The color of the coats in the Maine Coons
Color in cats
A topic that often gives rise to a thousand questions is that of the color of cats, especially in its less common shades. We will talk, for the sake of simplicity, only of the possible colors in Maine Coons, which are not all the possible colors that a cat can take, whether purebred or not. The photos you will see below are such that hovering over it with the mouse a balloon appears telling you the color (as per the pedigree), and next to it is a caption describing the EMS color code, which we will talk about later.
The oldest cat, the older one traditional, present in all our memories, is gray brindle, it is a cat that everyone knows. And in fact it will not be surprising that the color of this cat is the original one, the one that our feline has been carrying around for tens of thousands of years.
Where does the color come from?
Then two things happened. A first genetic mutation gave rise to cats with red coats, and a second genetic mutation removed the stripes from both. Then the coat types become 4, black, red, both brindle or non brindle.
Technically, non-brindle coats are defined as solid color. The adjective "solid", which in Italian has mostly another meaning, comes from the Latin solidus, properly "whole, compact, massive, without internal cavities or voids", therefore the term "solid color" indicates a uniform color, without any other shade or color inside.
Agouti
Not Agouti
The pattern you see on the animal is created by alternating areas of banded fur and areas of uniform fur. The latter are the markings, or stripes. To avoid confusion, from now on, "brindle" refers only to the coat pattern, never to individual hairs.
The three tiger stripes
Among the various possible designs, in Maine Coons there are four types of brindle. A word for "brindle" is widely used Tabby: A tabby cat is a cat that carries the brindle gene (agouti plus pattern, i.e. drawing).
Ticked: the tabs are only on the legs, swulla head and tail, the rest of the body it has a "salt and pepper" appearance (if it is red you will see a very uniform color on the body, with darker tips).
Mackerel (or brindle) Tabby, with the typical streaks that determine a brindle coat, thin, continuous and parallel stripes are well drawn on the shoulders and thighs. One of its modifications is the ...
Spotted : the stripes are interrupted forming small round spots that make the coat spotted.
Blotched (or Classic) Tabby: the streaks determine a marbled appearance, the typical "butterfly wings" design appears on the sides and shoulders, combined with a series of concentric circles on the sides.
On black cats, tabby patterns bring warm tones, from beige to light hazel, which come from the agouti bands. This is why we usually call them brown.
Solid red or tabby red?
In the solid red coat, for genetic reasons that we deepen elsewhere, the brindle can never be completely eliminated, so it becomes important to be able to distinguish a solid red cat from a brindle red one, to determine the type of coat and plan future mating.
So here's what distinguishes a tabby cat from a solid cat, should the branding be genetically masked:
Solid red ----------------- Tabby red
Tortie and calico
Having clarified this point, it remains to talk about mixed coats, in which red areas alternate with black areas. This situation is found only in females, for genetic reasons, and gives rise to the so-called tortoiseshell cats (properly tortoiseshell), or simply, tortie . In these cats, the red and black areas are distributed and mixed together in an absolutely random way, and not reproducible even by cloning the animal, since they are generated by a process that occurs at the embryonic level, therefore after the union of the chromosomes of the parents. Obviously, there can be brindle tortie, and they are given often the name of torbie, combining the words tortie and tabby.
A tortie with a large portion of white coat is called a calico.
The white
How white
If the tortie cat has a large part of the white coat, then it is called a cat calico . With this example, let's start talking about the white patches of fur, so extensively widespread in cats, both purebred and non-purebred. These spots can be of any size and can be found on both red, black and tortie cats, brindle or not. If it is only small spots such as the classic medal on the chest, or flame between the eyes, with an extension below 25% of the surface of the coat, the cat is generically defined with white . If the white area is from 25 to 50%, it is called a coat two-tone , if from 50 to 75% we are talking about high-white . There is also the coat harlequin if there are 5 or 6 spots of color completely surrounded by white on an all white body, if the spots are fewer and with a patch on the head and the tip of the tail, it is called a coat van . The white starts from the belly upwards, whatever the amount of white to be on the back it must also be on the belly and legs.
All white cats are something else
The solid white isn't the evolution of spots: it's a different genetic makeup, a color that covers other colors. When these cats breed, they pass on the hidden color, and that's the only way to discover its true color. They're never tabby and often have unilateral or bilateral deafness and odd-colored eyes.
The dilution
The two main colors, black and red, also exist in a so-called version diluted . Dilution is an aspect of the coat in which the original color is less intense, i.e. instead of black or red it becomes respectively (gray-) blue and cream . This also applies to tortie, which then becomes blue-cream tortie.
Silver and its shades
Finally, we have to talk about the so-called color silver . In these cats, the base of the coat is bleached, giving rise to a noticeable silver color when brushed against the grain. The effect differs depending on whether the cat is solid or tabby. The smoke they are solid cats in which only the base of the hair is lightened, up to about 1/3, giving it a dark silver color, evenly over the whole body.
Finally, we have to talk about the so-called color silver . In these cats, the base of the coat is bleached, giving rise to a noticeable silver color when brushed against the grain. The effect differs depending on whether the cat is solid or tabby. The smoke they are solid cats in which only the base of the hair is lightened, up to about 1/3, giving it a dark silver color, evenly over the whole body.
Finally, we have to talk about the so-called color silver . In these cats, the base of the coat is bleached, giving rise to a noticeable silver color when brushed against the grain. The effect differs depending on whether the cat is solid or tabby. The smoke they are solid cats in which only the base of the hair is lightened, up to about 1/3, giving it a dark silver color, evenly over the whole body.
Silver overlaps with any other characteristic:
you can have, for example, a silver tortie tabby blue-cream with white.
Form the EMS code
EMS stands for Easy Mind System. It assigns three letters to the breed (MCO for the Maine Coon), one letter to the base color, and a numerical code to each modifier, such as white spots and tabby markings. Silver is added to an existing color, so its "s" is also added to the base letter.
Try composing one: choose the features and read the resulting code.
How these characteristics are passed down to the litters depends on the parents' traits: we discuss this on the page on coat genetics.