#lavender buff

I love your blog and I’m constantly learning new things through your posts! Keep up the incredible work :).

You’re correct that colorpoint cats will always have blue eyes - but there are factors which can influence this appearance.

I’ve seen geriatric cats with advanced iris atrophy that have dull, gray-looking eyes and I’ve seen colorpoint cats with eyes that look deceptively lavender since colorpoint is a form of albinism.

Jaundice can also cause the eyes to appear green because blue + yellow = green.

Mink cats are known to have “aqua” eyes, with aqua being a halfway point between blue and green I’ve seen minks right in the middle and I’ve seen minks with distinct leaning towards the blue end of the spectrum or the green end of the spectrum.

Although, from what I’ve heard it seems like getting mink cats with definitely blue eyes takes a little bit of extra work. They seem to naturally be more inclined to aqua-green so breeders who are able to push them in the other direction are always very proud of their work.

Then sepia cats can have green or gold eyes, I’ve never seen a blue eyed sepia so I don’t think it’s a naturally occurring color in sepia cats - although, in theory, you may be able to acquire it by adding enough white spotting or dominant blue eye.

I assume most registries would require a first and second generation outcross to be disclosed, but how many generations out would introduced genes matter? You’ve mentioned before that even first generation crosses of purebreds and DSH’s can lack obvious breed characteristics, so I wonder if noting an outcrossing 8 generations prior would even be necessary.

Thanks!

I imagine it depends on the breed, the outcross, the reason, the registry, whether or not the offspring still meet the standard and so forth.

In this case most individuals in the fancy would likely not consider Pippa to be a purebred Siberian regardless of how recent the outcross was because she no longer meets the breed standard, cinnamon is not an accepted color.

But if she produced offspring that did meet breed standard that may be fine?

For the purposes of this blog I stop using the tag “outcross breed” at 4G+ when dealing with an established breed that has been outcrossed with the intent to maintain the breed but introduce a new trait or promote genetic diversity but I still list how many generations for informational purposes.