Picture of lentigo simplex cat

By Michael Broad / April 20, 2020 / 1 minute of reading

You know those black freckles on the tip of the nose, gums, eyelids and the lips of an orange (ginger, yellow, red) cat? You have probably seen them and wondered what they were and if they were a health problem.

Lentigo in an orange cat — Lentigo in an orange cat. Picture from Facebook: Cat & Kitten Adoptions at Boca Raton.

Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

Well, they are not a health problem and the experts call this skin ‘disorder’ in male orange cats ‘lentigo’. They become noticeable when cats are under one year of age. The spots vary in size and shape. The books that I have say there is no medical treatment but then again there is no need to apply medical treatment because this is not a health concern.

Lentigo does not cause discomfort in any way. It is NOT a form of cancer but is a cosmetic condition. It is believed to be an inherited trait. It is possibly sex-linked and associated with the gene for orange hair (reference: page 112 Consultations in Feline Internal Medicine by John R August). The gene for orange is, in fact, sex-linked which means the gene is carried on one of the sex chromosomes.

The symbol for the gene is O. It eliminates all eumelanistic pigment (black, blue, chocolate etc.) from the hair fibres.

P.S. ‘Orange’ is the correct description apparently of a ginger cat.

SOME MORE ON ORANGE CATS:

Butterball a rescue cat.

Are male, orange tabby cats the most friendly?

Having read a lot about domestic cats, I sense that the general feeling is that male, orange tabby cats are, ...

Can bobcats be orange?

Can bobcats be orange?

Yes, the background color of the bobcat can be reddish or yellowish-brown which is effectively orange. It also varies to ...

Red tabby Siberian cat

Orange, red, yellow, ginger or marmalade cats

Different groups of people use different descriptive words for the red (usually tabby) cat. Geneticists use orange Breeders use red ...

Red panda cat

Picture of Dwarf Red Panda Cat

This young cat looks like a red panda. This is also a dwarf cat in my opinion because the legs ...

Orange cats

Five Names For Red Cats

Geneticists call red cats 'orange'! Cat breeders describe them as 'red'. The general public say they are 'ginger' while story-tellers ...

Ginger cat on lawn is invisible to dogs

Ginger Cat on Lawn is Invisible to Dogs

As dogs cannot tell the difference between red and green they have great difficulty in detecting a ginger cat on ...

Florida: Beautiful Red Tabby Cat Needs New Home

Hello kitty lovers! My name is Garfield. I am a two year-old neutered declawed male tabby cat, who lives in ...

Please search using the search box at the top of the site. You are bound to find what you are looking for.

Useful tag. Click to see the articles: Cat behavior

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Note: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified.

I welcome and value comments. Please share your thoughts. All comments are currently unmoderated.

This blog is seen in 199 of the world's country's according to Google Analytics which is pretty much the entire world.