Our Traditional Siberian's coloring

Blue

Dilute Eumelanin

Blue is genetically the black color but with the dilution gene, so can also be called dilute black. Dilution gene is recessive, meaning that to be blue, the cat need to be homozygous for the dilution gene. Two dilute parents will have all dilute kittens (blue or cream)! 

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Black

Eumelanin pigment

Black is a base color and when nothing else is present, you will have a gorgeous shiny luck bringing solid black cat. They will sometimes have a few white hair showing throughout or may also develop a faint reddish color called "rusting" on top of their coat usually from sun exposure.  They actually have a tabby pattern as well but solid gene is masking it very well. 

Red

Phaeomelanin pigment 

 All solid colors still have an underlying tabby pattern, it is simply masked. With the red color though, the masking is not as thorough as with the black or blue color. Solid red cats have their tabby pattern showing through (called ghosting), and especially when young it is very hard to tell them apart from red tabbies. By looking closely at the stripe though, you can usually tell: the contrasting color in solid red will be more cream rather than white.

Cream

Dilute Phaeomelanin pigment 

Solid cream kitties will also have some ghosting tabby pattern, but I have found them to be a little easier to tell apart from their tabby counterpart than the red ones. Again, we look at the face for less white and a warmer tone with less contrast.

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Blue Tabby

Seen in a mackerel pattern here

Tabby is a banded coat pattern caused by the agouti gene. There are different patterns possible on the main body of the cat but all of them will have the same characteristic M pattern on the forehead. All cats always have a tabby pattern, but some are totally masked by other genes at play.

Black tabby

Seen in the classic pattern here

It is sometimes hard to narrow down a tabby pattern to just one of the 4 categories: : Classic, Mackerel, spotted and ticked. I have found many kittens to have a mix of two of them. In addition different masking gene can continue to have an effect on the kitten as it matures, making the pattern harder and harder to discern.

Red tabby

Seen in the classic pattern here

We have mostly classic and mackerel tabbies here. We have seen a few kittens with round spots but they also have had broken stripes so we have  categorized them as mackerel. Some kittens have appeared ticked but later developed mackerel stripes. Add in there the effect of sunshine and silver and it gets even more confusing!

Cream tabby

Seen in the mackerel pattern here

Cream kitties are so pale it is often time hard to tell what tabby pattern they have. Do they have the classic bull eye, the broken stripes of the mackerel, any round spots showing a spotted pattern or is it so diffuse it is a ticked (or solid)? 

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Blue sunshine tabby

previously known as blue golden

I like the term golden better than sunshine but because genetically golden/sunshine Siberians are different than the golden in most other breeds, we are moving toward using sunshine as to avoid confusion. The sunshine gene causes the black part of the hair to be mostly replaced by yellow pigment. Here is an excellent article to learn more about sunshine here 

Black sunshine tabby

black toe pads and tail tip, pink nose

Golden or sunshine are always tabbies, they cannot be solid, as again solid will mask the sunshine gene just as well as it hides the tabby.  It is possible for Siberians to carry the golden and express it only partially, these are called dark sunshine, or warm brown tabbies. Our retired queen Xahria is a great example of that.

Red Sunshine tabby

Often mistaken for regular red tabby

When the sunshine gene is applied to the red and cream color, the results are not as striking as with the black and blue but you can still see a difference in the amount of white. Red golden have very clean white stripes that contrast with their very bright red coat. 

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Cream sunshine tabby

Very similar to other cream pattern

You can really see a progression of the amount of white from solid cream having almost none, to cream golden having the most white contrasting markings. The contrast is always less with the cream of course but it is still fun to notice those slight differences.

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Blue silver tabby

Called shaded tabby when marking on side is diffuse

The silver is a dominant trait that removes all the yellow color from a coat, making the base of the hair white resulting in a very stunning pattern. Blue Silver and Black silver are very similar but blue is a little lighter in color.

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Black silver tabby

Called shaded tabby when only tippy tip of hair is black

What a delightful effect that silver gene brings out! Silver are tabbies (otherwise they are called smoke) but sometimes that silver gene masks the underlying tabby pattern and we then call this a silver shaded tabby. 

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Red silver tabby

Almost indistinguishable from cream silver

On the red color, the silver gene will again remove all yellow color from the tabby pattern, making for a very stunning clean white and red tipped coat. It is one of my favorite colors!

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Cream silver tabby

Pictured above, our beloved Vassily

I don't know if Vassily was a cream or red silver or smoke. I never gave it much thought, he was just our sweet gorgeous boy. Now that he has passed away I regret not having tested him. He gave us many dilute and solid kittens but I will never know if he was just a carrier or if he was homozygous for the dilute and solid gene.

Blue smoke

Smoke is the solid version of silver (non-tabby)

I don't think I actually ever had this color, maybe I have been mistaking them for black smoke or blue tabby but I am not sure. Galilea might be one, but I actually suspect that she may be a recessive smoke, something even more rare. We just now have a genetic test for this and I look forward to testing some of my Siberians to see if recessive silver/smoke is actually a thing!

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Black smoke

Develop their color slowly 

When young, black smoke kitties have a lot of markings and that really confused me at first. As they grow however, the stripes start fading, the black in their face intensify and their mane gets to be a silvery white. Very stunning!

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Red smoke

Almost undistinguishable from the red silver

Red smoke and red silver are very hard to tell apart and sometime the only way to know for sure is with a genetic test. Our king Waldo is a confirmed red smoke and I am very confident that his son Ulrick pictured above also is although his markings are still quite apparent. There is a warmth to his face that is different than the red silver tabbies.

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Cream Smoke

Very pale 

Cream smoke are so pale, they may appear almost white. They are the palest cats we breed here since we do not do any Neva Masquerade (colorpoints) and we have also decided to stay away from all white Siberians. Although all white Siberians can be quite stunning, we have heard from other breeders of the risk for deafness and cancer associated with that color. However, all white is not to be confused with some white, many of our Siberians have white and recently we had a lovely girl with a lot of white.

Coming Soon

All colors can come with the added white gene

White color in cats is actually not a color but a complete masking of the underlying color.  

Coming Soon

All colors can come with the added white gene

White color in cats is actually not a color but again a masking of the underlying color.  

Coming Soon

All colors can come with the added white gene

White color in cats is actually not a color but again a masking of the underlying color.  

Coming Soon

All colors can come with the added white gene

White color in cats is actually not a color but again a masking of the underlying color.  

Coming Soon

Bimetallic

Bimetallic is a color specific to the Siberian only. It is the sunshine gene and the silver gene mixed together.

Coming Soon

Bimetallic

Bimetallic is a color specific to the Siberian only. It is the sunshine gene and the silver gene mixed together.

Coming Soon

Bimetallic

Bimetallic is a color specific to the Siberian only. It is the sunshine gene and the silver gene mixed together.

Coming Soon

Bimetallic

Bimetallic is a color specific to the Siberian only. It is the sunshine gene and the silver gene mixed together.

Tortoiseshell or Tortie

Blue tortoiseshell

The red color gene is located on the X chromosome therefore only girls can have both the black and the red gene because they have 2 X. 

Coming Soon

Black tortoiseshell

The red color gene is located on the X chromosome therefore only girls can have both the black and the red gene because they have 2 X. 

Coming Soon

Black torbie

The red color gene is located on the X chromosome therefore only girls can have both the black and the red gene because they have 2 X. 

Coming Soon

Blue torbie (Mackerel)

The red color gene is located on the X chromosome therefore only girls can have both the black and the red gene because they have 2 X.