cat's so we match each other at this point lol.

Here you can see the fur on his sides looks reddish brown in direct sunlight but his head and legs are darker.

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• redvelvetone
• Nov 27, 2012

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• redvelvetone
• Sep 29, 2012

Not in direct light - he looks solid black

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• redvelvetone
• Dec 30, 2012

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• redvelvetone
• Dec 30, 2012

except for his tummy which is grey. we shaved his belly last summer during a heat wave to keep him cooler and his skin was white.

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• redvelvetone
• Jan 11, 2013

 

[redvelvetone]

Just wanted to say I love his white whiskers!

So are we saying if their nose and paws are black, then their color is black. Here is Max. I always called him black

 

[blueyedgirl5946]

Just wanted to say I love his white whiskers!

Oh my, thanks, redvelvetone. It was truly a distinct characteristic of Max's good looks.:nod:

 

[crazycatlady365]

Will sun lighten the black to a brown in a cat like it does a horse? And people.

 

[orientalslave]

If he had a white patch and you shaved across the junction between the black and white fur you would find the pink under the black fur is greyish compared to the pink under the white fur.

 

[jtbo]

Can black cat transform to brown?

Panther has always looked like a black, but within last month he has become clearly more of brown, even indoors without sun his legs and belly are clearly dark brown, his back and top of head are something that look black, but he is now brown below that, looks very much like chocolate pics I find from image search, he has not been in sun, only indoors and I have solar film in my windows that blocks UV radiation as well as thermal radiation, around 60% from 'visible' light too, so it can't be the sun, imo.

Either I see colors differently, or he is changing color, but other colors look pretty much same to me, so I guess later is more true.

 

[melesine]

Such pretty black cats in this thread. I have a solid black DSH cat with gold eyes and when he lies in the sun you can just pick up a very deep warm brown color, and also his . Seems to be normal from the black cats I've seen. He has no white on him anywhere, black paw pads, lips and nails. The vet tech commented how gorgeous his coat is, he is very glossy. He's 2 years old. 

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• melesine
• Apr 19, 2013