# Three littermates...completely different colors.



## pinkkitties (Feb 22, 2005)

I really don't know much about breeds of cats but I was wondering why my two cats look completely different even though they are littermates. One is a cream color with subtle striping, and the other is a Torti, at least that is what the vet said. They also have a brother that looks entirely siamese. I guess I just don't understand why all three of them are so different. Can you only call a cat a purebreed if both parents are the same breed? That would be my guess it is just that my kitties brother looks purebred siamese. The vet he went to even said that he had an eye condition that only appears in purebred siamese cats. 

Any info would be greatly appreciated.


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## spacemonkey (Aug 12, 2004)

Perfectly normal  Your boy is a buff tabby, btw. There was one in Scully's litter, along with an orange tabby, a patched tabby (grey with orange) and a tortoiseshell  Do these guys look related? :roll: 










You cats' sibling is definately not a purebred Siamese, there's a lot more to the breed than just coloring. They have a specific body type, head shape, etc. :wink: Because your cats are moggies (aka "mutts") any number of coat colors and patterns are possible, as their parents may have carried many of these traits. Color genetics are fascinating! (though I'm not too good at explaining it all :roll


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## emma_pen (Nov 2, 2004)

These guys are littermates, and look nothing like it. One is dark and long haired and chunky, the other is very light and short haired and svelte. 










Ems


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## Jeanie (Jun 18, 2003)

The genetic makeup (genotype) of a cat might be entirely different from its outward appearance (phenotype), especially when the color of fur is concerned. For example, in human beings, I have brown eyes which are dominant over blue eyes. However, since my siblings had blue eyes, and my husband has blue eyes, I had two blue eyed blonde boys and two brown eyed girls. If there were no blue eyes in my family, my brown eyes would have been dominant, and all of my children would have brown eyes. 

Unless you have two registered Siamese parents and a pedigree showing a total of 5 generations of cats that produce only Siamese kittens, you do not have a purebred cat. No association would allow it to be registered. Under those conditions, you would probably already have a registered kitten.  

It is most likely that all of the kittens have the same father; however, it is possible for a female cat or dog to be impregnated by more than one male.


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## pinkkitties (Feb 22, 2005)

Thanks guys. That really helps a lot. This forum has taught me a lot about cats.


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## Jeanie (Jun 18, 2003)

I'm glad you're finding the forum useful! You can have fun here, too!


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## Feral Fan (Feb 9, 2005)

Believe it or not I think your kitties do look a fair bit alike!

Like Jeanie said... a lot of it has to do with genetics. It gets really complicated but I think that both of your kitties have the same mother and father (though it is possible they don't!). 

Your female (the torti) is black and orange because she is female! Only female cats can have both orange and black or tricolour (calico, orange, white and black) patterns. This gets into genetic charts etc but basically it comes down to females have the XX chromosomes and to have the tortie pattern there needs to be two X's (the only time a 'male' calico or tortie happens is when there are three chromosomes, XXY, or hemaphrodite, very rare!). So now you can see a tortie, torbie or calico and know without asking it is a female!

As for the 'orange' kitties of various shades, most, but not all , are males! The males can't get both orange and the dark colour from parents like the girls can but can get the orange colouring from either parents. So if you have one kitten who is a tortie it is likely her brother got the orange part of the genetics. Female cats that are only orange are rare because usually they get only orange from one parent and the dark colour to make a calico or tortie from the other. But it is not impossible! Orange tabby females occur when both parents have some orange colouring so they can get orange from mom (has to be calico tortie or ginger) and dad who has to be ginger! Even with both parents having orange colouring there is about 25% odds of a female orange kitten. 

Yes it gets much more complicated from here, but I usually get a good headache if I try to get too far into genetics! But now you have some trivia to throw around! As for the siamese, well it is just another one of those genetic traits... all purebreds originate from the selective breeding of certain traits and these traits can still show up in non purebreds. 

(PS- I call my calico Scarlet the 'black sheep', her mom was grey and fluffy, her brother, grey and fluffy, her sister, grey/fluffy, she has the same body type so possibly she just got all the different coat genes? I'm still not too sure!)


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