REVEAL YOUR PETS 2 ME >:3c

Oh yeah, now that I think of it, having the back of the head be black/darker is really common in tabbies, where the stripes all smoosh together:



So that's probably what's happening also with Loq's catto, just on her back! Thank you Codeless!

("Brown" tabbies are actually genetically black. A tabby's stripes show their "true" color, that is, the base color)

Yeah, if they're different litters all bets are off! But since her daughters are dilute, we know the mom has to be carrying dilution! Both Angel and Raye's dads had to be carrying dilution as well, but they weren't the same tom - Raye's dad was red or cream because she's a tortie, Angel's dad was black or blue because she isn't. Raye also looks pretty solid going by the picture, so her and Angel's mom is heterozygous for tabby (carries the allele for solid), and her dad probably was too (tabbies are far more common than self-colored/solid cats in feral populations, as I'm sure you've ascertained).

White spotting is interesting because of how variable it is, but if a cat has the allele, they will show some amount of white. If the cat is homozygous (WW) they'll have more white, but a heterozygous cat (Ww) can be up to half white, or have just a white tip on the tail! So Raye's dad had to have been Ww or ww. Raye herself is ww. (This assuming that she doesn't have white somewhere I can't see in the picture). Angel is Ww since only her neck, paws, and probably belly are white.

/sperg

 

Ok so this is something I´m curious about, is Ty a grey or a brown tabby? To me, he looks like he´s a sandy tan sort of colour but my mom claims he´s grey.

ETA: He looks more sandy on his nose and ears, and more gey on his sides and back and especially tail

 

Raye does not have any proper white, just some very faded orange patches :p Angel does in fact have white belly, but good luck getting a picture of it. Anxious Cat Is Anxious and doesn't often stretch out on her side or roll around.

 

He's definitely a brown (black) tabby, since his stripes are black. Black tabbies, especially mackerel tabbies, often come out looking sort of grizzled:



This is because the hairs are actually banded with color, creating a salt and pepper effect:


As you can see in the picture, black tabbies have a sandy-colored undercoat, which is more obvious on the face where the fur is thin. That's why Ty's ears and nose are browner-looking.

Tabby is analogous to agouti in rats, shaded sable in dogs, and the wild-type brown in rabbits.

 

@Birdy I think Penny's called a calico tabby, but I am intrigued to know if there is a fancier term/fun DNA info you can share.

Spoiler: catto

Ziggy is a stray we know nothing at all about, but I have vague suspicions there might be some oriental shorthair in her. You can't really see it in any of the pictures I have to hand, but she's got one blue eye and one green.

Spoiler: catto x2

 

Yeah I´ve seen the banding on the shed hairs. The ones which Aren´t white but of course still show up in black clothes.

 

Aww baby :(

@budgie

Since both Penny's black and red parts are tabbied, she's simply a tabby-tortoishell, or torbie. Tortoiseshell cats are considered calico when they are more than half white. A torbie calico is called a tabico or caliby.

Red cats are actually all tabbies! This goes for the red parts on torties also - a torbie shows tabby markings on both the red and black parts of her body, like how Penny is. Purebred cats are bred for very low contrast tabby, to give the illusion of solid red.

Ziggy is what's a called a van cat - she's almost all white, and her pigmentation is restricted to her face and tail (and a spot on that leggy). So she's a brown tabby van - impossible to tell whether she's mackerel tabby or classic tabby. She certainly looks like an oriental shorthair, but breeds are not my strong suit.

It's not uncommon for cats to have a blue eye on the white side of their face, since no pigment is being produced there. She also has a chance of deafness in the ear on the same side, though not a terribly high one, and she'd be born deaf - if she's not deaf in that ear now, she won't become so, except in both ears as a consequence of old age.

 

Penny's almost entirely white on the underside, so I think she's probably borderline tabico. I gotta say I like the sound of torbie, though, and will be sharing this name with everyone.

 

@Birdy lookit my abby

Spoiler: feat. kintsugi user rats

 

catto, who capture own legy using own tail,

 

oh, there's something unusual going on here. do you have a picture of her from the side?

 

What would you call boo? Black tabby? She definitely has the stripes, but she also has longer and thicker hair than most american shorthairs I've met.

 

can't find any really good pictures, but here she is with the dog:

Spoiler

and here's her sister emma:

Spoiler

(i can tell you the answer if you want..

Spoiler

they're Abyssinians!

)

 

I was going to ask if they were! They're gorgeous girls and please give them a smooch from me.

 

i will when i get home! :)

 

I would think she's just a very heavily striped brown tabby, but just in case: if you fluff her fur the wrong way, does she have a white or gray undercoat? Very pale compared to the tan undercoat in the picture upthread?

These are fawn Abyssinians! That is, they're fawn ticked tabbies. Fawn is the dilute form of cinnamon, like blue is the dilute form of black. Cinnamon is a very unusual color - it's a double recessive allele of black. There are three non-dilute forms of black: regular black, chocolate, and cinnamon. Chocolate is recessive to black, and cinnamon is recessive to chocolate, so you only really get either of those colors or their dilute versions (lilac and fawn respectively) in pedigree cats.

Ticked tabby is only recognized in the Abyssinian breed (though of course it can appear on any cat.) Instead of the hairs being banded, they're just tipped with the cat's base color. Ticked tabbies sometimes have faint stripes on the legs and face, but none on the body. It actually is a separate gene entirely from all the other tabbies, is dominant, and masks mackerel and classic tabby (a ticked tabby molly can have mackerel or classic kittens, as long she carries the allele for not-ticked.) It sometimes occurs in feral populations, and may or may not represent the color of the domestic cat's ancestor.

I read Abby as the cat's name in your first post! It's a good thing I could see the pink nose and pads, or I would've guessed black golden shaded and been completely wrong.

 

their names are abba and emma - they came with the names, i could not tell you why

 

Very pale gray, maybe white. the lighting in here isn't very good. picture to follow.

 

Okay, so I think Boo is actually a smoke tabby (and white) - a black tabby with the allele for silver:


Silver is a gene that causes the bases of the hairs to be white. How much white varies - smoke is the least extend of white caused by the silver allele. It's more common to see solid color smoke cats than smoke tabbies, but you do see them here and there. How exactly the gene controls the extent of white is not fully understood, but silver is the dominant allele - a cat with silver will have silver kittens when bred to a non-silver cat. They're not terribly common in feral populations, but since the gene is dominant it can quickly permeate local groups, so there are colonies where most of the cats are smoke or otherwise silver.

The silver phenotypes are chinchilla (hair shaft 1/8 colored and the rest white), shaded (1/4 hair colored), and smoke (1/2 hair colored). Cats with chinchilla and tabbying are silver tabbies:

Shaded seems to be the interaction between silver and ticked tabby.

As for her breed, she might just be an unusually fluffy domestic shorthair. Short fur is dominant to long and thus more common in feral populations, so if she was adopted from a rescue she's probably a good old shorthair.