Do all black cats have white hair roots? I was stroking Poppy and when I went against the way the hair lays, I noticed that she has white roots.

I never noticed it on a black cat before, but I never really paid much attention either.

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Sam's roots are lighter than the ends of his coat, but not white. I'm not sure whether it's the individual hairs that change colour, or that his longer hairs are black, but he has a soft "undercoat" that's a medium brown colour. When you stroke him, his coat feels very glossy and silky, but if you go deep into his coat, it's quite fluffy underneath.

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Proud Mummy to:

Sam (born June 1999, found August 1999)
Milly (born May 1999, adopted September 1999)
Eva (born 2010, adopted us August 2011)

Sounds like a black smoke to me. Chaucer has much paler roots, but looks solid black when he's lying still. It's quite a striking coat color, especially on a longer-haired cat

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My babies
Aber, Ragnar, Kelso (the corgi trio), Daisy (our rescue mystery-mix puppy), Ellie, Henry, Gwennie, Jezebel (the kitty quartet), Blake, Chaucer, Molly and Milton (the kittens), and Bingo the African Grey parrot

Over the Bridge:
Pippin: 1/6/08-17/5/11
Freja: 11/8/10-30/10/10
Kirby: 11/8/10-1/11/10

"Praise liberty/The freedom to obey/It's a song that strangles me/Well, don't cross the line" Billie Joe Armstrong

Indeed a black smoke - it's the silver gene expressed in a non tabby. If you want more genetics stuff let me know otherwise I'll leave it at that.

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please look at my website - www.finesthourcats.webs.com - for gorgeous GCCF registered RagaMuffins and Selkirk Rex

Sorry to derail OP's thread, but if I send you a pic of Storm, would you be able to help me out? He is registered as a black smoke but I find I'm not sure I agree, more like a silver and black shaded!

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Mummy to;

Sooty 9.6.1996 - 28.04.2011 Rest in peace my love!
Storm (Sueragdandy Phantom) 28.02.2010
Benji (Kassaro Benjamin Franklyn) 08.03.2011

You can try! As in I can try - I know the details but sometimes getting it right is difficult. But please do. I'll send you my email in pMs.

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please look at my website - www.finesthourcats.webs.com - for gorgeous GCCF registered RagaMuffins and Selkirk Rex

Is he the kitten in your albums? If so he can't be a smoke cos he's tabby, smoke is the silver gene expressed in non tabbies. That one looks like a black silver tabby.

In the Shaded Silver, all of the hairs are tipped with color at about the point where the agouti band would normally begin. As in the Chinchilla (silver tipped), both the ticked and the solid hairs turn light-colored before the point where the agouti band would begin, so the tabby pattern is not visible. However in the Shaded Silver, the colored tips are long enough that the normal color is clearly visible, particularly along the head and spine.

In the Silver Tabby, the ticked hairs are tipped with color and then light-colored below the tip, but the solid hairs have normal coloration. The tabby pattern is actually enhanced by the greater contrast between the almost-white ticked hairs and the full color of the solid hairs.

So does he have normal stripes on the solid bit of his tabby?

EDIT: I've just looked at pictures of shadeds - they are all very light on top - that kitten is a black silver tabby with white.

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please look at my website - www.finesthourcats.webs.com - for gorgeous GCCF registered RagaMuffins and Selkirk Rex

I would be interested in some of the genetic info. I'll try to keep up anyway lol.

I was looking at her fur a little more closely; it's white at the root, then there is a teeny bit of brown before it turns black. Her ghost markings look almost like a browny colour (when they show up in the sun). She is smoke coloured under her chin with black tabby markings and she has a patch of white fur (roughly the size of a £2 coin) on her belly in between her hind legs.

Her mum was a tortie; mostly grey/blue with bits of red and black. She also had a smokey coloured, long-haired brother with tabby markings and cream coloured spectacles around his eyes. He was gorgeous and I had originally picked him but then changed my mind because he was so shy (he never would've been happy in our often noisy and busy house).

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All tabbies have 'spectacles' it part of the markings. Sounds like mum was a smoke tortie. Her fur sounds just right for a black smoke, white a the roots and then the brown is just the black beginning to come through.

Silver is a dominant gene so only one gene needs to be passed on for a cat to be silver, if it has the gene it is silver, bit like tabby. As it sounds like mum wasn't a tabby so Dad must have been. But as your girl isn't tabby then he only carried one tabby gene and one solid and passed on the solid gene to your girl. And from mums description it sounds like she passed on the silver.
Silver can be expressed either as silver, smoke, shaded or tipped. Smoke is silver in non tabby, the other all involve various lengths of the hair being affected, silver is the smallest amount near the route, then shaded more of the hair normally beyond the start of the tabby markings so the cat looks pale and barely shows tabby except along the back and on the head and tipped, where only the very tip of the hair is coloured and the cat looks almost white except it has a sheen on colour on top.

Hope that helps, ask if you want to know anything specifically.

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please look at my website - www.finesthourcats.webs.com - for gorgeous GCCF registered RagaMuffins and Selkirk Rex

No that is Benji, he was a blue silver tabby with white when we picked him up, but his stripes seem darker now and look black in certain lighting, but his stripes are actually a more dark blue. I don't have any pictures of Storm in decent lighting so this Saturday when I'm around in daylight I'll take lots of pics including a close up of the fur which will, make you see why I think he is a shaded

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Mummy to;

Sooty 9.6.1996 - 28.04.2011 Rest in peace my love!
Storm (Sueragdandy Phantom) 28.02.2010
Benji (Kassaro Benjamin Franklyn) 08.03.2011