Wednesday, July 18, 2012

White Cats

Ever wonder about the colour of cats. There are so many different colours in our feline friends and its all because of their genes.

The white coat is almost always caused by a dominant gene. You should think of this as sort of a blanket masking the cats actual colour. There are no pigment cells in the hair shaft. This dominant gene prevents pigment from being produced. Extreme care is needed when breeding white cats, because a small proportion of white cats are deaf. The inner ear of the cat contains hairs that vibrate when sound waves enter the ear. If the pigment is missing from these hairs, they are not stiff enough to be set in motion.The results in the signal not getting to the auditory nerve.

Fortunately, most white cats still have pigment in the hairs of the inner ear. It is not advisable to breed from two white cats because the risk of deaf offspring is considerable and therefore no one should breed a deaf white cat for this reason.

No comments:

Post a Comment