Picture of calico Sphynx cat
Calico Sphynx showing the coat through the fine hair fuzz. Picture in public domain.
You might have thought that all Sphynx cats were the colour of their skin. After all, all you see is their skin. You shouldn’t see the huge range of coat colours and patterns that you normally see when a domestic cat wears a coat. But this is not the case as you can see in this photograph of a calico Sphynx cat. Calico is tortoiseshell-and-white. The pattern is clear to see. It is smooth and almost glistening and it appears to be painted onto the skin of this hairless cat. The truth is, though, that Sphynx cats are not entirely hairless. There is a very fine, soft ‘fuzz’ of hair over their body and as you can see their whiskers are pared down and bent. It is the fine fur, the fuzz, that takes on the colour and pattern of their coat. I had thought that the pattern was impregnated into the skin because it is the melanocytes, the pigment producing cells in the skin, which create the coat pattern and colour at the direction of the genes. But I’ve learned that it is caused by this very soft and fine, almost invisible fur on the backs of Sphynx cats.
Sphynx cats can have a range of coat types like any other normal cat. You usually see the bicolour showing dark and lighter areas. This is the first time I have seen a tortie-and-white hairless cat.
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What a gorgeous coat on that cat! I never knew that Sphynx cats had other colors either! What a great education. Thank you!