Amazing Color-Changing Kittens: What Is Fever Coat?
Kittens are pretty magical. They can bring even the most jaded people to their knees with a single, tiny mew. They can instantly brighten any day and make the sun feel like it's shining even if it's storming. But they can't change colors, right? Funny story: It turns out they can.
While the above photo would satisfy all my Lisa Frank-fueled childhood dreams of a hot pink kitten, the "color-changing" kittens we're talking about are born with bright silver. As they age, their fur changes until they are a completely different color than the fluff they were born with, a phenomenon known as "fever coat."
Fever (or stress) coat occurs when the mother cat is ill with a high fever or stress during pregnancy and doesn't usually have any negative effects on the kitten's overall health.
A stray moggy from the UK, Georgie, gave birth to a litter of six kittens born with this unusual coloration. Maggie Roberts, head vet at Cats Protection HQ in Sussex, was contacted in regards to Georgie's strange brood. Four of the kittens only had the silver patches on their legs, but two were completely covered in the silver fur.
After a bit of research, it was determined that the kittens most likely have fever coat. As they aged, the kittens shed their silvery outer coats and showed their true colors: two black kittens, three torties, and one tabby.
More recently, a tiny, premature kitten was brought to the National Kitten Coalition, discovered hours after he was born. Co-founder Susan Spaulding worked 'round the clock to save this fantastically colored preemie, whom they named Rizzo.
The silver portion of Rizzo's fur will eventually turn black, like other cats with fever coat. "Just as with Siamese points, which are due to a temperature-sensitive gene, the coloring shows darker on his extremities because their temperature is cooler," says Spaulding, who has had a dozen or so cases of fever coat over her years working in cat rescue.
Rizzo in action (still a bit wobbly!):
Rizzo's changing coat:
Bruce the cat is another example of a rescued kitty that grew out of his silvery fever coat into a handsome black cat.
Have you ever had a color-changing kitten?
[h/t LoveMeow, The Ross Gazette]
Yes, I have a cat who changed colors as he aged. He was originally white with a brown tabby tail and very pale brown stripes on his head as a kitten. As he got older, more pale brown started appearing. He started getting a brown patch near his nose; then his upper body starting to become pale brown.
He’s part snowshoe or Siamese, and cats with those markings are often born white with their points appearing as they age during their first year. It’s just par for the course with those cats. As far as colorations go, he turned out being a bicolor seal pointed (Siamese) cat. Very pretty.
His brother is a bicolor flame point. His coat changed a bit too, namely that his orange points became more noticeable as he got older. But I was kind of expecting that.
Neither cat has dark legs or a mask like a Siamese though That’s where the bicolor comes in; their legs, muzzles, and much of their faces are white.
I googled and got this page , wanting to know what kind of at we have. I adopted our black cat apparently they say around two yrs old as a ferret cat with a clipped ear ,after having him he would druel on you all the time till I guess he knew his new home was his forever home and has become one of the best cats we have had but after him being here we noticed he’s all black and when he sits on your lap and you pet his coat from tail to head his fur turns white and when you pet him from head to tail he turns black and don’t see the white anymore , I guess we have a special fur baby 😍
I have a litter of 5 kittens currently 4-5 months. 2 males, a tabby, and one that has up to a few weeks ago jet black long hair. He is now covered in heavily frosted patch’s, across the front section of the back legs, his tail and a light dusting everywhere else. The 3 females, all primarily black, with brown and light tan. All of their colors are changing as well, gaining sparce white hairs, not patches. I came across this article because we’ve never seen color changes like this.
Can a Siamese Cat come out almost all black?
My torbie kitten is 5 months old, the mother was rescued during the delivery. The kitten started out as mostly grey/black with some cream and one patch of orange on the back of her head. Now she is very colourful- white and cream, grey and black, orange and tan. She’s tabby on the fronts of all 4 legs and her face, her back is stripes of grey, black and orange and her belly is patches of cream, orange and grey. Her tail has been black but now colour is working it’s way down towards the tip. Can’t wait to see what she ends up like!
Leave a comment