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Thursday 6 October 2011

What percentage of cats are white?

My guesstimate is that about 2-3% of all cats, feral, semi-feral and domestic are white. I mean completely white and I mean domestic cats and derivatives. There are no figures in books or on the internet that are the result of a survey or some sort of genetic calculation. I make the guesstimate of the basis of observation over many years.

The most common cat coat type is the tabby cat and tabby and white cat. There are many varieties of tabby cat color. The tabby cat must take the lion's share of cat coat types, say at about 50% of all cats and even more.

In the warmer climates you will see more white on cats and I suspect more pure white cats. Bicolor cats are fairly common too especially in warmer areas. These are cats of two colors, white and one other. These might account for about 15%. So it is by deduction, in taking into account all coat types, that I conclude that totally white cats are fairly rare.

However, in Turkey the purebred Turkish Angora (TA) is always pure white as I recall (breeders breed them in a variety of coats though in the USA). The white TA is the genuine article. Pure white with odd colored eyes (one blue and one yellow) is the most desirable. These cats are also moggies. I would guess that the percentage of cats that are white in Turkey is higher than 3%, say 10% perhaps. I stress that this is a guess.

I have checked books and scholarly reports etc and found nothing on this particular subject. Perhaps someone better than me can leave a comment? Please leave a comment.

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