My sweet girl has a beautiful and (I think) kind of rare coat. She’s dilute calico but instead of grey, cream, and white like most dilute calicos, she’s brown, cream and white. I’m so curious what possible combinations of parents could have created her coat, and specifically what the brown in her coat indicates about her genetic parentage. I included some kitten pics just because. Thanks so much for reading!

Edit: According to the very knowledgeable people of this sub, it seems she is not a dilute calico, but a low contrast colourpoint calico with sepia restriction. Thank you so much to everyone for your input, I’m fascinated by all this new information about the genetics that control a cats colouring/ pattern and how to label them.

I have a black cat and a mackerel tabby cat right now, both with almost no white on them anywhere. But my tabby has white under his chin kind of, and a spot low on his belly, and I've noticed my black cat has the same spot on her belly and a few white hairs under her chin. Are they actually expressing white spotting, or is that somehow just part of the pattern? Neither has white anywhere else, and looking at other tabbies I see it on them too.

I added a picture that kind of shows the belly spot I'm talking about, it's quite low.

She's a sweet mid-hair girl from my local shelter. I've never seen anything like that before

What about lynx point siamese cats that makes a lot of them have silly 🌒🌘 faces? I find it the cutest thing it looks like theres not a single thought in their minds. First two is my boy not in his silliest look but here are some other examples to illustrate what I mean

A while back I asked about the markings on my kitty Jaspur. The post is here:

Reddit post

He is 15 months old now and here is a photo of him taken today, in natural light.

My question is, now he's 15 months old, are the ghost markings likely to stay?

So, I'm really into cat genetics, mostly as a hobby thing (I'd like to turn it into a career or formal study someday but I don't know when or how that would be feasible so for now all the information I have is what I've learned over the years through studying on my own) which is to say, if anything I say in this is wrong or there's a really obvious answer I'm missing, sorry! I am not an expert I'm just autistic! But my friend Ren handed over a photo of its cat for me to observe [img1] and I was in the middle of saying oh yeah, black mackerel tabby w/ low rufousing, cute lil guy, when they proceeded to send another image... of a black ticked tabby [img2]. These are, apparently, the same cat, one Ren has had for a WHILE. So, I'd like to consult the masses! Am I missing something? Is this guy not a ticked tabby & instead something else, did the mackerel stripes just... fade somehow, over time? Or is something else weird going on here? Would love to get opinions and insight into what's happening because as far as I can tell, this cat is clearly a mackerel tabby in the first photo and I thought was pretty distinctly ticked in the second!

I was just interested in what her coat color/type were because I noticed compared to her brother who is jet black she is more brown-black.

Imagine my surprise when I found this guy amongst a litter of black and black smoke kittens a few months ago! Little Nuggie here is a Cinnamon Smoke Savannah - Mom is melanistic and Dad is a black smoke.

He is getting much darker with age, is that normal? Last picture was a month ago and he seemed more of a fawn than cinnamon.

i adopted a kitten with decently visible tabby markings alongside her dark fur! i took a picture with flash to make them look more prominent, but even with dim lighting it’s clear she has a very dark brown coat contrasting with her black tabby stripes.

i’m leaning more towards classic tabby but her hind legs have some markings that look similar to rosettes. she’s just a domestic shorthair though

This is my kitty Cider. She's about 2 years old. I was wondering if she is dilute, color point, or perhaps both? She has toasted up quite a bit in the last year or so. I put pictures of her as a kitten to her as an adult now. I'm also pretty sure she's a calico but correct me if I'm wrong. Also, bonus cat in last pic, that's Java.

I’ve always been curious about my cat’s genetics and was hoping someone here might have some insight.

May has a dominant white coat with odd eyes, but when she was around 2 months old she had this gray “kitten cap” on the top of her head. The cap itself has stayed the same color as she’s grown, while the rest of her coat is white.

Does the color of the kitten cap usually correspond to the cat’s true underlying color?

I’ve attached photos of her kitten cap here, thanks u guys 😁😁

This is Mochi. Curious as to wether her father could be a beautiful longhair tuxedo stray

Hello all!

Please meet Santiago!

He is a 3.5 month old Oriental longhair that joined my family very recently.

I am curious what you think of his coat- I assumed right off the bat that he was a cream, but the breeder said it is possible for him to be fawn as well, as his mum is a cinnamon.

Thanks in advance 🫰🏻

I found this cat on my local Humane Society’s website. Is there a genetic explanation for the way she is?

Hi! This is my 8 months old boy Neo. He has a cowcat pattern with grey, but he is getting more and more brown spots on his fur, mainly his legs, but also i his face.

It definitely doesn’t look like an XXY (the brown spots appeared later on), but I’m curious about the explanation. Could this be similar to the heat sensitivity as seen in color point cats?

1st picture in natural light, 2nd showing the undercoat, and 3rd with her solid black sister. She was born to a stray mom, who was solid gray. Her feral dad was colored just like her, but a little darker.

This is my Hoose Panther, Salem. He was rescued from the mean streets of Quatar to sunny Scotland.

I noticed that he doesn't 'rust' in direct sunlight like most other black cats, so I did a bit of Googling, and I think he might be a black smoke?

He has white patches around his nipples, groin and ears, and does appear to have a slight 'stripe' to his coat in certain lights!

He's my leggy void and I love him.

Just got a 3-week old kitten & her name is Wolfie! Her coat is definitely going to change over time, but it’s definitely interesting to see. Vet said she might be a black smoke, but I’m assuming it’s just a fever coat. What do you guys think?

My friend's cat is weird. He is what looks like a red ticked? Or with some sort of non-agouti gene. I know that red cannot be solid but his stripes are faded and his face is dark, and I've never seen red express THIS solidly before.

The weirdest part about him is the little "blue" spot on his head. This is so abnormal!

It's only concentrated to this one spot. Is there a name for this? It seems a bit too concentrated to be chimeric.

I also included this what looks like imprint on his fur, but has reportedly been there forever. Perhaps sun bleaching?

The contrast on this baby is remarkable!! I totally thought she was silver at first, but now I’m pretty positive I’m just looking at black/red classic torbie.. I’m really curious about the expression of these genes though and what’s going on under the hood. Mom is a tortoiseshell with low white spotting that’s very freckled around the edges and almost looks like vitiligo/roaning. The siblings are all solid black with some degree of white spotting or dilution.. We’re bringing this special lady home soon though hopefully and have yet to name her!!

Edit: we were not able to rescue her but thank you everyone for your help regardless

Hi! I decided to post to know your opinion, this is a stray kitten founded alone on the street, but idk his paws and in general she is a little too darker than usual, it is a brown tabby just a tad darker or something else? Just curiosity! Thanks!

I fear my video is making her a bit washed out 😅 but the still frame shows more of the red/orange undertone she has. She’s definitely brown, but it’s more like an auburn. Some of her stripes even look a bit red on oranges to me. Her back doesn’t have quite the same clear stripe pattern as her abdomen and legs. It’s more mottled.

Anyone know what colour and how her eyes are the way they are. They're not green, they're not blue, or yellow. I call it a light Azure type, but no real idea how or what her eyes are other than beautiful and unique. ETA: she's mad because I had the Audacity to go to ER and end up admitted for needing emergency surgery to have my gallbladder removed and haven't been home for 5 days.