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Cat Coats Solid and White - Bicolor - photo copyright fofurasfelinas |
This is another posting on cat coats. This time I discuss the impact of the white spotting gene on "solid" colored cats other than Tuxedo cats, which I have already discussed on this page. Tuxedo cats are very common and specific in their coat pattern so I've dealt with them separately. Both are bicolor cats meaning a cat coat of two colours, white and another solid colour.
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Bicolour development - white spotting gene. Image: Sarah Hartwell. |
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Bicolour faces white spotting gene. Image in public domain. |
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Bicolours. The chart is by Sarah Hartwell of messybeast. Many thanks. |
A fine example of a cat with a solid and white coat is the Turkish Van (high grade spotting - see below). This has, of course, the "Van" pattern. Van is a town in the South east of Turkey, where the Turkish Van originally came from (including adjacent regions).
Another example of a well-known cat breed with a "solid and white coat" is the Japanese Bobtail. The Japanese Bobtail has a Bicolor pattern in both "solid and white" and calico (which is tortoiseshell and white mentioned above).
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Bicolor cat photo by tanakawho (this photographer is well known - see more of his work here plus the work of 2 other fine photographers). Picture reproduced here under a creative commons license. |
At the other end of the spectrum at grade 1 there is a very small amount of white. This is called low grade spotting. When the cat is low grade the genotype (genetic makeup in relation to the cat's coat) is normally heterozygous represented by the letters "Ss". Conversely when the coat is high grade (lots of white) a spotted cat is generally homozygous "SS".
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Black and white bicolor Scottish Fold kitten from Russia (Siberia). Photo (excellent): Анатолий Кузнецов. |
Here are some photographs of the solid and white coat pattern:
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Cream and white - photo: copyright Helmi Flick |

Cat Coats Solid and White - Turkish Van - Photograph copyright Lazy_Lightning

Cat Coats Solid and White - Black and White Van pattern with a lot of white (grade 8 perhaps) - photograph copyright Helmi Flick.

Black with white (more than a Tuxedo). Photograph copyright Helmi Flick.

Cat Coats Solid and White - Sources:
- Beth Hicks
- Messybeast - Sarah Hartwell
From Cat Coats Solid and White to Cat Facts