Black cats - is this unusual?

[Lady Trishka]

My mum has two black kitties and they both started with one or two white hairs on their chests and now they're a bit older they both have a little white patch!

[Velvet]

Originally Posted by Lady Trishka

My mum has two black kitties and they both started with one or two white hairs on their chests and now they're a bit older they both have a little white patch!

Ben did have a faint white patch on his chest, however when the vet removed the cluster of skin nodules to do the biopsy, the area was shaved and the hair has grown back black

[Kay]

Sounds lovely to me.

Just as a point of interest white isn't actually a colour in the animal world. It is caused by melanin not developing along the hair shaft.

[angieh]

Kay - thanks for that info. Still shows up just like a white hair would when I wear dark clothes though!!!

[Kay]

The trouble is Angie you are buying clothes that contain melanin

[TiggerMoon]

Speedy started off totally black and got more and more white as she got older, including her whiskers. Her mum Squidgy was the same, and she looked like she had faded in the sun!

[Velvet]

Originally Posted by Kay

Sounds lovely to me.

Just as a point of interest white isn't actually a colour in the animal world. It is caused by melanin not developing along the hair shaft.

So in the cat world what is a pure white cat called colour wise?

In dogs a white dog is a white dog Many people mistakenly think that white Boxers are Albinos - they are simply white dogs

[Kay]

Originally Posted by Velvet

So in the cat world what is a pure white cat called colour wise?

In dogs a white dog is a white dog Many people mistakenly think that white Boxers are Albinos - they are simply white dogs

They are called white but the white is actually masking another colour. Some white kittens will have a faint colour spot on the top of their head when they are tiny that indicates what colour they actually are underneath.

Albinos come about for the same reason but the lack of pigment (melanin) is also absent in the eyes which appear pink. They aren't actual pink it is just a reflection of light rays bouncing off the blood vessels at the back of the eye.

My Colourpoints eyes are blue but that again is not a colour. Cats eye colour range is from green through yellow to deep copper. The blue range goes from grey through to deep blue that you see in the Siamese finally ending in the
pink of the albino. These varying shades are again due to a lack of melanin. The less melanin the deeper the blue you see. It is just blue light rays reflected off the back of the eye and bouncing around that we are seeing. Hence why on a cloudy day a blue eyed cats eyes will appear less vivid.