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]
We found a 4wk old kitten wandering alone in front of our complex. She was covered in maggots, she had ooen wounds on her abdomen, and ankle. She had holes in her toe pads.the maggots were in her mouth, ears, nose, and all wounds. We immediately took her to our veterinarian. He hydrated her, bathed her, cleaned and medicated all wounds. She weighed 1.54lbs. She was pitch black and has the longest tail I’ve ever seen. Her eyes are gold like a Bombay cat. Just beautiful. We took her home and she is doing amazingly well. I just noticed last week that her fur is less sleek and has an under coat of whitish grey. Any ideas?
I had a stray female come up a year ago. She had 3 babies on March 3rd and 2 more the night of March 4th. The first 3 died and I brought her and her other 2 babies inside. One was black and white and the other was black. Over the next 2 weeks the balck one started turning gray and a reddish color mixed with the black. She’s now a beautiful dark chocolate brownish black with random gray hairs. Her reddish color shows up alot when she’s in sunlight. The mama accidentally got out a couple of times and got pregnant again. On July 1st around 3am she had 3 babies, midday she had one more and around 10pm she had 2 more. She had 5 black and 1 gray & white. Two of the black one’s are fluffy like the fever coat baby from March and the other 3 are short hair. The 2 fluffy one’s have alot of gray on them now witj a little hint of red as well. The other 3 black one’s have areas of gray or little random gray hairs. They are precious.
I have a grey kitten now, and at the moment that I write, he had blue eyes that changed and became green: the color of its grey fur is becoming black, it is really very magic
My beautiful and loving/cunning 3½ yo kitten (I know she’s full grown but she will always be my Only Kitten 🖤) was born looking just like the second kitten in the two top photos. She was so beautiful but deep down I knew she was going to be black. Not sure how I knew but I named her Onyx Heart 🖤 the first day we had her.
She was very shy and timid around other people. She only showed me her true colors and affection until see got a little older. She was well into her 2 year mark before she let everyone know she was large and in charge but in a very polite and sophisticated way. She has a gorgeous glossy black coat that not only she grooms but I also enjoy brushing her or just letting her in general. (Lol) I’ve had people ask me how is my cat is so soft, I simply reply by saying I pet her.. it’s as simple as that. She’s a cat 😂 she has her own cleaning solutions.
Anyways, I’ve always wondered if I was lied to by the owners of her mother and father. Her mother is a Calico and her father is a Siamese. She had a few cats (not many at all) and we were too sure which as the father but this makes complete sense to me. All my questions are answered.
Thank you for posting this article.
We have several Ferrell cat and when a kitten gets sick or the mother dies we have a kitten in the house some we nurse back and some we don’t we now have 5 in house and the youngest was all white except tips of ears, in a weeks time she looked like a siamese nearly 6 weeks old now she loos Siamese with this light beautiful tan orange color stripes and her tail is very tart. We don’t have any orange cats here and I live up in the mountains and miles between Neihbor s so don’t know where coloring came from she is beautiful and she will remain inside she has become my helper and best friend she always has a lot to say her middle toe on all four paws is larger and a split as though she was supposed to have 6 toes but
Leave a comment