The Amazing (As Well As Beautiful) Reasons Why Your Cat’s Fur Can Change Color!

It’s no secret that cats are beautiful, one of life’s greatest pleasures is sinking our fingers into their soft silky fur.

One thing many of us may not notice is the change in our cat’s fur as they grow older. For some cats, this change is barely noticeable, for others the change can be quite a radicle. Especially if you have a black cat or an oriental breed like a Siamese. The fur of a black cat can transition over time, changing to a nice reddish sheen. And Siamese cats’ fur usually darkens over time, which is why many Siamese cats have that distinctive mask.

There are many reasons why a cat’s coat can change, and one of those is temperature change.

As mentioned earlier, Siamese cats’ fur darkens over time as they age, Catster reports. Body temperature plays a huge role in this change as Oriental cats like Himalayans, and Siamese, have cooler skin at their extremities, such as feet, ears, tail, and face. That’s why these gorgeous breeds have darker points in these areas, especially with those cute masks

The Himalayan below is the perfect example

It’s not just body temperature that plays a role, weather temperature can have an effect too. During winter your cat’s fur can darken.

While winter can darken fur, sunlight can lighten a cat’s fur

If you are lucky enough to own a black cat, you may have noticed that his or her fur shines a striking shade of burnt red when out in the sun.

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Sunlight can bleach some color out of your cat’s fur. This is especially true of cats that like to catnap in the sun, whether they are indoors or outdoors.

Nutrition plays a huge role too

Sometimes this lovely shade of red can also signify something going on with your cat’s health. For instance, if your cat is lacking tyrosine, an amino acid that’s crucial to many animals, including humans. Tyrosine produces melanin, a pigment that darkens fur and hair. Other nutritional problems can play a role too, this is also most noticeable in black cats as well.

Copper deficiency or an excess of zinc in your cat’s diet can also lighten fur color. 

Reddening of your cat’s fur needs to be checked, as other than sunlight, tyrosine poisoning is the leading cause. However, other causes of cats’ fur color change need to be reviewed, such as copper deficiency and zinc poisoning. Copper deficiency may result in your cat having a dull, dry coat, hair loss, as well as loss of pigment. This can result in your cats’ fur having a washed-out, lackluster appearance. Zinc poisoning symptoms include lack of appetite, jaundice, vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, and depression. If your cat displays any of these symptoms contact your veterinarian.

This Harmless Condition Is Quite Beautiful.

But we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention one other condition that’s quite harmless but causes some unusual color changes in our feline friends: Vitiligo, which in fact affects dogs, cats, and even humans. It’s very rare but definitely quite striking when it occurs in cats. It causes depigmentation, causing a spiderweb-like appearance of white fur, which is especially visible in black cats, according to this report by Hills. Often cats affected by this develop striking fur patterns, usually starting around a cat’s nose.

It wasn’t all that long ago that we wrote about a remarkable pair of adorable tuxedo kittens adopted by Nicole Böhm in 2016. While little Rosie maintained her black-and-white coloring, her sister Elli began developing the distinctive fur coloring typical of vitiligo a few months later. 

As you can see sweet Elli is a gorgeous cat who is doing well.

But there’s one other character, sweet Cole of our very own CaMFam, who successfully underwent cancer treatments with chemotherapy and radiation. It’s the radiation therapy that left him with now very distinctive white markings on his adorable face. And he simply couldn’t be any cuter!

In so many cases a cat’s fur is intricately beautiful and full of sparkling light. It’s simply a delight to pet them, gazing wondrously at their coat. It’s just one more reason why we love our feline friends as much as we do.

But there’s one more factor why your cat’s fur may be changing color.

Your sweet senior is simply growing older.

Like people, kitties get grey hair. But this isn’t something you’d necessarily notice unless you have a black cat. And the coats of many Oriental breeds also darkens with age. One thing is very clear, we love our beautiful felines no matter how their fur changes or how old they are. Their calm, purring demeanor just makes us love them more.

H/T coleandmarmalade.com.

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