A Michael Broad Blog
The title sounds unfair and biased but it isn’t as it is based in biological fact. The prevalence of deafness in pure white domestic cats varies depending on whether they have two blue eyes (the highest proportion of deaf cats), odd-eye colour or non-blue eyes (least likely to be deaf in both ears). Where …
There are three questions in the title. I will answer them in reverse order! Why do white cats have white fur? Cats which are completely white have a gene in their genetic makeup which is called the dominant white gene. It stops the development of cells in the skin that produce pigment. These cells …
About 3 percent of cats are white. However, the question needs to apply to domestic and stray cats outside of the pedigree cat population. This is because cat breeders sometimes selectively breed white cat, which distorts the percentage of all-white, cats in the population. So, taking the non-pedigree cat population, it is said that …
FALSE! All-white cats are prone to being deaf but not blind. It is inherited deafness. This seems to be due to the multiple effect of the dominant white (DW) gene which removes colour from the coat and eyes and causes deafness through a degeneration of the inner ear. An alternative reason: I have read …
Yes, cats do get sunburned sometimes. We see this quite a lot on the Internet and it is particularly relevant at the moment in many parts of the world where it’s very hot. The interesting aspect of domestic cats getting sunburned is that it almost exclusively occurs on the ears because they are sparsely …
Ivory is a 10 year old, white, domestic shorthaired cat with odd-eye colour. Her right eye is gold coloured and her left eye is yellow-green coloured. Her owner, Gabriela Carvalho, 28, a nursing student, adopted Ivory from the same rescue centre that she adopted her former cat from, whose name was Luna. Luna died …
The total amount of melanin (pigment) in the iris of the eye determines the range of eye colours in cats and in humans. The same principles apply to all animals with a similar eye anatomy. The pigment ‘melanin’ is produced by cells called melanocytes. The amount of pigment produced and the way that melanocytes …
The question effectively asks why cats are white all over. It is because they have a dominant gene symbolised by the letter W which removes pigment from the hair strands. It does this by removing the pigment creating cells in the skin. These are called melanocytes. Genes are on chromosomes and chromosomes are in …
