author Kristen Wiley Imperial Rags RagaMuffins
A fun and often confusing topic for RagaMuffin breeders is color. Our breed comes in a plethora of colors and patterns. So, when new kittens are born, it is always exciting to see and decipher what colors we have in our litter. It can be a daunting challenge for new breeders to learn to recognize the various colors.
Some colors take time to develop before we know what color they are. Color pointed kittens are born all white and develop color first on the tips of the ears a few days after birth. The color spreads and deepens as they mature. Likewise the mink and sable kittens’ color deepens as they get older. A mature sable can often be mistaken for a black cat at first glance!
I love some of the more “traditional” cat colors like black, red, and tortoiseshell. Add a splash of white for a tuxedo or bicolor and I think they look really flashy! Add some tabby stripes and I am in love! Brown tabbies are my absolute favorite! We have some less seen color possibilities such as chocolate, golden and cinnamon that like to pop in and confuse us. Thankfully, there are laboratories we can use to test color and be certain before we register them if we aren’t sure.
Dilution creates a beautiful wash of lighter colors such as blue, cream, and platinum. Smokes and silvers are always a fun spin on any color. The roots of the hair on these cats are white with the color of the cat on the tips of the hair. This sometimes cannot be discerned until the kittens are a few weeks old or more and the hair grows in length.
This is just a short synopsis of colors we see in RagaMuffins. If you look at our breed standard booklet, the colors listed cover nine pages! No wonder I’ve heard comments from judges on all our colors!
