Calling all cat people..

[Krisu]

We have a new gray kitten DS named "Ashley". How much do cat's coloring change as they grow? We have had her about 6 weeks and I see her tail is coming in striped and seems lighter gray in spots. We don't have much experience with cats.

 

[Beauty]

Actually it differs depending on the cat. I have one that was light grey and white when she was a baby and now that she is around 7 she is very very dark with tons of black and almost no white or grey.

Now Isis who is in my pic started out darker and seems to be getting lighter.....The coloring can change drastically though or some won't change at all. I've had Cairo for 8 years and she looks just the same as she did when I got her except shes fatter now.

 

[catsrule]

Simba was a grey tabby with stripes as a kitten. Now he is all grey, except his belly is white. He was about 1 when he turned all grey.

 

[UrsulasDaBomb]

It depends on the cat. When we adopted Rumpleteazer, she was orange/white and she's remained that way. Buttercup on the other hand was a far lighter cream color with darker brown socks a nd she's gotten darker as she's gotten older. Now she's a medium brown with darker brown stripes and spots as well as dark brown, almost black, socks on her feetses.


Gayle(UDB)

 

[eeyore0062]

I have had 9 cats. All of my black cats (there have been 4-- Crystal, China, Kowo and Harley) have started out black and remained so, although all of them, with the exception of Harley have had little stray white hairs, either under their necks, or on their bellies. Harley is completely black. My orange tabby (Hobbes) was a fluffy little ball of orange fur with light stripes and white on her belly and was the same until she died at the age of 10. My tortouse shell tabby (Tigger) started out grey with black stripes and remained that way. I got Amber (an orange Tabby), Rabbit (a beautiful, completely white cat whose coat looked like a white rabbit, albeit with a nasty attitude) and Mollie ( a calico) when they were adults, so I have no idea what they looked like as kittens.

Currently we only have Harley and Mollie.

 

[katerkat]

All of ours have kept their kitten coloring. Well, except for Tycho because we don't know what he looked like as a kitten. But my parents' grey cat was a grey fuffball from day one, and he also has faint stripes on his tail.

 

[shortbun]

I got a short haired white cat from my college BF. She was
psycho. She got out and got pregnant b4 I thought it possible.
I had her fixed after the kittens were born-sorry about the
extra kittens but I digress. After her kittens were born, she became a long haired cat, still white. A year or so later, she turned into a long haired yellow tabby-I'm serious. She was pure white before. She got sick and died sadly very early in life.
I kept one of her kittens who lived to be 21 and never changed
a bit from his first coloring or fur length. That my only color/fur
changing experience with cats. All my others have stayed pretty
much the same as their kitten fur marks.

 

[Melora]

Our current cats are one very small tabby (maybe 5 pounds wet)who hasn't changed much since oldest DS brought her home when she was 5 week old.

The other 2 (sisters who collectively weigh in over 40 pounds) are tortoise shells. We got them from the shelter when they were about 6 weeks. They are now 4 and one has stayed pretty much the same except that her color has deepened. The other continues to develop color and instead of mostly black with orange undertones, she has turned into a mottled orange and black and it seems she will continue to get more orange as time goes on.

My ex MIL got a kitten 18 years ago and it was all white with just faint siamese overtones.. now the kitty is almost brown, kind of a dark chocolate, cream and tan calico. Guess it depends on the cat!

 

[tiggerlover]

When Max was a kitten he was a black tuxedo cat that was salt and pepper throughout. As he got older his salt and pepper all turned black with the white tuxedo front. In the last few years as he was getting really old (15+) he started going back to salt and pepper, which I assume was his way of graying.