Siberian Cat Colours.
Siberian cats come in a wide variety of colours. Here at Zhivago we focus on breeding browns, goldens and occasionally blues. Some of our kittens will be "with white" and some "high white" but most will be without white. We now have the genes to produce reds and torties which will be a fun change for us. Our kittens will all have green/gold eyes (though all kitten's eyes start out blue).
This page is intended to help you understand what we mean by the different colour names. It is not a full listing of what is possible for a Siberian cat, it just lists some of the beautiful kittens we have had so far!. It is worth noting that Siberian coats can change dramatically with age, often the markings can fade and the coats get lighter in colour.
Patterns.
Siberian cats can have mackerel (striped), classic (blotched), spotted (the stripes on their sides are broken up into spots) or shaded tabby patterns (where the pattern is faded out- this can occur in goldens and silvers). All of these patterns will have the tabby "M" on their forehead, stripes on their legs and spots on their tummies. They can also be solid colours (i.e. no tabby pattern or rather their genetic pattern is hidden or masked by their solid colour) like black or blue.
Siberians do also come in a pointed pattern like the Siamese or Birman markings- these cats will have a pale body and colour only on their faces and legs and tail. They also have blue eyes. These Siberians are nick named "Neva Masquerades".
Brown (Black) tabbies.
Brown tabbies (also called Black tabbies depending on the registry) are for me the ultimate Siberian cat. They have the wild forest cat look and you can really imagine them living out in the forest hunting their prey! Browns come in a variety of shades from cool or dark browns through to pale browns and warm browns that verge on gold. These colours tend to do the best on the show bench due to their wild look (and often they tend to have better type than other colours).
Golden Tabbies.
Golden Siberians really have an amazing colour. They really do shimmer like gold and are incredibly eye catching. They are difficult to breed as the genetics of the colour is not yet fully understood. They differ to a golden Persian and are often a brighter gold with a pink nose leather and black paw pads.
Just like in the browns, there is a wide range of shades in the goldens. These range from pale straw colour through to a deep apricot colour under coats.
Blue and cream tabbies.
Blue and Cream colours are the result of the "dilute" modifier gene. Dilute is recessive so we only have these colours occasionally. Blue is kind of bluey grey-ish colour similar to a koala and is the result of dilute genes on a brown (black) tabby coat. Cream is the dilute genes on a red coat!
With White and High White/Bicolour.
What do we mean when we say "with white" or "and white"? This means that the coat will have some areas of white- often the bibs and socks but the white can technically be anywhere on the coat. "High white" or "bicolour" means lots of white! If they have white around their nose, their nose leather will be bright pink. If it is over their toes, those toes will also be bright pink! Very cute indeed!
It is worth noting that the placement and amount of white varies from cat to cat though it can often be inherited in a similar distribution to a parent who is with white.
