Cats
AMBER AND RUSSET - LATE COLOUR CHANGE GENES
Copyright 2014, Sarah Hartwell
The ancestors of the domestic cat were nondescript black/brown striped tabbies. Over the
centuries, mutation produced a wide array of colours based on 2 different pigments.
Eumelanin gives the blacks, browns and blues while phaeomelanin gives the reds, fawns and
creams. A few other genes give further variations on those colours such silvers, colourpoints
and solids/selfs. Mutations continue to occur and unexpected colours also turn up due to
inbreeding where recessive genes, hidden for generations, start showing up.
AMBER AND LIGHT AMBER