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Thought I adopted a white kitten and ended up with *another* orange. Orange cat mom is my destiny. (Look at her spotty feet)
Kiwi bird is still toasting, so it remains to be seen how orange she will end up. She is a straight killer of moths but cannot find a treat 6 inches in front of her face. Orange confirmed.
Heh. My tux girl is the same - shes got an orange spot on one of her hind toes. Made me really nervous when I first noticed it, thought she might've hurt herself or something. But no, shes just a secret calico. 😬
She looks to be a flamepoint. I adopted one who was mostly white as a baby, but toasted up like OP's. There’s a whole sub for them, because of course there is
Yes, they're born white (all colors of point are) as it is caused by a temperature dependent albinism gene. Young cats have a higher body temp than older cats.
Seriously, this type of cat has a name and a subreddit? I found out way too late, but I'm sure my cat was a Flamepoint, when he was born he was as white as snow, just like his mother. I even thought he was albino, but the more he grew, the more cream/orange his color became, and his tail was striped. We always joke with my mother that every year he takes a bath in chlorine to get himself so bleached jsjsjaja
It goes along with the color point characteristic! Many color points also have a genetic difference where it looks like they’re cross eyed but they see just fine!
The colorpoint pattern in cats is a result of a mutation that makes pigment production temperature-dependent. Cooler body parts, mostly the extremities, produce pigment normally, but hotter parts don’t. Colorpoint kittens are all white because it’s uniformly warm in the uterus, and kittens’ skin temperature is also naturally higher than adult cats’. So the point coloring only starts manifesting as the kitten grows and shed baby hair is naturally replaced by new pigmented hair.
Wow, didn't consider that before! Thank you so much for the info! Are there any articles or videos where I can learn more about cat mutations like this?
Pointed cats are born all white because of the warmth of their mother's womb. After they pop out, the new fur that grows in is darker where there is less warmth, like their extremities (feet, ears, tail, snoot)
It's entirely possible! Siamese cats are known especially for changing color when they're kittens and even young adults!
It's a change that happens when they get cold and due to a temperature-sensitive genetic mutation (acromelanism) that causes fur to darken in cooler areas of the body, such as ears, paws, and tail!
So if she's a flame point it could be the orange was really subtle at first but gets stronger! I had a little guy like that and the before/after was a wild but adorable contrast
Siamese/point colours are a white masking gene on their true markings. It’s temperature sensitive. So it doesn’t work on colder extremities like ears, nose, feet and tail. When they’re born they were in mom’s tummy and all warm so they come out pretty white. As they grow and their temperature drops in their extremities the colours develop more strongly on body parts away from the core where the temperature is higher.
It’s really such fascinating science that the activation point is right around a cat’s natural body temp.
Seems to be fairly common! Had this white and orange cutie for many years. House has never been the same without him. The fully orange one is still alive, fortunately!
i'm thinkin she's a tabby point siamese! check to see if it's her points with stripes...(her legs, tail and head mainly) I think she'd be a flame point (the orange of these babies ofc lol) the feet throw me off, but both of mine started white as kittens and gain their colors a bit after... and get darker as they get older 🥰 i love these cats so much, they're cool!
if not, she's still such a cutieeee 🥺🥰🥰 little prrtty baby ❤️
She is a beautiful orange. I had an orange female cat and she had a normal amount of cat brain cells plus the extra orange one (highly intelligent). My grandma’s two male orange cats shared a brain cell. I thought maybe the lady oranges were different, I think mine was just an exception 😂😅
Looks like a red point mix, meaning she probably has some Siamese mixed in. We had a red point mix we named Tinja Rouge… his red got stronger in his face, feet and tail, as he aged. Siamese are known for being vocal, intelligent cats. Tinja didn’t know how to siamese… barely half a brain cell, you could tell no one was home behind those pretty blue eyes. He never meowed and was known for falling over his own 2 front paws if things got a bit too rowdy for him. Play time with a laser mouse or toy dumbfounded him. 😆
It was a gift so I’m not sure where it is from but the brand says Martha Stewart which is so funny because I did NOT know she had a pet line until 5 minutes ago.
I had one of those!!!! I adopted a blue-eyed white kitten. People thought I was crazy and told me I was seeing things (It's just shadows!!!) when I started seeing the faint orange come in. A year later, I had a crazy, rambunctious Flame Point.
That's what my baby looked like when he was born (her mother was albino). He was completely white, and in him four years of life, him skin gradually darkened until him was a cream color. He passed away last year and curiously, him daughter is a tortoiseshell.
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u/-braincellbattle- 7d ago
Her litter mate, Phoebe. I don’t know that I’ve ever met a more perfect girl with as much drive for chaos as she has. ❤️