Cats have many spectacular colors. And one of them is purple. It does not belong to the number of natural feline colors: breeders received it relatively recently and only purebred cats can boast of purple hair. As a rule, these are either British or Oriental.
What does a lilac cat look like?
The color of the lilac cat's coat resembles cocoa with milk: gray with a clear bluish-pink tint. In this case, the color intensity can vary, so the color of lilac cats is divided into three options: lilac proper, lavender and lighter isabella. Sometimes cats with this color are also called "platinum".
Kittens of this color are usually born from crossing blue cats with chocolate cats: in order to obtain a coat of this rare and unusual color, they must "converge" the recessive gene for the chocolate color and also the recessive weakening gene that blue cats have. Purely statistically, such a combination of recessive genes occurs only in 25% of cases, so purple kittens in litters are quite rare. And according to the breeder experts, to get lilac kittens in the cattery, you need to carry out breeding work for about 10 years. Now the most spectacular are lilac cats obtained by Dutch breeders: their pink tint of fur is most pronounced.
The paw pads, nose and edging of the mouth in lilac cats are also very similar in color to the color of the coat, but their shade is slightly different: more bluish. Kittens are born with bluish-gray eyes, but then they change color to a permanent, yellow shade. Most often it is a rich copper tone, but sometimes the iris can be orange or golden.
Lilac colors
The color of lilac cats is most often monochromatic. Among orientals, spotted animals are sometimes found - with darker rounded spots located throughout the body.
In the British, the lilac color is almost always uniform. True, kittens may have marks on their bodies - spots or stripes, but as the baby grows up, they disappear. As a result, there is not a single light speck on the body of a lilac cat, and the hairs are evenly colored along the entire length. The soft undercoat may be slightly lighter, but this should not affect the overall coat tone in any way. An undercoat that is too contrasting or uneven coat color is considered a “color defect”.
There are also British cats of marbled lilac color - with symmetrical, darker stripes, forming a pattern on the shoulders and back, reminiscent of a butterfly. This is one of the rarest colors of marble cats, and such animals look very unusual and impressive.
In the documents for the animal, the lilac color is indicated by the letter "c", its official international name is "Lilac" or "Lavender".
