# fur patterns



## BotanyBlack (Apr 6, 2011)

Ok i was reading a few threads on various color patterns of kitty fur. After a bit of debate this is what I came up with.. after a good bath, drying and grooming of my cats...

Sherbert is a Buff ticked tabby.
Pepper is less of a tabby and closer to a mackerel tortie
Archie (name still pending) is a Buff mackerel tabby

now for Jack... well he looks black, except the sprinkling of salt at his age... BUT his skin is white. and his undercoat is a soft grey color, you cannot see this unless you really part the fur though.. Under filtered sunlight or soft light he looks almost chocolate.... any clues what you would call this ??


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## Carmel (Nov 23, 2010)

BotanyBlack said:


> now for Jack... well he looks black, except the sprinkling of salt at his age... BUT his skin is white. and his undercoat is a soft grey color, you cannot see this unless you really part the fur though.. Under filtered sunlight or soft light he looks almost chocolate.... any clues what you would call this ??


Sounds like Blacky. In some of Blacky's pictures she looks downright rusty brown. Well, except for the "soft grey color", I'm not sure on that, I haven't examined Blacky that closely, the soft grey could be dead fur though. The brown coloring often happens in sunlight with black cats, the sunlight lightens the fur. It can be caused by a few things from my understanding, one of which being deficient in tyrosine, an amino acid. Also, for whatever reason, older black cats usually have their fur turn a little browner.


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## BotanyBlack (Apr 6, 2011)

the soft grey under coat is consistant through out and , any dead fur is brushed out.. so I am sure thats not the issue.. its a thick undercoat and does not show through the outer layer of fur. Its actually thick enough to make it a bit hard to actually get to the skin . lol 
The chocolate tones may be due to age though. given Blackjack is 16 years and counting. In normal lighting he still looks Black as Black can be except the sprinkling of individual white hairs he has started showing over the last few years. There is a pic of him in my album will have to add more.

He gets daily vitamins added to his food daily so I am assuming he does not have a amino acid def. but never hurts to check on a regular health check does it?


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## lyttleravyn (May 5, 2010)

In my opinion:

Sherbert - solid cream (in solid reds and creams the tabby gene is never fully suppressed so you will always see some tabby markings; without seeing a good view of the face and body its hard to tell if there are enough for it to be considered tabby or solid cream, imo I'll go with the solid cream)
Pepper - Brown Patched Mackerel Tabby (which is a brown mac tabby with red patches)
BlackJack - solid black (a reddish tint, while not desirable, can occur in the solid blacks, from the pictures in your album it looks like a solid black, the undercoat doesn't show through so it wouldn't be a smoke or shaded, also smokes usually have very very white undercoat, plus a white ruff and ear tufts)
Archie - couldn't find any pictures; if he is similar in color to Sherbert, buff is called "cream"

Very adorable cats overall though! They seem to enjoy computer time haha


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## BotanyBlack (Apr 6, 2011)

Archie is basically the same cream color as Sherbert but with darker obvious stripes on the body, legs and tail. I will have to get a good side pic of him and add to my album


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## lyttleravyn (May 5, 2010)

BotanyBlack said:


> Archie is basically the same cream color as Sherbert but with darker obvious stripes on the body, legs and tail. I will have to get a good side pic of him and add to my album


Now there are some good cream tabby markings  Archie would be a cream mackerel tabby, see the difference in how prominent the markings are between them?


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## BotanyBlack (Apr 6, 2011)

lol Sherbert had alot of those markings at the age of 3 also.. but that was years ago ....he mellowed with age, like fine wine.

Anyway i got that one right .. lol


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## lyttleravyn (May 5, 2010)

BotanyBlack said:


> lol Sherbert had alot of those markings at the age of 3 also.. but that was years ago ....he mellowed with age, like fine wine.
> 
> Anyway i got that one right .. lol


Haha awww how cute! When you said ticked in your original post, ticked means tabby markings on head (the M) and the agouti (banded) hairs but no markings (like stripes or spots) on the body, which is what made me think solid cream  But I love that 'mellowed with age, like fine wine' haha. I wish my kitties would mellow out! They're 15 and all my boy cat has aged into is grumpiness! haha


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## Gabby169 (May 8, 2011)

NJgroomer said:


> . I wish my kitties would mellow out! They're 15 and all my boy cat has aged into is grumpiness! haha


Grumpy old men!!


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## BotanyBlack (Apr 6, 2011)

I love that you can see the difference between Archie and Sherbert... 

everyone in my family say they "look exactly alike"... I think they all need glasses. Sherbert is 6 lbs. soaking wet.. where Archie is easily 12 or more. and stands a head taller then Sherbert. But not as tall as Jack is. Not to mention their coat patterns are completely different.


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## Cam (May 6, 2011)

BotanyBlack said:


> now for Jack... well he looks black, except the sprinkling of salt at his age... BUT his skin is white. and his undercoat is a soft grey color, you cannot see this unless you really part the fur though.. Under filtered sunlight or soft light he looks almost chocolate.... any clues what you would call this ??


Bertie has the same white undercoat, but he's black and white at first glance (black with white patches). In the right light he also has faint tabby markings. But his fur is definitely two-tone - you can see from the hairs he leaves everywhere that they are black at the tip and white at the base. It's funny, cos his skin has dark patches, you can see them on his paws (which I thought were dirty the first time I saw them! )

I don't think it's that uncommon though, cos I've seen at least 2 other cats with the same light-dark fur. No idea what the proper name for it would be though...


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## my5kitties (Sep 13, 2005)

Cam said:


> Bertie has the same white undercoat, but he's black and white at first glance (black with white patches). In the right light he also has faint tabby markings. But his fur is definitely two-tone - you can see from the hairs he leaves everywhere that they are black at the tip and white at the base. It's funny, cos his skin has dark patches, you can see them on his paws (which I thought were dirty the first time I saw them! )
> 
> I don't think it's that uncommon though, cos I've seen at least 2 other cats with the same light-dark fur. No idea what the proper name for it would be though...


It's called smoke.


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