ForestWind Siberian Cats
Adding a little love to your life!
Kitten Colors
ForestWind Siberians breeds hypoallergenic Siberian kittens in the following colours: Red, Tortie, Silver, Blue Silver, Blue, Golden, Brown, and just recently, Red Chincilla, and Black Smoke. The patterns we have are Spotted, Mackerel (stripes), Classic (swirls), and solids. With the introduction of the solid into our program from Cica Sharik, we have recently experienced shaded and smoke patterns (shaded is actually a variant of tabbying, but it does "look" solid!). We do not breed the Neva Maquarades. We feel that a warm climate coat pattern is not appropriate on a cat that developed in the cold wilds of Siberia, so we breed on the original Siberians. When you are dreaming of your new kittens, it can be confusing when breeders talk about cat colors. When they say red, they really mean orange; when they say blue, they really mean grey; and when they say silver, it is really a very light grey. And what about torby or warm and cold browns? What do those mean??
To complicate things even further, there are several names world wide for the very same coat patterns.
It can be useful to know that blotched, classic, bull's eye, and 'the usual' are all terms referring to the classic coat pattern, which is a beautifully swirled pattern. This pattern is represented by the EMS code "22." If you look at Eva's photo below, she expresses the classic pattern very clearly.
On the other hand, the mackerel pattern is also referred to as tiger, striped, and EMS 23. The kitten shown above, left, and the one right below Eva are mackerel patterned felines.
Finally, some kittens are even spotted! You rarely heard other terms for this, however some folks refer to them as broken mackerels or spoiled classics. It depends on how distinct the spotting is. Flynnsson, our red boy from Stimics in Sweden is a spotted cat. We love the spots and stripes as they are more typical of wild cats.
Solid coloured cats do not express their tabby patterns. Instead they appear to be all of one colour, or int he case of smokes, their undercoat is a silvery color and the top coat is the color of the cat (red, blue, etc).
In Siberians, patterns are easiest to see when the kittens are young. As they mature patterning is obscured by the longer coat. As an adult pattern is often only clearly evident in the summer months, after the winter coat has shed off.
To assist you as you consider kittens, below are some photos of our cats and kittens to help you define coat patterns and coat colors.
ENJOY!!
Coat Patterns:
Eva's coat is a classic patterned dark brown.
This sweet kitten is showing us her strong mackerel patterned brown coat.
This slightly fuzzy photo is of Gostimira's silver tortie with white girl. Notice the white gloves on her front feet.
The spotting on this brown coat is subtle. Look for the spots/splotches of lighter brown colouring.
This is Valentina, our first smoke. She may be a blue smoke, we are waiting for her colouring to develop. She is from pure foundation Siberian lines, hand carried from Russia by Maria of CICA cattery.
This is Issak, one of our three red chinchilla boys. They were so silver that they looked white and visitors referred to them as "the snowballs."
This is Gostimira all grown up with a litter of two red boys, one with white; two silver tortie girls, one with white; a tortie girl, and a tarnished silver with white male. Gostimira is a tortie, but the only give away in person is a small red flash on her forehead.
Kitten coat colors:
Alexander is a blue classic kitten. His mother is Evelina Silva Line.
Bella is a golden mackerel kitten. Her mom is Feodora Vemas. Bella lives with the Pezzamentis now.
Gostimira is a tortie mackerel kitten, this means that she has some red in her brown coat. Gostimira is from Cirkumpolare Cattery in Norway!
Heather and Hanna are two silver mackerel kittens. Jorrah Tasha from Canada is their Mama.
Anastasia shows a dark brown classic coat. Anastasia is Alexander's sister. Their Daddy is Rossity Sultan.
Milo is a golden tabby. His pattern is mackerel. Many people call this pattern "tiger stripes."
This little man is a red mackerel.
Sharik is a spotted or mackerel ( can't tell which, as his coat is so silvery he looks to be solid) blue silver boy.
This funny photo of Ilyana nicely shows us her interesting mackerel patterned silver torby coat. You can see the red and black, as well as her silver undercoat.
