What Color is My Cat?

Black and red are called “full colors” in the cat fancy. When a cat inherits the “dilute” genes, black becomes blue and red becomes cream. Even solid color cats that are the same color can look different since the shade of a color can vary. Except for white, it is not unusual for a solid color cat to have a faint suggestion of tabby markings especially when they are kittens. These are called “ghost markings”. These ghost markings are seen most often on reds and creams.

These cats are the same colors as the solid cats. The only difference is the addition of stripes – called tabby markings. The silver tabby is the only tabby that does not also come in solid. Silver is a variation of black that is only seen in tabbies.

Even within each of these colors, there is a wide range of differences. Some reds have a deep, mahogony color while others are very light. Blues can have a very light, powdery blue shade or be almost a navy blue.

All tabby patterns are usually more distinct on a shorthaired cat than on a longhaired cat.

Many people think that all tabbies are also with white. A very common feature of all the tabby patterns is a white chin. Tabbies also have white around their eyes that is called “eye liner”.

Mackerel Tabby

The most common tabby pattern is named after the fish! A good description of the vertical stripes that are parallel on the cat’s sides. Some people also refer to mackerel tabbies as “the guys in the pinstripe suits”!

Classic Tabby
Often referred to as a swirled or bulls-eye pattern. The stripes are much wider than a mackerel tabby’s stripes with a circular pattern on the sides. These tabbies will often have broad stripes running down the middle of their back.

Spotted Tabby
Instead of lines that create a pattern, spotted tabbies have small individual spots.

Bengals have a brown color and variation of the spotted pattern that is not seen in other cats. The spots occur in a random pattern and vary in size. The spots can be solid. Spots that have a dark outline with a lighter color in the center are called rosettes.

Ticked Tabby
Instead of a pattern on the body, every individual hair is ticked – has bands of color on it. In purebred cats, some breeds are allowed to have stripes (called bars) on their legs and face. Other breeds are required to be totally free of any barring.

(Tortoiseshell and Tortoiseshell Tabby)

Tortie is short for tortoiseshell. Yes, the name comes from the tortoiseshell turtle. Torties combine two solid colors – red and black – and a majority of torties are female. Why female? In cats the red and black colors are on the X chromosome. Since females are XX and males are XY, it is usually only females that have both red and black.

The primary color on most torties is black. The amount of red can vary from just a few toes to lots of obvious red. It is rare but some torties have more red than black. They used to be called “reverse torties”.

Torbie is short for tortoiseshell-tabby. When you add tabby stripes a tortie becomes a torbie. They are also called patched tabbies since they are a tabby with patches of red or cream. Adding stripes also tends to make the red harder to see. Most torbies will have some red on their feet, even if you don’t see it anywhere else.

Many people find the difference between torties and torbies rather confusing. Even on a solid color cat, you can often see stripes on reds and creams. The only way to be sure if you have a tortie or torbie is to ignore any stripes showing in the red or cream areas – just look to see if the black color is solid or has stripes!

Torties and torbies are very interesting! They tend to have what the cat fancy calls “Tortie-tude”. More than any other color, these girls have an “opinion” on everything. They will tell you exactly what that opinion is! At the same time, they can be one of the sweetest cats you will ever own.

Every tortie has its own unique color pattern. Torties have been called Mother Nature’s idea of abstract art.

The earliest pointed cat was the Siamese so even today many people think that all pointed cats are Siamese. There are now many other pointed breeds – Ragdolls, Birmans, Balinese, and Tonkinese. Some breeds like the Siberian, Cornish Rex, and Exotic Shorthair can be any color or pattern including pointed. Pointed is just the name of a color pattern so domestic cats can also be pointed. The only thing that all pointed cats have in common is blue eyes.

The pattern in the points – face, feet and tail – can be either solid or tabby. A pointed cat with tabby markings in the points is called a “Lynx Point”. So a seal point has solid color points and a seal lynx point has tabby markings in the color points.

Adding tabby stripes can make seeing the difference between a seal lynx point and a blue lynx point difficult for a novice. The top of the nose will always look brown on a seal lynx point.

All colors and patterns can also come with white – called particolors in the cat fancy. This is caused by the white spotting gene.

Below are three names for with white patterns and their descriptions. However, the location and amount of white can vary tremendously. Mother Nature must think that cats with white are very special. That is why she paints each one individually so no two are ever exactly alike. Some purebred breeds such as Birmans, Snowshoes, Ragdolls, and Turkish Vans do require that the white only be in specific areas.

Mitted Pattern – The white may only be on paws, belly, chest and chin.
Bi-Color Pattern – White is allowed much farther up the back legs and on the face.
Van Pattern – A predominantly white cat with colored patches. The patches of color are usually seen on the face and tail.

Solid with White
Solid black and white cats are often referred to as Tux. That is not a breed or an official color name. Just a great nickname since the black and white color combination looks like a cat wearing a tuxedo.
The picture of a Sphynx, the hairless breed, is included to show that a cat’s skin is exactly the same color as their fur.

Tabby with White
The pattern on the body of any tabby can be very distinct or rather difficult to see. Regardless of the color, all tabbies have tabby markings on their head including stripes that form an “M” on the forehead. The tabby markings on a classic tabby are always much wider stripes than the stripes on a mackerel tabby. A tabby with white in the van pattern, is just called a tabby with white since it is impossible to tell if the tabby markings are classic or mackerel or spotted or ticked.

Tortie/Torbie with White
Torties and torbies with white are very eye catching colors. In the cat fancy, this is referred to as having “flash”.
The first two girls are excellent examples of different shades of the same color. One is a very dark blue color. The light blue is referred to as a powder blue in the cat fancy. Because the amount of white differs, the girl on the left used to be called a dilute tortoiseshell with white and the girl on the right was a dilute calico.
Notice the picture of the black tortie next to the brown torbie . You can see stripes in the red color on the tortie. This is very common. Since the black areas are solid instead of striped, she is a tortie.

Pointed with White
The presence of the white spotting gene on a pointed cat can cause patches of color to show on the cat’s body. Sometimes a lot of color will show but all pointed with white cats will still have blue eyes.