By Sally Cragin
DEAR PET TALK: Why are cats different colors?
DEAR TRIXIE: For protection. Because they evolved in the north African desert environment, many cats evolved to have red or cream-colored coats, with different patterns so they could be camouflaged in sandy or dry glass areas.
All cats have the following: a base color and a tabby pattern. "Tabby patterns" can be striped, spotted, ticked or mackerel.
Because more than one male can fertilize a female cat, kittens can have a variety of coats. But a variety of coats also occur because of cat genetics. The "base coat" gene is on the X chromosome (so females have two versions of it; males have one, because their other chromosome is a Y).
Another factor has to do with chemistry and temperature in the womb. There's not enough space here to go into detail about chromosomes, but consider this: The original cat clone -- known as Copy Cat -- did not look like her mother, Rainbow. Copy Cat had no orange coloring, while Rainbow was a tri-color cat (white with black and orange).
According to Dr. Sophia Yin, "The orange coat color gene in cats is peculiar in that it is randomly inactivated in some clusters of skin cells and activated in others. When activated, the skin cells produce orange fur and when inactivated they produce black fur. This process usually results in a mosaic of orange and black. In Copy Cat, the orange color gene was inactivated in all of the skin cells -- thus no orange in her coat.
We'll talk about "recipes" for cat coats next week!
Sally Cragin is the director of Be PAWSitive: Therapy Pets and Community Education. Send questions to email@example.com.