The Colours
The Colours | ExamplesMost people think of a British Blue as being the colour of the British Shorthair breed. It is certainly the most popular and well known colour but in actual fact there are literally hundreds of colour & pattern combinations being bred all over the world. At Cuddleton British Shorthairs we can produce twenty eight different colour combinations including Cinnamon based colours. We are the first and possible the only breeder in Australia that can breed Cinnamon cats.
So lets start with a quick lesson in colours.
Base Colours
Cats come in four base colours, Black, Red, Chocolate and Cinnamon. White is a special gene that makes the hair grow with no pigment. If the cat did not have that gene it would be one of the four base colours.
Dilute Colours
Another set of genes acts on the four base colours to make them a dilute version of themselves. Black becomes Blue, Red becomes Cream, Chocolate becomes Lilac and Cinnamon becomes Fawn.
Tortoiseshell
Tortoiseshell is a mix of two colours. Red is a funny colour gene in that it is located on the X chromosome in cats. Boys only get one X gene but girls get two. When girls get an X gene with Red and an X gene with another colour they show both colours mixed together. The result is a tortoiseshell.
White Spotting (Bicolours)
Yet another gene is responsible for producing bicolour British Shorthairs. It affects the way the colour pigments spread along the kittens bodies in the womb. It spreads out and down the spine but in kittens with the bicolour gene it slows the spreading of colour down so that the colour doesn't reach their chest or feet. That is why bicolours have a random pattern and every one is different.
Tortoiseshell and white cats are more patched that a standard tortoiseshell. One is more blobs of colour and one is more a blend of colours. This is because the white spotting gene also makes the colour genes on a tortoiseshell clump up into patches rather than spread out all over.
Other Patterns
British Shorthairs also come in colourpoint and tabby patterns. The colourpoint pattern has blue eyes and unfortunately bright orange eyed cats produce weak blue eyed cats so we have decided not to breed colourpoints while we concentrate
Examples of the Colours
Black
We have a solid black girl and from her we can breed black bicolours.
Blue
We have many blue cats in solid and bicolour.
Blue Tortieshell
Our blue tortie girl has a very "mingled" coat with an even spread of cream and blue.
Red
We do not have any red cats but will be able to breed them in future generations in both solid and bicolour.
Cream
We do not have any cream cats but we can breed them from our blue tortieshell girl in solid and bicolour.
Chocolate
We do not have any chocolate cats but we can breed them from our black girl and our blue boy that carries chocolate.
Lilac
We have a lilac girl and several blue girls and boys that carry the chocolate gene and that can produce lilac kittens in solid and bicolour.
Cinnamon
We are the only breeder in Australia that can produce cinnamon British Shorthairs at present from our black girl and our fawn boy. They can produce both solid and bicolour cinnamon kittens.
Fawn
We are also the only breeder in Australia with a fawn British shorthair. He is a bicolour and together with our black girl he can produce fawn in both solid and bicolour.
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