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The Silver Bengal is very beautiful with a silvery white
background color with black or charcoal markings.
"Silver" is not however, an actual color but the inhibition of
color. The dominant Inhibitor, or "I" gene suppresses
the yellow pigment (phaeomelanin) which produces the
browns. It is based on a natural color of the Snow
Leopard of Asia.
The term "silver" refers to the white
banded areas of the hair, not to the pigmented areas, such as
black tips. Silver differs from white cats as in white -
melanocytes (pigment cells), are lacking and fail to migrate
to the white areas of the coat. In silvers, the
melanocytes can produce melanocytes for that color, but are
decreased to stop melanin in areas of the hair that would
normally be phaeomelanin (brown tabby). If the inhibitor
gene is unable to completely block the phaeomelanin (brown),
what results is the kitten/cat appears bronzed or
"tarnished".
To get a silver kitten, one or both
parents must be silver. Because the "I" gene is a
dominant gene, if you do not see silver, it's not there and
can not be carried. If one of the parents is a
silver and produces a brown spotted kitten, this kitten will
only produce silvers if mated to another
silver.
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