Linked Characteristics?

[Martin]

My Ginger tom, Red, has a deep voice, my black tom, Black, has a squeaky voice. My friends have a ginger and a black cat, also with deep and squeaky voices respectively. I've been told that ginger cats are almost always toms and that white cats are often deaf. Are these characteristics realy linked with colour? (English spelling!) Are there any other examples?

[Martin]

Thanks for all that info, Spencer, I'll go back over it when I'm not so tired (3am now. What am I doing?) But I had a quick look at Spencer in that 'interesting' pose. Does he always spread-eagle on bar stools? He looks enormous !

[This message has been edited by Martin (edited February 12, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Martin (edited February 12, 2001).]

[Pam]

Martin my white cat, Andy, fortunately hears quite well. Even though he has golden eyes the vet's first question to me when I took him for his first visit as a kitten was "can he hear?" Apparently the deafness is more of a characteristic in white cats with blue eyes, although it can occur in any. The vet told me that sometimes if a cat has one blue eye and the other a different color, the cat may be deaf in the ear on the same side as the blue eye. Andy's brother turned out to be deaf.

[4 feline house]

Martin-

Cat genetics has always been a fascinating topic to me, and I have done quite a bit of lay study on the subject, and you are right. Also, Spencer's information is also correct. An interesting thing about the color red (or ginger) in cats - it is not really a "color" but instead is an "absence of black". And, red cats are always tabbies. Also, have you ever imagined, especially as a kitten and out in the sun, that your black cat had stripes? Well, he does, because almost all black cats are actually black-on-black tabbies. Their stripes are most noticeable when they are younger and/or out in the sun, but sometimes their forehead m's are always visible. It's a very interesting study, and there is alot of good information on the web about it. There is a rather esoteric, but still informative, slide show on the suject at www.janecky.com/runyen/bio554/cat/INDEX.HTM that anyone interested in the subject might find worthy of a visit.

[thelmalu99]

Hi,
My first cat, Sydney, who is no longer with us , was all white with one blue eye and one green. Sydney was deaf as a doorknob. I took us a while to realize that he was deaf because it always seemed as if he could hear loud noises, such as the vacuum cleaner (vibration). We thought he was ignoring us when we called him! It was only much later that I learned that white cats with blue eyes are very often deaf.

[trisnic]

Interesting genetics information. Myself I'm really interested in animal genetics though I don't know too much about cat genetics. The black on black thing was really strange I had no idea. I also found it interesting how the website was using the term "agouti" as I once read that the term agouti applies to nothing over the size of rabbits. Well I guess that was wrong.

Myself I don't really believe in color-linked personality traits. I do think it's fun to compare an orange cat with another orange cat on forums such as this. However some people take the extra mile and choose their cat based solely on color because they believe that the cat will be a certain way. I think that a person should choose the cat based on the cat and not its color. Why I say this is that once I was in a petstore and this worker woman was saying "Ohh if you want a friendly cat get an orange cat and if you want a shy cat get a white cat but don't get a black cat because they are agressive..." I thought that that was absurd! It sounded like the woman was talking about breeds or something. I hope that the people didn't listen to that advice when picking out their pet. White cats are supposed to be shy and aloof, for example, and my white cat was so sweet. I'm still sad over her death 8 years later. Well I do think that it is fun to compare cats on here as long as it's not taken to the extreme. In response to the orange cat thread my parents female orange tabby does like to "talk" but she doesn't like to try new foods. My parents have made those cats waaay too picky!

[wolflady]

Welcome to Pet Talk, Martin!

I also find genetics a really interesting thing to study (although I was in Cell Biology for a long time), but yes, it is common that white cats with blue eyes are more prone to deafness. Sometimes you will see a bi-eyed (one blue, one green or another color) where the side the eye is blue, the cat will be deaf. White cats are also more prone to skin diseases and skin cancer because of their light complexion. That is why it's better to keep them inside. Fortunately my white cat, Marius, is as healthy as an ox...even though he was malnourished and severely infected with ear mites when I found him.

There was an interesting article in Cat Fancy this month where a lady drew up a theory about cat personalities based on the shape of their head! It was an interesting point of view, and I did notice the different characteristics in my triangular (wedge) shaped head cat Marius, and my round faced tuxedo cat Scooter!



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"In a cat's eye, all things belong to cats." - English proverb

[luvdemabys]

Well, there are RED Abyssinians, no stripes, just ticked, and Very Beautful they are, too! Just ask Ms. Wynki! For what it's worth, the loudest voiced cat who ever let me call him mine was a black one.

Originally posted by 4 feline house:
Martin-

Cat genetics has always been a fascinating topic to me, and I have done quite a bit of lay study on the subject, and you are right. Also, Spencer's information is also correct. An interesting thing about the color red (or ginger) in cats - it is not really a "color" but instead is an "absence of black". And, red cats are always tabbies. Also, have you ever imagined, especially as a kitten and out in the sun, that your black cat had stripes? Well, he does, because almost all black cats are actually black-on-black tabbies. Their stripes are most noticeable when they are younger and/or out in the sun, but sometimes their forehead m's are always visible. It's a very interesting study, and there is alot of good information on the web about it. There is a rather esoteric, but still informative, slide show on the suject at www.janecky.com/runyen/bio554/cat/INDEX.HTM that anyone interested in the subject might find worthy of a visit.

[This message has been edited by luvdemabys (edited February 13, 2001).]

[Martin]

Hi everyone , thanks for the welcome and the fascinating discussion! The black on black idea is amazing! It prompted me to remember an apparently all black cat I knew in New Zealand, whose stripes did indeed show-up in the sunshine! Jack, short for Jack the Ripper (vicious he was! ), had another colour characteristic which is unique in my experience; he was white underneath! What I mean is that every individual hair in his fur was white except for the last ¼ of an inch, which was black. Thus; when his fur was lying normally he looked black but when you stroked him the wrong way , he was white ! Has anyone else ever seen that in a cat?

Here’s another thought that’s been provoked:- My own cat, Black, ….let me just clarify something before I confuse anyone; my two cats are a ginger tom and a black tom, their names are ‘Red’ and ‘Black’. They’re littermates and, I assume half brothers. …now, Black isn’t quite all black, he’s got some white patches; on his lower abdomen, his chest, and some faint white patches in what would be his arm pits, if he had arms, …on the inside of where his front legs join his body, got it? Now, I don’t want to lower the tone of the conversation but I can’t avoid the thought that his bears an uncanny similarity to the places on MY body where I have hair ! This leads me to the conclusion that ‘Black’ has white pubic hair! So, the question becomes; Why do cats have pubic hair, and is pubic hair (in any animal) intrinsically different from the rest of it’s hair or fur? My own guess is that the only reason for it is to ‘advertise’ sexual maturity , but it seems somewhat pointless in an animal with such a sense of smell as a cat! Furthermore, it seems that the gene for pubic hair has been around since the time of the common ancestor of cats and humans; 65 million years or so !

Can anyone comment on Jack or Black?


[This message has been edited by Martin (edited February 13, 2001).]

[trisnic]

I believe that the term for white underneath another color in cats is generally called "smoke" or "smoked". I might be wrong though.

[4 feline house]

Martin-

I know alot of people might think this subject is a little indelicate, but I just had to respond, because my sister has a torbie that has darker fur outlining her vulva, and I have always laughed at the way my sister calls it her "pubes"!

[Martin]

4 feline house
Yes! that's what I call them too : ! Now, I'm sure this is a 'family' site so can anyone comment on this from a genetics point of view?

[4 feline house]

Does anyone's orange tabby have freckles! All the orange tabbies I have had or known have eventually had little brown spots begin appearing on their lips, nose leather, pads, etc. My mom even asked the vet once and he said it is very common in orange cats, and it is caused by a harmless, non-contagious virus. My mom is a freckled redhead, and we all had a good laugh at her freckled redheaded cats! The only orange boy I have ever had also developed these "freckles". Any one else?

[Pam]

Yep, count Trevor in as a freckled tabby! When I first noticed them appearing (on his lips and nose) I brought it to the vet's attention. He told me it was normal to see in orange kitties.

[Martin]

Yep! Red's got 'em too! Black 'freckles' on his bottom lip!
How intimately we know our cats!

Spencer, I'm sure that was just a 'typo' when you referred to Manx as being Irish as opposed to from the Isle of Man?



[This message has been edited by Martin (edited February 18, 2001).]