Rare Cat Colors: Brown, Lavender, and Peach Kitties

In addition to the well-known feline coat colors like gray, black, and orange, the cat spectrum also includes a few bizarre and beautiful mutations. Although somewhat rare, cats with cream, peach, lilac, lavender, and chocolate markings are posessed of uniquely pleasant personalities and uncommon aesthetic beauty.

Chocolate cats are among the most delightful pets in the world, and their thick, mahogany coats are irresistable to the touch. There were records of chocolate individuals in Siamese gene pools during the 1800s, but these individuals were always quickly weeded out of the genepools because Siamese breeders did not favor cats with any eye-color besides blue (chocolate cats almost always have gold-colored eyes).

By the 1930s, interest in brown cats began to rise when a man from San Fransisco brought a walnut-brown female cat back to the U.S. after visiting Burma. His cat, named Wong Mau, was so pleasant and lively that he began cross-breeding her with select groups of Siamese cats, thus creating the breed now called the Burmese. Love of chocolate cats quickly became trendy among cat fanciers, and an equally beautiful breed known as the Havana Brown was isolated from Siamese gene pools in the 1950's.

The breeding of chocolate cats came with a surprising twist. Many cats carry a gene called the dilution gene, which, when combined with basic color-coat genes, makes the cat lighter than the standard color. For example, a black cat with the dilution gene will appear gray ("blue") in color. Cat fanciers found that when a chocolate cat carries the dilution gene, the result is a stunningly attractive shade of lavender or lilac.

These pale-purple cats are a glorious sight to behold. When light shines on their lavender fur, lilac cats appear almost other-worldly or supernatural. They come with all the delightfully exotic personality traits of a chocolate cat, plus the livliness that the dilution gene also brings. The lilac gene has now been introduced into breeds including the colorpoint shorthair, the colorpoint longhair, the Persian, the ragdoll, the Burmese, and several other genepools.

The dilution gene is also responsible for another coat-color anomaly. When a cat whose genetics favor a red (or orange) color carries the gene, its fur appears as a soft, rich, pale shade of cream. Many of these cream-colored cats have strong enough undertones of red that they actually appear to be peach in color.

While cream is recognized as an acceptable color within many different breeds, few breeders have yet stepped up to the challenge of emphasizing the rich pinky-peach shades seen in a select few individuals. A cat with peach or cream fur (or tabby-markings that feature both colors) is very beautifuil, particularly in sunlight, and their fur tends to be glossy and highly reflective. Many cats with peach coats also feature dazzling amber eyes.

A few cat owners are lucky enough to have cats whose fur features these unique shades. While these colors may be dazzling, they are difficult to maintain in subsequent generations unless you are an accomplished breeder and your cat has a verified pedigree. To prevent worsening of the pet overpopulation crisis, always have your cat spayed or neutered, regardless of the rarity of his color.