Post by amber on Apr 22, 2020 21:15:46 GMT
Breeding Results/Coat color guide
For those who don’t dabble in genetics, making a realistic OC can be a bit complicated, especially if you want to breed them with another cat! This guide is to hopefully reduce some of that confusion so you are able to make genetically correct/accurate cats! We will be including everything from coat colors, to patterns, to even physical mutations.
Coats can be a bit confusing to decipher, especially since there are a lot of colors that coats can be, some being more common than others. So here we will go over all of them!
THE BASICS
There are 3 black-based coat colors, arranged here in ascending rarity, with black being the most common:
BLACK > CHOCOLATE > CINNAMON
Black: The black coat color is just as it says, black! Black coats can come in a variety of looks, though! Some black cats "rust" if they spend a lot of time in the sun and take on a brownish/reddish tint. Note that blue eyes are very rarely found in adult black cats.
Red: Red coats come in a variety of shades like yellow, marmalade, ginger, and orange as well. It presents an intense orange color to a lighter orange and is dominant over black. It is a sex-linked trait, and because of that, it is more presentable in males than females. All red cats show at least some form of tabby markings, even genetically solid ones.
Chocolate: Chocolate is the second black-based coat color. It ranges from a rich dark brown to a lighter brown--generally, any sort of brown is considered chocolate. It is a recessive trait, which means that it is less common than black. Chocolate cats are known for having brown noses and paw pads as well.
Cinnamon: Cinnamon is the third black-based coat. It is a light dusty brown color, similar to chocolate, and it is the most recessive of the three black-based coats. A way to separate them from chocolate is their pink noses and paw pads.
Tortoiseshell: Also known as a "tortie", or "calico" if they have white spotting. It is a mottled pattern that only occurs in female cats (with some very rare exceptions). It is a combination of one of the three variants of black and red. The spots can come in many different shapes and sizes; generally, the more white spotting a tortie has, the less brindled the spots will be. There are some "cryptid" torties that are almost entirely one color save for a few flecks of fur. Torties can also have tabby markings, and these are called "torbies".
Extra: Male tortoiseshell cats are 1 in 3,000, most of which end up infertile due to Kleinfelter syndrome. Fertile male torties, however, are most likely chimeras. To make a male tortie in Starbound, you would need an item from the shop!
COAT DILUTION
Dilution simply means the pigment is less dense, making a lighter color coat. It is a recessive trait.
Grey/blue: A dilution of black. It has a range of colors from light grey to a darkish grey-blue, but all grey cats are considered dilute. A good example of this gene is in the Russian Blue breed.
Cream: A dilution of red. Comes in a variety of shades from almost white to a buttery yellow to even a pinkish-red. Also called pale ginger. It is easy to mistake with fawn coloring.
Lilac: A dilution of chocolate. It is a brownish color with a cooler hue, shows a pink-purplish tint. Looks like a brownish grey.
Fawn: A dilution of cinnamon. It is the rarest coat color due to how recessive cinnamon is. It is a warmer light golden brown color.
PATTERNS
Tabby: A striped pattern in coats that comes in a few common varieties. It is dominant over solid colors.
mackerel, mostly thin vertical stripes
classic, thick swirls/blotches
agouti or "non-striped" tabbies, tabby markings only on their face
ticked, tabby markings on neck, legs, and tail
spotted, spots that follow a normal tabby pattern
The ticked gene overrides every other tabby pattern since it is most dominant.
Mackerel is necessary for a cat to be spotted. Genetically classic cats cannot be spotted.
Cats can show some wild markings from crossbreeding non-domestic cats. Cats that have no tabby stripes are considered solid, though note that genetically solid red cats will still display faint markings.
White spotting/Dominant white: Dominant white occurs on a different gene than black/red and is associated with deafness in cats. Dominant white masks all other colors, and cats who have it are more likely to have blue or “odd” eyes (odd eyes meaning two different colored eyes, i.e. heterochromia). Those with both blue eyes or with one blue eye are more likely to be deaf on the side the blue eye(s) are on. These cats are not albino.
White spotting can also create the impression of a dominant white cat, but is not linked to deafness. It is dominant and cats can have a small amount of white spotting or even be completely white. Some cats that display small white markings aren’t even genetically linked to white spotting.
Colorpoint: Colorpoint patterns are a form of albinism, and usually result in the cat having darker points at the muzzle, legs/paws, and tail. They commonly have a pale body to go along with it. The most common breeds showing this trait would be Siamese and Himalayan. Colorpointing is a recessive gene and thus can be carried by non-colorpoint parents.
There are three levels of “intensity” to colorpoint patterns:
Siamese- where the body is nearly white compared to all other points
Mink- where the body is a medium tone of the colorpoint
Sepia- where the body is almost the same color as the colorpointed areas
There are more colorpoint variants, but we will not go over those for the sake of simplicity.
The Inhibitor gene:
Next, we will go over the inhibitor gene that causes many different effects in coat coloring such as the silver and golden series, sunshine and sunshine silver, bimetallic, chinchilla, etc.
Silvering: The inhibitor gene. Allows pigment at the top of the hair, but restricts the amount of pigment going down the hair shaft. This means that the shaft is usually white/ivory (silver series) or golden. Tipping/shading causes the normally yellow-brown agouti band to be both lighter in color and wider, starting closer to the root and ending nearer the hair tip than in tabby cats. These patterns are most striking on the eumelanistic colors (black, blue, chocolate, cinnamon, lilac), because of the contrast between pattern/top-color and the undercolor.
Extra:
The inhibitor gene is a bit difficult to understand, so we will list some common coat patterns that the inhibitor gene can cause without everything being too complicated/too vague.
Smoke: If the cat is solid and presents the inhibitor gene, it is called a smoke. This can be applied to any coat colors including tortoiseshells. Smoke cats have both the silver and wide-band genes.
Silver tabbies: Tabby cats with both the wide-band and inhibiter genes will be silver tabbies. A black/"brown" tabby with the inhibitor gene is simply called silver. A chocolate tabby with the inhibitor gene would be called a chocolate-silver tabby, and a blue tabby with the inhibitor gene would be called a blue-silver tabby.
Left-right: Blue-silver, (black-)silver, chocolate-silver, silver
Wide band gene: Represented by Wb. This produces chinchillas and shaded silvers.
Golden, Bimetallic, and Sunshine: These patterns are mostly present in Siberian cats, the golden becoming present when the wide band gene is there and the inhibitor gene is not. These cats are known as golden/sunshine tabbies, as there are no records of solid cats having the pattern. Shaded golden and tipped golden are possible though.
The bimetallic coat pattern is a combination of the silver and golden mixing, giving the silver tabbies a golden tint on some areas, or even having full golden spots. They were mistaken for tortoiseshells and chimeras.
Fur length and texture:
Fur length is presented by LL, Ll, and ll. LL being short, Ll being medium, and ll being long. As you can see, long hair is a recessive trait.
Textures like LaPerm, Wirehair, etc. will all be available in the item shop under mutations.
Eye colors:
We will briefly go over eye colors as an example to how we would roll them when deciding how kittens would inherit eye colors.
Colors:
Blue: Kittens are all born with blue eyes, and around 6 weeks old, they will start turning into a different color. Some breeds do keep hold of the blue eyes as they grow. Blue eyes range from light clear blue, to dark ocean colored eyes.
Green: Ranging from a dark vibrant green to a yellowish-green. Hazel eyes also include green speckles within them.
Brown, amber, yellow: Yellow varies from a pale lemon to more vivid hues. There is overlap between the yellows and browns (pale hazel or tan) and also between yellows and greens. Orange is unmistakable though, as it usually shows up very vibrant.
Information you should write on the breeding form:
This will be on the form template, but if one of the parents of your cat had a different eye color than your cat, then they would most likely have that other eye color as a recessive trait. We would include your cat’s eye color and their recessive eye color, so that the kittens would have a chance of being rolled with the recessive eye colors.
If both parents eye colors are the same, and their recessives are the same, then all kittens will roll with 100% chance of having that eye color.
Mutations:
Here we will write a list of mutations that will be available to buy in the item shop. You are NOT allowed to make a character or ask for a mutation within a kit without the item. Anything that is a minor disability will have a * next to it, anything with a major disability will have ** (if you have a kit with a major disability, you may have to talk with a leader about them training, as they might not be able to)
Chimeras: Also known as chimerism, a chimera is the result of 2 fertilized eggs fusing to become a single kitten. Most tortoiseshell toms are a result of chimerism, though they are almost always infertile. The most telltale trait of chimerism is mostly coat patterns, including a combination of dense and dilute colors (ie: A combination of black and blue), a mixture of longhair and shorthair patches of fur, combinations of two different tabby patterns (mackerel and classic together), and mixtures of colorpoint + non-colorpoint.
Heterochromia: Also known as “odd eyes”. Simply means a cat has two different colored eyes. It occurs commonly, but more so in dominant white cats. Dominant white cats with one blue and one amber eye are more likely to be deaf on the side the blue eye is on. Only being deaf on one side would be a minor disability*.
Tooth, paw/claw: Claws Unable To Retract*, Elongated Claws, Elongated Fangs/Teeth, Extra Teeth, Minor Clubbed Paw*, Overbite, Polydactyly, Underbite, Unusually Short Claws*, Unusually Small Teeth
Color: Black & Tan-type Pattern, Discolored Limb (ie, like Rosetail), Ignoring Parent Colors(ie, two cinnamon cats having a black kitten), Impossible/Unusual White Pattern, Rufescence, Somatic Markings, Unusual Color Tint (ie, dim purple tint, or a more intense blue like canon books' Bluestar), Vitiligo
Leg/Height Mutations: Dwarfism*, Gigantism*, Mismatched Legs* (ie, short front, regular hind legs), Teacup**
Tail Mutations: Bobbed Tail, Curled Tail, Extra-long Tail, Kinked Tail, Split Tail-tip
Fur/Coat Mutations: Curly Fur, Glittering Fur, Lykoi*, Mismatched/Uneven Fur (chimerism), Wiry Fur
Sensory Disability: Anosmia(No Sense of Smell), Blindness(Full** or Partial*), Deafness(Full** or Partial*), Hyperesthesia*, Hypersensitivity to Pain*, Inability To Feel Pain**, Inability to Taste, Synesthesia
Physical Disability: Clubbed Limb/Paw(s), Missing Limb(s)*/**, Partial Paralysis*/**, Two-Faced/"Janus Cat"*/**, Two-Tailed(Causes spinal issues)
Internal/Unseen Disability: Asthma*, Diabetes*, Epilepsy*, Sickle Cell**, Tumors/Cancers**
Deadly Disability: Autoimmune Disorders, Epilepsy(Severe)*/**, Tumors/Cancers
Extra:
If there is anything more that you would like to learn about genetics and how they work, we suggest going to messybeast.com/catarchive.html as it is a massive guide that helps our breeding process!
For those who don’t dabble in genetics, making a realistic OC can be a bit complicated, especially if you want to breed them with another cat! This guide is to hopefully reduce some of that confusion so you are able to make genetically correct/accurate cats! We will be including everything from coat colors, to patterns, to even physical mutations.
Coats can be a bit confusing to decipher, especially since there are a lot of colors that coats can be, some being more common than others. So here we will go over all of them!
THE BASICS
There are 3 black-based coat colors, arranged here in ascending rarity, with black being the most common:
BLACK > CHOCOLATE > CINNAMON
Black: The black coat color is just as it says, black! Black coats can come in a variety of looks, though! Some black cats "rust" if they spend a lot of time in the sun and take on a brownish/reddish tint. Note that blue eyes are very rarely found in adult black cats.
Red: Red coats come in a variety of shades like yellow, marmalade, ginger, and orange as well. It presents an intense orange color to a lighter orange and is dominant over black. It is a sex-linked trait, and because of that, it is more presentable in males than females. All red cats show at least some form of tabby markings, even genetically solid ones.
Chocolate: Chocolate is the second black-based coat color. It ranges from a rich dark brown to a lighter brown--generally, any sort of brown is considered chocolate. It is a recessive trait, which means that it is less common than black. Chocolate cats are known for having brown noses and paw pads as well.
Cinnamon: Cinnamon is the third black-based coat. It is a light dusty brown color, similar to chocolate, and it is the most recessive of the three black-based coats. A way to separate them from chocolate is their pink noses and paw pads.
Tortoiseshell: Also known as a "tortie", or "calico" if they have white spotting. It is a mottled pattern that only occurs in female cats (with some very rare exceptions). It is a combination of one of the three variants of black and red. The spots can come in many different shapes and sizes; generally, the more white spotting a tortie has, the less brindled the spots will be. There are some "cryptid" torties that are almost entirely one color save for a few flecks of fur. Torties can also have tabby markings, and these are called "torbies".
Extra: Male tortoiseshell cats are 1 in 3,000, most of which end up infertile due to Kleinfelter syndrome. Fertile male torties, however, are most likely chimeras. To make a male tortie in Starbound, you would need an item from the shop!
COAT DILUTION
Dilution simply means the pigment is less dense, making a lighter color coat. It is a recessive trait.
Grey/blue: A dilution of black. It has a range of colors from light grey to a darkish grey-blue, but all grey cats are considered dilute. A good example of this gene is in the Russian Blue breed.
Cream: A dilution of red. Comes in a variety of shades from almost white to a buttery yellow to even a pinkish-red. Also called pale ginger. It is easy to mistake with fawn coloring.
Lilac: A dilution of chocolate. It is a brownish color with a cooler hue, shows a pink-purplish tint. Looks like a brownish grey.
Fawn: A dilution of cinnamon. It is the rarest coat color due to how recessive cinnamon is. It is a warmer light golden brown color.
PATTERNS
Tabby: A striped pattern in coats that comes in a few common varieties. It is dominant over solid colors.
mackerel, mostly thin vertical stripes
classic, thick swirls/blotches
agouti or "non-striped" tabbies, tabby markings only on their face
ticked, tabby markings on neck, legs, and tail
spotted, spots that follow a normal tabby pattern
The ticked gene overrides every other tabby pattern since it is most dominant.
Mackerel is necessary for a cat to be spotted. Genetically classic cats cannot be spotted.
Cats can show some wild markings from crossbreeding non-domestic cats. Cats that have no tabby stripes are considered solid, though note that genetically solid red cats will still display faint markings.
White spotting/Dominant white: Dominant white occurs on a different gene than black/red and is associated with deafness in cats. Dominant white masks all other colors, and cats who have it are more likely to have blue or “odd” eyes (odd eyes meaning two different colored eyes, i.e. heterochromia). Those with both blue eyes or with one blue eye are more likely to be deaf on the side the blue eye(s) are on. These cats are not albino.
White spotting can also create the impression of a dominant white cat, but is not linked to deafness. It is dominant and cats can have a small amount of white spotting or even be completely white. Some cats that display small white markings aren’t even genetically linked to white spotting.
Colorpoint: Colorpoint patterns are a form of albinism, and usually result in the cat having darker points at the muzzle, legs/paws, and tail. They commonly have a pale body to go along with it. The most common breeds showing this trait would be Siamese and Himalayan. Colorpointing is a recessive gene and thus can be carried by non-colorpoint parents.
There are three levels of “intensity” to colorpoint patterns:
Siamese- where the body is nearly white compared to all other points
Mink- where the body is a medium tone of the colorpoint
Sepia- where the body is almost the same color as the colorpointed areas
There are more colorpoint variants, but we will not go over those for the sake of simplicity.
The Inhibitor gene:
Next, we will go over the inhibitor gene that causes many different effects in coat coloring such as the silver and golden series, sunshine and sunshine silver, bimetallic, chinchilla, etc.
Silvering: The inhibitor gene. Allows pigment at the top of the hair, but restricts the amount of pigment going down the hair shaft. This means that the shaft is usually white/ivory (silver series) or golden. Tipping/shading causes the normally yellow-brown agouti band to be both lighter in color and wider, starting closer to the root and ending nearer the hair tip than in tabby cats. These patterns are most striking on the eumelanistic colors (black, blue, chocolate, cinnamon, lilac), because of the contrast between pattern/top-color and the undercolor.
Extra:
The inhibitor gene is a bit difficult to understand, so we will list some common coat patterns that the inhibitor gene can cause without everything being too complicated/too vague.
Smoke: If the cat is solid and presents the inhibitor gene, it is called a smoke. This can be applied to any coat colors including tortoiseshells. Smoke cats have both the silver and wide-band genes.
Silver tabbies: Tabby cats with both the wide-band and inhibiter genes will be silver tabbies. A black/"brown" tabby with the inhibitor gene is simply called silver. A chocolate tabby with the inhibitor gene would be called a chocolate-silver tabby, and a blue tabby with the inhibitor gene would be called a blue-silver tabby.
Left-right: Blue-silver, (black-)silver, chocolate-silver, silver
Wide band gene: Represented by Wb. This produces chinchillas and shaded silvers.
Golden, Bimetallic, and Sunshine: These patterns are mostly present in Siberian cats, the golden becoming present when the wide band gene is there and the inhibitor gene is not. These cats are known as golden/sunshine tabbies, as there are no records of solid cats having the pattern. Shaded golden and tipped golden are possible though.
The bimetallic coat pattern is a combination of the silver and golden mixing, giving the silver tabbies a golden tint on some areas, or even having full golden spots. They were mistaken for tortoiseshells and chimeras.
Fur length and texture:
Fur length is presented by LL, Ll, and ll. LL being short, Ll being medium, and ll being long. As you can see, long hair is a recessive trait.
Textures like LaPerm, Wirehair, etc. will all be available in the item shop under mutations.
Eye colors:
We will briefly go over eye colors as an example to how we would roll them when deciding how kittens would inherit eye colors.
Colors:
Blue: Kittens are all born with blue eyes, and around 6 weeks old, they will start turning into a different color. Some breeds do keep hold of the blue eyes as they grow. Blue eyes range from light clear blue, to dark ocean colored eyes.
Green: Ranging from a dark vibrant green to a yellowish-green. Hazel eyes also include green speckles within them.
Brown, amber, yellow: Yellow varies from a pale lemon to more vivid hues. There is overlap between the yellows and browns (pale hazel or tan) and also between yellows and greens. Orange is unmistakable though, as it usually shows up very vibrant.
Information you should write on the breeding form:
This will be on the form template, but if one of the parents of your cat had a different eye color than your cat, then they would most likely have that other eye color as a recessive trait. We would include your cat’s eye color and their recessive eye color, so that the kittens would have a chance of being rolled with the recessive eye colors.
If both parents eye colors are the same, and their recessives are the same, then all kittens will roll with 100% chance of having that eye color.
Mutations:
Here we will write a list of mutations that will be available to buy in the item shop. You are NOT allowed to make a character or ask for a mutation within a kit without the item. Anything that is a minor disability will have a * next to it, anything with a major disability will have ** (if you have a kit with a major disability, you may have to talk with a leader about them training, as they might not be able to)
Chimeras: Also known as chimerism, a chimera is the result of 2 fertilized eggs fusing to become a single kitten. Most tortoiseshell toms are a result of chimerism, though they are almost always infertile. The most telltale trait of chimerism is mostly coat patterns, including a combination of dense and dilute colors (ie: A combination of black and blue), a mixture of longhair and shorthair patches of fur, combinations of two different tabby patterns (mackerel and classic together), and mixtures of colorpoint + non-colorpoint.
Heterochromia: Also known as “odd eyes”. Simply means a cat has two different colored eyes. It occurs commonly, but more so in dominant white cats. Dominant white cats with one blue and one amber eye are more likely to be deaf on the side the blue eye is on. Only being deaf on one side would be a minor disability*.
Tooth, paw/claw: Claws Unable To Retract*, Elongated Claws, Elongated Fangs/Teeth, Extra Teeth, Minor Clubbed Paw*, Overbite, Polydactyly, Underbite, Unusually Short Claws*, Unusually Small Teeth
Color: Black & Tan-type Pattern, Discolored Limb (ie, like Rosetail), Ignoring Parent Colors(ie, two cinnamon cats having a black kitten), Impossible/Unusual White Pattern, Rufescence, Somatic Markings, Unusual Color Tint (ie, dim purple tint, or a more intense blue like canon books' Bluestar), Vitiligo
Leg/Height Mutations: Dwarfism*, Gigantism*, Mismatched Legs* (ie, short front, regular hind legs), Teacup**
Tail Mutations: Bobbed Tail, Curled Tail, Extra-long Tail, Kinked Tail, Split Tail-tip
Fur/Coat Mutations: Curly Fur, Glittering Fur, Lykoi*, Mismatched/Uneven Fur (chimerism), Wiry Fur
Sensory Disability: Anosmia(No Sense of Smell), Blindness(Full** or Partial*), Deafness(Full** or Partial*), Hyperesthesia*, Hypersensitivity to Pain*, Inability To Feel Pain**, Inability to Taste, Synesthesia
Physical Disability: Clubbed Limb/Paw(s), Missing Limb(s)*/**, Partial Paralysis*/**, Two-Faced/"Janus Cat"*/**, Two-Tailed(Causes spinal issues)
Internal/Unseen Disability: Asthma*, Diabetes*, Epilepsy*, Sickle Cell**, Tumors/Cancers**
Deadly Disability: Autoimmune Disorders, Epilepsy(Severe)*/**, Tumors/Cancers
Extra:
If there is anything more that you would like to learn about genetics and how they work, we suggest going to messybeast.com/catarchive.html as it is a massive guide that helps our breeding process!