# Color/ Snowshoe look-a-like?



## minskeep (Jul 20, 2010)

I have a kitten thats like a smokey grey and dark grey. He also has white feet, white on his face, and a lighter belly. His tail and ears are dark grey and hes long haired. I have no idea where he got his color because the mother is a calico and the father, is a long haired grey. I have been trying to look up what color he is and I am unsure still. I know hes not a Snowshoe cat but he resembles some shades of the breed. Hes so cool looking and I love him to bits! What would you say his color is?

This is him with a litter mate.








This is his half brother fromt the other litter.








Mother and Father












The same male cat bred another cat and produced a very similar colored kitten only it was short haired. Both kittens have blue eyes as well. I just found it very odd that we got 2 kittens that look nothing like their parents.


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

Hi, I love cat color genetics and you may get more than you bargained for with my answer. :mrgreen:


First, mamma is a standard red- and black-based tortoiseshell with moderate to maximum white spotting, no agouti gene.
Dad is a dilute (_homozygous, recessive dense_) black-based cat whose color is called blue or gray and has no agouti gene. 

Next, is mom a shorthair? 
Dad being a longhair is also ****-recessive for the long hair gene. In order for any kittens to be longhair, mom also had to carry a long hair gene, but if she is short hair, that means she is heterozygous for the hair length genes, carrying one of each and expressing the dominant short hair.

Finally, because both of these cats have had pointed (_colorpoint, looks like Siamese markings w/ blue eyes_) kittens they each carry one copy of the pointed gene. All pointed cats are homozygous for the recessive colorpoint gene. All cats who carry only one of those colorpoint genes are carriers and can pass the gene on to their offspring but until it meets up with a match from another parent, the markings/genetics cannot express themselves. 

This is true for all recessive genes ... they need to be a homozygous pair (matched) in order to express. If the combination is heterozygous (1 dominant, 1 recessive) the dominant gene will express. This is why it is so easy for people to think litters of kittens that look different from each other can be from different fathers. Yes, it could happen, but generally it is also simply due to the wide variety of genetics cats can carry and pass on to their offspring in random patterns.

Pretty kitties! I foster, tame and socialize feral, semi-feral and poorly-socialized cats and kittens for public adoption. I am a big supporter of spay/neuter and TNR.


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## catloverami (Jul 5, 2010)

Another possibility is shaded cameo & white.

Here's a photo of a shaded cameo cat:
Animal Photography | barrose honey bear, shaded cameo cat | Image ref:AP-IY9WGP

To me the father looks like he may be a "blue smoke", ie blue or grey tipping with a white undercoat, as you can see some white in ruff and at back of his hind leg and peeking throughout his coat. In a kitten it's difficult to say whether he's cream & white or a shaded cameo & white. The smokes and shaded coats are hard to distinguish in kittens and the true color doesn't really develop until cat is around 2 yrs. old. At any rate, whatever is his color classification, he's a gorgeous kitty!


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## minskeep (Jul 20, 2010)

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Momma cat is short haired and the other female cat is also short haired but also had another kitten that was long haired. We didnt think that the long haired grey tom cat even bred those two because we never caught them and he was younger than the other tom cat. I do believe that the kittens from both litters have 2 different fathers. Because some of the other kittens looked more like the other tom cat. We do plan on neutering all but 2 cats. We have a need for cats around here to keep the mice population down out in the barns. We dont keep every kitten out of litters but they are really easy to give away up here in ND because if you dont have smart outside cats they will probably get eaten by something. Thats why I gave a mojority of the kittens to people who wanted pets. The only kitten we have left thats outside is really wild so I dont worry about him getting hurt. The other kitten we kept will stay inside till hes big enough to go out for periods of time but I will probably always let him in at night.


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## catloverami (Jul 5, 2010)

I saw a different pic of your boy on another thread and the peculiar thing is that his ears are dark. He just has a color that is unique, it's almost an expression of some Siamese coloring tho he doesn't have the darker face mask, point color on legs or tail _unless_ it comes in later. Will be interesting to see what his adult color looks like when he's mature.


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