Guide to Cat Coat Colors and Patterns

The above can occur in combination with the tabby pattern e.g. Blue Tabby Tortie, Lilac Tabby Tortie, Silver Tabby Tortie etc. Solid colors can occur patched with white e.g. Black and White, Cream and White (faint tabby markings), Chocolate and White. Tabby patterns can occur patched with white e.g. Blue Tabby and White, Red Tabby and White, Silver Tabby and White. Ticked colors can occur patched with white.

Tortie patterns occur with white e.g. Tortoiseshell & White (Calico or Mi-Ke in Japanese Bobtail), Dilute Tortoiseshell & White (Dilute Calico/Blue-Cream and White), Chocolate (Chestnut) Tortie and White (Choc-Cream & White/Chestnut Calico), Lilac (Lavender) Tortie & White (Lilac-Cream & White/Lavender Calico) etc.

Tortie or Tortie-Tabby patterns can occur on silver backgrounds e.g. Blue Silver Tortoiseshell/Tortie Tabby/Tabby, Fawn Silver Tortoiseshell/Tortie Tabby/Tabby, Red Silver Tortoiseshell/Tortie Tabby/Tabby etc and possibly on golden backgrounds though the genetics of golden are not well understood at present.

Two others are Shell/Cameo/Silver/Golden Tabbies and Smoke Tortoiseshell/Shaded Tortoiseshell which are described in the section on chinchillas and tipped colors.

Mink Colors (Tonkinese)

Minks are pointed cats with much darker bodies and less (although still apparent) contrast between body color and point color. Mink is a halfway-house between solid color (Burmese) and Colorpoint (Siamese). In theory, Tonkinese occur in versions of all Burmese (solid) colors - the list below gives the Burmese equivalent name for some of the mink colors. Mink-color cats have blue, aqua or blue green eyes.

• Blue Mink: Ash blue (with warm fawn tones) body, medium/slate blue points.
• Champagne Mink: (Lilac) buff cream/light tan body, points golden tan to milk chocolate
• Honey Mink: (Chocolate/Chestnut)
• Natural Mink: (Black/Seal) Medium brown body, deep seal brown points.
• Platinum Mink: (Lavender/Lilac) Pale silver/pearly gray body (with light fawn tones), points pale dove gray to light taupe gray.
• Red Mink: Pale red body, darker red points with ghost tabby markings
• Cinnamon Mink
• Fawn Mink: A "hotter version" of cream.
• Cream Mink