Understanding cat coat colours
What a cat's colour really means — the base colours, how dilution and patterns change them, and how the cat fancy writes it all down.
Base colours
Most cat colours trace back to two pigments: eumelanin (the black series — black, chocolate, cinnamon) and phaeomelanin (red). Everything else is these colours modified.
Dilution & patterns
A dilution gene softens dense colours (black→blue, chocolate→lilac, red→cream). Tabby, silver, colourpoint and white markings then layer on top to create the full range you see.
Writing it down: EMS
The cat fancy records all of this with a compact EMS code — a colour letter plus pattern and white numbers, often after a breed code.
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