# New kittens, Black or Brown?



## Calcifer (May 6, 2011)

Hi, I'm not sure if I'm in the right section but I thought that I might be best off in here as breeders might be able to give me more insight into the colour with genetics.

My girl that I took in as a stray had her kittens nearly 2 weeks ago, she looks to be black/brown in colour I'm leaning more to brown as her nose leather & lips do not look black. She has had 3 kittens, 2 girls & 1 boy. One of the girls looks to be black & white but the other girl looks more brown & white & the boy looks solid brown. I was wondering if this was possible as I've been trying to find anything about bog standard moggies having a brown coat colouring, most things I've read have said that they are black but just look brown in the sun but they look brown even when not in the sunlight.

I will add pics for you to actually see the coat when I get home as I don't have any here with me at the moment. But for now is it genetically possible for there to be domestic shorthair cats that are brown?


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## lizward (Feb 29, 2008)

In theory it is possible but it is extremely unlikely. For some reason the chocolate gene just doesn't seem to be in the moggy gene pool. There is however a very easy way to tell. What colour are the paw pads? I have a black kitten at the moment, very definitely black, but he would pass for brown









Liz


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## Gratch (Aug 22, 2010)

I've been going nuts about my kittens coloring too. Three of them are 'black and white' but even when they're not in sunlight parts of them appear brown with dark stripes running through them. The paw pads are pink and black. I'm guessing they are black and white but they definitely look like they have brown throughout.


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## gloworm*mushroom (Mar 4, 2011)

Gratch said:


> I've been going nuts about my kittens coloring too. Three of them are 'black and white' but even when they're not in sunlight parts of them appear brown with dark stripes running through them. The paw pads are pink and black. I'm guessing they are black and white but they definitely look like they have brown throughout.


I think this is cos of the tabby gene being there but not or something. A lot of black cats looks brown in sunlight and a lot show tabby stripes too underneath. My friend has one which has white tabby stripes in sunlight, very odd colouring.

But the cats are almost definitely going to be black


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## Calcifer (May 6, 2011)

I'm back at home now & can post some pictures, you can also see the little boys pad.










Boys pad closeup









This is a pic of the mum & underneath that a pic of her paw

















Lastly this is mum & her Kittens









Sorry about the size of the pics I don't know how to do them little like everyone else does.


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## gloworm*mushroom (Mar 4, 2011)

All black to me 

For reference here is a Havana Brown (quite rare and Ive not seen any in this country so far)

Havana Brown - The Pet Wiki

Very obvious chocolate brown.


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## Calcifer (May 6, 2011)

could it be possible that she looks so brown cos her coat is so out of condition? When I took her in she had a bad flea & skin condition so she was extremely patchy with bold spots.
Will the kittens darken as they get older? Also I thought black cats had black pads? sorry but I'm a little new to this & I'm only asking as my black smoke tabby boy has black (really black) & pink pads. He's in the pics on my siggy.


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## gloworm*mushroom (Mar 4, 2011)

Calcifer said:


> could it be possible that she looks so brown cos her coat is so out of condition? When I took her in she had a bad flea & skin condition so she was extremely patchy with bold spots.
> Will the kittens darken as they get older? Also I thought black cats had black pads? sorry but I'm a little new to this & I'm only asking as my black smoke tabby boy has black (really black) & pink pads. He's in the pics on my siggy.


If she has been outdoors definitely. Black coats seem to rust outside and go a browny red colour which disappears after being kept indoors.

They don't look brown to me. There was a chart up before about colours and corresponding paw pads somewhere but I know that that wasnt 100% accurate or 100% complete as one of mine didnt match up to the colours given. The nose on the kittens definitely looks black to me, not the deep brown you would expect.


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## Calcifer (May 6, 2011)

Ah thank you, learn something new every day  I found her scrounging round the bin area where I live & by the mess she was in I'm guessing she outside for a long time. She was skinny, bearly had any strength & looked like the walking dead. Her ears were bold of all fur & were skabby & she had patchy fur with really bad skin & fleas.

I've had her just over 7 weeks now & the fur is growning back on her ears & she's looking loads better, stronger & way more healthy. I've sorted the fleas out & her skins looking great so her fur's getting better too. She does has facial paralysis which means that she can't blink or move her whiskers or ears. That's why her ears lay kinda flat on the pics making it look like she's always looking sorry for heself.


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## lizward (Feb 29, 2008)

Coat certainly looks black but Mum's paw pads look to be brick pink as in chocolate coloured. What colour would you say her pads are? Her nose looks black though. Odd!

Liz


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## Calcifer (May 6, 2011)

To be honest I wouldn't even know what colour to call them, I just know they aren't black as they are lighter & they aren't pink as they are darker. There's only really 2 colours of paw pads that I know & that is proper black & the pink colour you get where there's white fur. I'm sorry, I feel like a bit of an idiot when it comes to colours in cats.


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## gloworm*mushroom (Mar 4, 2011)

Calcifer said:


> To be honest I wouldn't even know what colour to call them, I just know they aren't black as they are lighter & they aren't pink as they are darker. There's only really 2 colours of paw pads that I know & that is proper black & the pink colour you get where there's white fur. I'm sorry, I feel like a bit of an idiot when it comes to colours in cats.


The gingeroo in my sig has bright pink nose and paws, and the blue guy has blue paws and pads


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## Calcifer (May 6, 2011)

Just had another close look, they don't seem to look grey either. Even asked my other half on his oppinion & he's can't seem to say what the colour looks like. it's like it's mixed if you can understand what I mean?


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## Calcifer (May 6, 2011)

when I say mixed, they look like they've got pink in there but they aren't actually pink they're darker.


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## gloworm*mushroom (Mar 4, 2011)

What I meant by grey is that there are more colours than just pink on white cats and black  Lots of different onces. Chocolate cats can have lovely choccy brown noses and paw pads, gingery cats can have reddy orange pads, lots of different varieties 

I am quite confident your cats are black though


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## Calcifer (May 6, 2011)

yeah I understand, I've only ever seen black & pink so haven't really got anything to compare her paw pad colour to. Thank you though, to be honest I was just wondering as she has such a strange colour & I wasn't sure what it would be classed as. I just can't wait for her to get a really healthy coat & her proper colouring now I know what it will be


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## gloworm*mushroom (Mar 4, 2011)

Calcifer said:


> yeah I understand, I've only ever seen black & pink so haven't really got anything to compare her paw pad colour to. Thank you though, to be honest I was just wondering as she has such a strange colour & I wasn't sure what it would be classed as. I just can't wait for her to get a really healthy coat & her proper colouring now I know what it will be


They can get a really funny colouring when they get that 'rusting' affect. Like a mahogany reddy maroon colour! Its usually quite dull as well and then when they get the condition back it goes black and glossy, which I am sure she will get back soon!


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## Calcifer (May 6, 2011)

> They can get a really funny colouring when they get that 'rusting' affect. Like a mahogany reddy maroon colour! Its usually quite dull as well and then when they get the condition back it goes black and glossy, which I am sure she will get back soon!


Thank you gloworm*mushroom if she keeps improving as she has been she will be back to what she should normally be like in no time


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## Taylorbaby (Jan 10, 2009)

They all look black, some blacks coats can be made lighter by the sun and alot of them get 'brown' patches.

alot of people get colour wrong, for some reason alot of people say they have a grey or silver cat when its brown etc 

bu they all just look black to me and black & white.

remember that all cats have tabby underneath its a certain gene, A or a or aa (prob wrong on the letters) that covers it up, sometime you see ghost markings, but its just the tabby showing up, doesnt mean anything.


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## Jansheff (Jan 31, 2011)

Years ago we took in a stray that was in really bad condition. He had fleas, scabs and dandruff and actually coughed worms up in front of us on one occasion (Yuk). His coat was in very bad condition, you could feel all the scabs when you stroked him, poor thing, he craved attention and was very affectionate but his fur and scabby skin felt so disgusting we really had to steel ourselves to touch him and then tried to stick to tickling around his face. 

His fur seemed brown, especially in the worse affected patches. After a few months of good food he fattened up and made the most beautiful sleek black cat - he had a gorgeous coat. Perhaps when your girl has got back into condition after the kittens, she'll look blacker.


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## Marley boy (Sep 6, 2010)

Thelma has a brown/ red tinge to her coat in sunlight and i dont care what anyone says she is my extra special very rare red/brown cat


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## LyndaDanny (Jan 23, 2011)

gloworm*mushroom said:


> All black to me
> 
> For reference here is a Havana Brown (quite rare and Ive not seen any in this country so far)
> 
> ...


There is one living in Exmouth! Belongs to my new b/f. He also has a red point siamese. Both beautiful cats.


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## Nada (Jun 29, 2011)

your kittens is 

A "solid black" is just that: black all over. It may be coal black, grayish black, or brownish black. Black cats can "rust" in the sunlight, the coat turning a lighter brownish shade.

you can read this link

http://fanciers.com/other-faqs/colors.html


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