Mixed-breed Domestic Cat

Mixed-breed Domestic Cat

Mixed-breed Domestic Cat Slide Show loading.... 5 seconds...

Enjoy this superb slide show. You've got the best Moggies photographed by the best cat photographer. This has got to the be the best show on the Internet of Mixed-breed domestic cats. The cat's names are set out under the picture and these are referred to in discussing the coat type below.

The cats shown here have the typical coat types of non-purebred cats. Here is a description of the coat types. You can match up the descriptions to the cat. The slide show player is manually operated so you can stop and have a good look at a particular cat.

Bicolor: Bicolor means 2 colors and in describing cat coat colors it means white and another color. The other color can be, typically, black, to produce a range of patterns (Olive Oyl, Primadonna) . Often (and this is the case for both my cats) the white is limited to the face, paws, chest and paws. In this case the pattern is called a tuxedo cat after the men's tuxedo formal black and white suit that is worn to formal functions. Bicolor cats are very commonly encountered.

Bicolor is caused by the Piebald or white spotting gene (symbol "S"). White spotting can happen with any other colour and pattern including the Tabby pattern. Tabby cats have an agouti gene that causes the coat to be stripped (Tony). When you combine the white spotting gene and the agouti gene you will get a tabby and white bicolor coat (Speedy Woo). The white spotting gene prevents the spread of the the coat colour before birth. A classic purebred cat who's coat is produced this way is the Snowshoe cat.

The white spotting gene can combine with the red colour in dilute form to produce a red bicolor (Adrian).

An all white cat (Jorja) is a grade 10 piebald. At the other end of the spectrum is the grade 1, which is solid black. The white spotting gene gives the impression of being a "dominant white" cat, when the spotting has covered the whole body to produce plain white. A dominant white cat has been made white by the "W" gene and not the white spotting gene ("S"). I don't know if Jorja is white because of the white spotting gene or dominant white gene as I don't know this cat sufficiently well.

All cat coat colors are either black or red and variations of this in terms of dilution and/or agouti effects. The red tabby bicolor is Adrian, while WAWA and Jack are red tabbies.

Sources:

Messybeast

Wikipedia

http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/4114/piebald.html

Mixed-breed domestic cat to All cat breeds