# My cat changes colors



## monsters mom (Apr 29, 2011)

It's weird. He's a siamese mix and has been doing it since he was maybe 8-9 months old. It started out with the hair that was around his eyes turning a cream color. They stayed like that a few weeks and then faded back to dark brown. Now he often gets random cream colored stripes on his face or legs that will stay for awhile and then fade back to his original color. Right now he has a faint cream colored stripe on his left cheek that started showing maybe 2 weeks ago. 

Any reason for that or is he just part chameleon? LOL


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## Meezer_lover (Apr 19, 2011)

Siamese change colors throughout their life. Sumo's fur right around his eyes would do what yours is doing.....going from white/cream to dark brown and vice versa. We actually attributed that to allergies. He had allergies and it was usually just 1 eye that would do that and that eye would have a booger problem at certain times of the year.


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## saitenyo (Nov 28, 2010)

Interesting! I knew siamese darkened as they reached adulthood, but had wondered if they continued to change past that.

Can they get randomly lighter over time too? And then darker again?

I like the idea that I may have "color-changing" cats.


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## prairienights (Sep 10, 2009)

Siamese cats (I use that term lightly...Color point is the color pattern that any cat can have, Siamese is a breed of cat that is known for having the color point pattern) have the Himalayan gene which is a form of albinism. It's a recessive trait, so the cat needs to inherit two copies of it, one from each parent. It restricts pigment based on temperature. Pigment is restricted in warm areas and is shown in cooler areas of the cat. When meezers are born, they are all white because they've been toasty warm inside their mamma. As they grow older, they get darker where their body parts are cooler (face, ears, legs, tail). Often times they'll be darker in the winter than in the summer. After a surgery, if hair was shaved off, it might grow in a lighter/darker color than the rest of the hair until a full shed cycle has been completed. There is also an inherited factor in how dark the cat may get. Siamese breeders make an effort to breed cats that will stay uniformly creamy over their whole body with dark points. Some color point cats will be almost completely colored and just have darker points than the rest of their body.


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## Patsnights (Jun 5, 2011)

'removed'.


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## tghsmith (Dec 9, 2010)

when I was growing up(wisconsin) we had a small seal point that seasonally change so much people would think it was a differant cat,, she would go almost completely dark in the winter..


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## saitenyo (Nov 28, 2010)

Now I'm curious to see if Apollo lightens up as the weather gets warmer! We're having an unusually long winter this year, and he got pretty dark this winter. But once summer finally hits, it will be toasty!


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## cooncatbob (May 27, 2011)

Samantha, my Blue Torbie was frosted, she would look different colors depending upon the angle you were looking at her from.


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## monsters mom (Apr 29, 2011)

Hmmm well that's all pretty interesting. So about the temperature thing.. Right now we live on a very hot tropical island. We are leaving soon and will be in VA which will be a great deal colder then here obviously. So my Leo might darken after we've been there awhile? 

I've seen him change with the shaved thing. He was bitten by a snake and they shaved part of his leg to place an IV. It grew back a different color but eventually went back. He has a black spot on his back right now where I shaved a small spot of hair. It's starting to lighten back up though.


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## Marshel (Dec 22, 2010)

I just found out that Colonel is what they call a flame point. He is not purebred but has a lot of Siamese in him, He seasonaly changes colors. In the summer his yellow marking are faint. In his winter coat the yellow is much more predominate.


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## Gabby169 (May 8, 2011)

cool, I've never heard of cats changing color before. totally cool! It makes a lot of sense though for body temp control.


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## Kobster (Feb 1, 2007)

I've also heard that body fat can influence the degree of coloration on the body of a color point cat. Sully gained a bunch of weight and has darkened considerably. Now that he is slimming down again, he is starting to lighten up a bit. This make sense as the fat would be insulating his outer skin from the heat of his internal body. Cooler = color. Would love to get him back to fighting weight and a lovely creme color again. He was such a beautiful kitten. Still gorgeous now, mind, wouldn't trade him for anything.

Meant to add, Sully also has a lightening around his eyes and it started when he got an upper respiratory infection a few months ago. I'm thinking by the full shed cycle, it will turn dark again now that he is better.


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