New kitten! I think she is a black smoke.

[Ishani Birch]

Just went and picked out this little sweetie. She has 3 sisters and 2 brothers, the boys are Seal Point and the other girls are Melanistic. But she looks like she'll be a smoke to me, the breeder agreed. Only 4 weeks old now so we won't know for a while. Can't wait to take her home!

 

[WitchyWoman]

Awwww, she's so tiny and very cute. Congratulations.

 

[Patti]

She does look like she might be smoke. Is one of the parents silver or smoke? She is quite the cutie!!

 

[Ishani Birch]

Her Mom is a Melanistic and Dad is a I think a silver? Or he might be a Seal point, I forgot to ask. I will post pictures of them.

 

[Ishani Birch]

Here's mom and dad.

 

[Patti]

Unless one of the parents is smoke or silver you can't have a smoke kitten. Possibly mom is a very dark smoke instead of black, or dad is a silver seal lynx - hard to tell without actually inspecting their hairs!

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

The kitten looks smoke in the pictures, but unless one of the parents is silver (or smoke) then genetically she cannot be. Unfortunately there's no DNA test. There have been cases when a seemingly black cat turns out to be smoke, it's even mentioned in the cat breeding "bible" Robinson's Genetics for Cat Breeders & Veterinarians.... and then there might be a possibility that dad is a silver seal lynx point I guess. Hard to tell not being in person with the cats as Patti says!

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

Do you have the pedigree to look at? If there ARE silver cats in the pedigree it increases the chances of one of the parents being undetected for that gene...

 

[Ishani Birch]

Hmm yah, I read that online, which is why I thought someone on here might know better. Snowball (the dad) I think is either a Seal Point or silver as he's very light, and the other kittens look Seal Point. The breeder doesn't have the father so I didn't get to see first hand but she gave me the breeders contact who owns the father. I did however get to meet my girls grandmother, and she was a Silver with beautiful black spots.

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

If there is silver behind the mom, then get the breeder to examine her more closely. Sometimes what seems solid black is just a "poorly developed" black smoke. The base of the hairs in the case of a black cat will be brownish while for a smoke they will be white.

The father is definitely seal lynxpoint, but he could be silver seal lynxpoint.... and it can be hard to determine the difference...