My black long-hair is dark as coal all over, except for maybe a dozen white hairs scattered randomly about. She’s been that way as a kitten. (I can also state that she’s been the cause of a number of my white hairs.) Although I did notice when she was a kitten she actually had tabby-like stripes, black on black, but you had to have her under a strong light at just the right angle to see them. I’m not sure if she still has stripes or not.
My sister had a black long-hair as well, a male. His color seemed to vary with the season. Progressing from black to silvery-frosted back to solid black again.
Just about every black cat I’ve owned has had the tiger markings if you looked in the right light. I’d say the tabby coat, so effective as camouflage, is likely the base or default feline pattern, and solid colors would be overlays on it. Can any cat genetics expert conform or refute this?
Just did some searching on cat color genetics, and found this site. Another excellent site isthis one – scroll down to the link for non-agouti black, in regard to striping of black cats.
As far as cats getting white hairs as they age, this article about traditional (round-headed) Siamese gives the breed standards, among which I found this: “Penalize: Improper (i.e. off-color or spotted) nose leather or paw pads. Ticking or white hairs except in aging cats.” So, that would be indirect confirmation that cats can gray with age, wouldn’t you say?
My black kitten C.C. (Cosmic Creepers) has white hairs on her chest, the tip of her tail, and a white patch on her lower tummy. They’re longer and wirier than her regular hairs.
She’s only 6 months old, so I don’t know if she’ll get more as she ages.
Rubystreak, my vet told us that about Siamese, too. The colder temperatures they face during kittenhood, the darker they get. We had a foster kitten who was flame pointed. We asked the vet why his color never progressed any further tham his tail and nose, and he told up it was likely because he’d been born & lived outside, and when he came into our warm house at 6 weeks old, the color stopped.
LittleCat (who is almost entirely graphite grey, not black) has similar markings. Sniffs_Markers calls her the Naked Lady Cat. Peach coloured underarm hair and pubic triangle by her back legs.
I got Elvis when he was kitten. He had a few white hairs on his throat but otherwise black. Now the old boy is around 14 and has sprouted the gray hairs you describe.
Obsidian: Is it only in kittenhood that they can get darker? My Siamese guy was outside in the summer as a kitten and was pure white, but after I took him in and got him healthy, he got fatter, and thus he got darker. Now he is covered in brown tabby stripes on a white background (he’s lovely, btw). Theoretically, 'cause I can tell you right now it ain’t gonna happen, if he lost a lot of weight, thus making his fur warmer b/c it’s closer to his body, would he get whiter, I wonder?
