CAT COLOURS AND PATTERNS – Part 9


MINK COLOURS, VAN, VAN BI-COLOUR, HARLEQUIN, SEYCHELLES GROUP, MITTED & RAGDOLL COLOUR PATTERNS and FUTURE COLOUR POSSIBILITIES

MINK COLOURS TONKINESE CAT COLOURS AND PATTERNS Part 9

MINK COLOURS (TONKINESE) : Minks are pointed cats with much darker bodies and less (although still apparent) contrast between body colour and point colour.

 

 

MINK COLOURS (TONKINESE) : Minks are pointed cats with much darker bodies and less (although still apparent) contrast between body colour and point colour. Mink is a halfway-house between solid colour (Burmese) and colourpoint (Siamese). In theory, Tonkinese occur in versions of all Burmese (solid) colours – the list below gives the Burmese equivalent name for some of the mink colours. Mink-colour cats have blue, aqua or blue green eyes. In Australia, Tonkinese are found in spotted, tabby, ticked, tortie and tortie-tabby varieties and in the silver series. Many registries use the Oriental or Burmese colour name, not the “mink” term.
Blue Mink Ash blue (with warm fawn tones) body, medium/slate blue points.
Champagne Mink (Chocolate) buff cream/light tan body, points golden tan to milk chocolate
Honey Mink (Cinnamon)
Natural Mink (Black/Seal) Medium brown body, deep seal brown points.
Platinum Mink (Lavender/Lilac) Pale silver/pearly grey body (with light fawn tones), points pale dove grey to light taupe grey
Red Mink Pale red body, darker red points with ghost tabby markings
Cinnamon Mink
Fawn Mink A “hotter version” of cream.
Cream Mink

 

 

 

VAN, VAN BI-COLOUR, HARLEQUIN, SEYCHELLES GROUP: Van Pattern is also called Grade 8 – Grade 9 Piebald. It is the most extreme of the ‘Seychelles‘ patterns, comprising patches on head at base of each ear; tail same colour as patches, often with darker rings because red and cream are not true solid colours. Van Bi-Colours & Harlequins have additional markings on legs, one or two small patches on body. Beware: in Turkey, the term Turkish Van does not refer to a patterned cat!! The Seychellois is a Van-pattern cat of oriental type.
The 3 Seychellois patterns are:
Seychellois Neuvieme white, coloured tail & head splashes
Seychellois Huitieme has additional leg splashes
Seychellois Septieme has leg & with body splashes
Other colours are being developed in Van pattern cats. In theory any solid, tabby or tortie colour can occur in the Van pattern. The current colours of Van-pattern cats (Turkish Van and Van Bi-Colour) are:
Auburn and White original Turkish Van breed colour – red-tabby markings
Black and White black markings
Blue and White ash grey markings
Cream and White dilute of auburn – cream-tabby markings
Tortoiseshell and White tortie/blue-cream markings
Tabby and White any colour tabby markings

 

 

 

MITTED & RAGDOLL COLOUR PATTERNS: The following are colourpointed cat appearing to have white mitts. The ‘Mitted Pattern’ is found in the Snowshoe, Birman and Ragdoll. The mitted pattern can occur with any of the colourpoint colours and patterns. There are six Ragdoll patterns, only three of which have competition status:- Colourpoint, Bi-colour and Mitted. The other three patterns are High Mitted (mitts extend up legs), Mid-High White (Bi-colour with additional white in “saddle” area) and High White (Bi-colour with even greater degree of white, “saddle” may be absent). The Piawaian Kucing Malaysia has a Ragdoll-type Seal Point Mitted pattern. Other colours are
being developed in Ragdolls.
Seal Point Bi-Colour Seal brown ears, tail, mask, “saddle”
Seal Point Colourpoint Siamese pattern
Seal Point Mitted Birman pattern, dark body, white face blaze, belly, boots & mitts
Blue Point Bi-Colour/ Colourpoint/Mitted as above but with blue (grey)
Chocolate Point Bi-Colour/Colourpoint/Mitted as above but with chocolate
Lilac Point Bi-Colour/ Colourpoint/Mitted as above but with lilac
Lynx Point Bi-Colour/ Colourpoint/Mitted tabby-patterned points (various colours)
Red (Flame) Point Bi-Colour/Colourpoint/Mitted red (red tabby, flame) points

 

 

 

EQUIVALENT NAMES TABLE
Full Expression Sepia (Burmese) Mink (Tonkinese) Pointed (Siamese) Abyssinian/Somali Australian Mist
Black/Brown (in tabbies)/Ebony Brown/Sable/Seal Sepia Sable/Natural Mink Sable/Seal Usual/Tawny/Ruddy/Brown  Brown
Blue Blue/Blue Sepia Blue Blue  Blue  Blue
Chocolate/ Chestnut/Brown Chocolate/ Champagne Sepia Chocolate/ Champagne Mink Chocolate  Chocolate  Chocolate
Lilac/Lavender/ Frost Lilac/Platinum Sepia Lilac/Platinum Mink Lilac/Platinum  Lavender  Lilac
Cinnamon Cinnamon/Cinnamon Sepia Cinnamon/Honey Mink Cinnamon Red/Sorrel Gold
Fawn/Light Lilac Fawn/Fawn Sepia Fawn Fawn Fawn/Beige/Dilute Sorrel (non sex-linked) Peach
Red Red/Red Sepia Red Red Sex-linked red  Red
Cream Cream/Cream Sepia Cream Cream Sex-linked cream  Cream

 

 

That is the end of the colours and patterns you are likely to see.The next section concerns variations which either haven’t been seen yet or which have been seen once or twice, but have not been bred.

 

FUTURE COLOUR POSSIBILITIES: The following colours are found in other species, some have been observed in cats, but have not been standardized or developed further. Some may be introduced by outcrossing to wild cats, as was rosetting/marbling in the
Bengal.
Yellow True yellow (as seen in palomino horse), the ‘Palomino’ breed was said to be the colour of a brown grocery bag. Historically, “yellow” meant sandy-coloured reds.
Banded (Belted) Solid colour with a solid band of white around middle of body (seen in Dutch Rabbits) – some Spanish street cats already exhibit this pattern but it has not been developed.
Sheeted Solid colour with a wide band of colour (shoulder to haunches) (seen in some breeds of cattle)
Quadricolours Patches in 4 distinct colours. I’ve seen only one example – a blue/cream/white tortie with a black/grey/white face; this may have been a form of mosaicism. The overall distribution of colour was akin to a Bicolor Ragdoll (saddle, mask, white blaze). Eyes were blue. These may possibly be chimaeras (resulting from two fused embryos).
Other Tricolours These look like torties, i.e. red with small black spots or patches but are genetically red/red tabby cats with localised skin mutations or are chimaeras (resulting from 2 fused embryos). This is more and more being seen in cats and has resulted to
grey-black-and-white cats, red-blue-and-white cats and cream-black-and-white cats. A mutant exhibiting Black-Yellow-White has occurred, the cat resembled a Jack Russell terrier, having a pointed face, long ears & bowed back legs. These cats breed as bicolours depending on which embryo cells form the ovaries or testes. Others are sterile due to XXY makeup. These quirks account for tortie tomcats.
New colourpoints Dark points on a solid coloured body (as seen in dun horses) or white/pale points on a dark body (seen in some pig
breeds).
New Tabbies Horizontal stripes, reversed tabby patterns with light markings on a darker base, true spotting, clouding & marbling. Some of these effects are seen in wild cat species.
Black and Tan Black upper body and outside leg, tan lower body and inside leg as seen in Doberman dogs (where it is a mutation of agouti). There is a sharp dividing line between the black and tan parts (a “waterline”).
Blue and Tan Dilute of black & tan, dove-grey upper (agouti mutation). Other colours and tan might then be possible.
Zebra, Dalmatian, Appaloosa These would be striped and spotted as per the dogs and horses of those names.
Pink/Red Eyed Dilutes Seen in rodents, may already have occurred. A pink-eyed dilute has been reported, cat was tan with pink eyes. Kittens
born to her were premature & stillborn. A pink-eyed white kitten was born in a cat shelter in the UK but died as a kitten.
Satin Not actually a colour, but a fur type which would have an effect on how the colour appeared. It would add a sheen to
the coat by reflect light in a different way (seen in mice). A form of “glitter” is seen in some Bengal cats
Green Green is not found in any mammal at present. The famous Danish green kitten was a temporary colour due to copper
contamination.

Copyright & Credit: Sarah Hartwell – MESSYBEAST.COM
Photo copyright and courtesy: Gribb0

 

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