Colors

Details: Published: 03 May 2020; Hits: 430

Well, I think I need to start this article with a clarification, not long ago we had shaded, shell, and chinchilla, today this is changed. I will go by the new names remember this so that you do not get confused. The Silver-variation is handled in the article: Shaded and Shell.

Designation
Golden Tabby	All colors and patterns (ny, ay, fy, gy, dy, ey) and (21, 22, 23, 24 and 25)
Golden Shaded	ny 11, ay 11, fy, 11, gy 11, dy 11 and ey 11.
Golden Shell	ny 12, ay 12, fy 12, gy 12, dy 12 and ey 12

Goldens will have the (y) behind their normal color code, I did got dy and ey in the list, I dont think we ever seen one in the Maine Coon breed, but the exists in other breeds.
I know that there is believes that the wideband is is a different trait on the MCO then in for example the Persian or Brittish Shorthair, though I have some trouble with this since all other known traits is the same in every breed. I do not know if I'm correct, maybe time will tell if there during my lifetime will be a gene-test for the wideband and for silver, but for now we just have to settle with theories and what we can actually see. Remember as in the Shaded and Shell articles this is what I have learned and seen I have been looking at those colors for about 10-12 years even if it's just about 2 years since I actually started to breed for them.

There has been a LOT of speculations and a lot of theories about Golden, I will quickly just mention them here.

Old theories about Goldens

Well I will not go into those other theories, you need to read the whole article to understand how the thought around those and in connetion to the theories about the silvershaded and silvershell. But there is a lot of different theories.

The full article of the different old theories: http://www.mat.uniroma2.it/~picard/Cats/Feline_genetics_notes.pdf

If you read the article about Shaded and Shell you will see that this is exactly the same inheritance, just without the silver.
Golden is a cat who does have the wideband gene but no silver.
For example lets say you got a ns 11 (a blacksilver shaded), then go got a kitten who is the same as the adult but without the silver, this kitten will be a ny 11 (a black golden shaded)
So the genetic designation would be like this:

ns 11	AA, II, wbwb AA, Ii, wbwb Aa, II, wbwb Aa, Ii, wbwb
ny 11	AA, ii, wbwb Aa, ii, wbwb

A is the genetic designation for Agouti (read the other articles about color to fully understand this), a golden tabby, shaded or shell (same goes for the silvervariations), must be agouti (with pattern), the could be homozygous or heterozygous so AA or Aa, as seen above a shaded must have silver eighter homozygous II or heterozygous Ii, while a golden does not have any silver ii. Both variations need to have the wideband-gene in double. As you might know from the other article this was supposed to be a dominant trait but today it's believed to be a recessive trait.

Golden seems to be even more uncommon then shaded, I think thats because it's even harder to determine golden if it's not a good golden and this trait is even more unknown by many breeders even those who actually breed for the silvervariation. And I know that in some associations Golden is not even recognized and allowed.

Below is the same table as I used in the other article, here you can see the hairs of the different patterns.

Don't mind my very terrible skill in painting, but here are are some, well visually pictures of the coat of the different patterns.


Silver Shell	Silver Shaded	Silver (pale) Still only in theory	Silver tabby	Golden shell	Golden Shaded	Golden tabby	Normal tabby

Below are some explanations of the different colors.

Golden Shell	1/8 Of the hair is colored, the hair from the root and up to the last 1/8 is very warm from dark yellow to apricot.
Golden Shaded	1/3 Of the hair is colored, the hair from the root and up to the last 1/3 is very warm from dark yellow to apricot.
Golden Tabby	The yellowish bands in the hair are somewhat wider then on a regular tabby, this gives you in general a lighter expression of color. Still from dark yellow to apricot.
Normal Tabby	This is somewhat tricky do not misstake a warm normal tabby for golden it's not the same thing. Remember that you need to see the wideband for the cat to be golden.

Determining Shaded, Shell and Golden Tabbies (wideband cats that do have more than 1/3 tipping)

When looking at those colors, keep in mind that on Maine Coon we have not selected for those colors for decades like the have done on, for example, Persians, so we cannot expect to have perfect goldens. The amount of tipping and the ground color should be correct if you want to register your cat as a golden.

Shell

Tipping 1/8 of the hair and the tipping should be as even as possible (here we have some work to do in our selective breeding)
Ground color from dark yellow to apricot
The ground color is more intense on face and back, with a lighter shade on the chin, the ear tufts, down the flanks, on the belly and underside of the tail.
Whisker pads, chin and chest might be light to deep cream.
Colors and distribution of tipping as for the corresponding silver (shell)
Eyes and Nose leather should be outlined with the color of the tipping and even, distinct nose/eye rim is preferred.
Paw pads in same color as the tipping.
A Golden without tabby markings and bars and with a warm coat color is prefered.
White/light colors is tolerated beside the nosetrils, above the lips, on the chin as long as it not extend down to the chest.
Coat that is to grey or pale in tone or grey undercoat, are not acceptable.

Shaded

Tipping 1/3 of the hair and the tipping should be as even as possible (here we have some work to do in our selective breeding
Ground color from dark yellow to apricot
The ground color is more intense on face and back, with a lighter shade on the chin, the ear tufts, down the flanks, on the belly and underside of the tail.
Whisker pads, chin and chest might be light to deep cream.
Colors and distribution of tipping as for the corresponding silver (shaded)
Eyes and Nose leather should be outlined with the color of the tipping and even, distinct nose/eye rim is preferred.
Paw pads in same color as the tipping.
A Golden without tabby markings and bars and with a warm coat color is prefered.
White/light colors is tolerated beside the nosetrils, above the lips, on the chin as long as it not extend down to the chest.
Coat that is to grey or pale in tone or grey undercoat, are not acceptable.

Golden Tabby

Golden tabbies is a cat where the yellowish bands in the hair are somewhat wider then on a regular tabby (see the pictures above).

Wider bands.
Color dark yellow to apricot on the wider bands.
White/light colors is tolerated beside the nosetrils, above the lips, on the chin as long as it not extend down to the chest.
The dark color of the nose rim may extend over the whole nose leather and thus be the same as the corresponding solid color.
Ticked hairs, brindling in the dark parts of the pattern is not acceptable (here is something to work on since we have not selected for those colors).
Lack of contrast or coat that is grey or pale in tone or grey undercoat, are not acceptable.

One question I think is asked a lot is: How do I know if I got a golden kitten in the litter or not?

There are a few things to look at, and remember. One thing that is making it very difficult for us is that golden is developing slowly.
Most golden kittens looks more or less like any other tabby we might have, though keep an extra eye on those who are born very, warm in tone.


A Black tortie golden classic tabby (fy 22) This is a girl at some breeder friends of mine in the south of Sweden, she is a golden tabby. I will show pictures of her as an adult below so that you can see the developement. The light in this picture is not optimal but you can see that she got a warm tone.	A Black tortie golden classic tabby (fy 22) You can see some wideband effect already in the fur but not that clear.

Here you can see the same girl as above as an adult.	And here is the bottom of the coat. You can clearly see that this is not an normal tabby, she got the wideband effect, even if it's not enough for her to be shaded.

Here is a picture not a MCO but just to give a hint what to look for.

As you can see here this kitten is very varm and yellowish in the tone between the eye and they ear, where the corresponding silver variation is white, a golden is apricot to dark yellow.

By: Malin Sundqvist

Details: Published: 26 April 2020; Hits: 3608

Well, I think I need to start this article with a clarification, not long ago we had shaded, shell, and chinchilla, today this is changed. I will go by the new names remember this so that you do not get confused. I will not go into golden either, golden will have an article of it’s own.

Old designation
Shaded	ns 11, as 11, ds 11, es 11, fs, 11, gs 11 and so on.
Shell	Only ds 12 and es 12
Chinchilla	Only dark colors ns 12, as 12, fs 12 and gs 12
New designation
Shaded	ns 11, as 11, ds 11, es 11, fs, 11, gs 11 and so on.
Shell	ns 12, as 12, fs 12 and gs 12 and ds 12 and es 12

So nowadays all cats with the ems code 12 is a shell, not chinchilla, though Chinchilla Persian who become a breed of their own many years ago, of course, will still be Chinchilla. But we are not going to talk about Persians in this article, I will focus on the Maine Coon.

There has been a LOT of speculations and a lot of theories about the Shaded and Shell, I will quickly just mention them here.

The One-Gene Theory

Some time ago, it was suggested that a single unique gene was the origin of all silver colors. It was thought that the Inhibitor gene was the one responsible for Shaded and Shell, in combination with ticked. Nowadays we know this is not true.
The geneticist Roy Robinson, in its well-known book Genetics for Cat Breeders (Cambridge, 1972, 2nd edition)

The Two-Gene Theory

State that silver colors result from the combined action of two genes, one of which (erase) inhibits pigmentation at the hair’s base, while the other (bleaching) cancels rufism. We shall call the latter “silver gene”, and denote it by Sv. The eraser gene will be denoted by I, but the reader should be warned that some recent books denote by Shaded the mild form of the gene I, which gives rise to shaded silvers, and by Shell its strong form, which gives rise to Shells. There is not enough evidence that these two expressions of I are due to two different alleles rather than to a group of polygenes. (Indeed, the transition from shaded silver to Shell is more gradual than sharp. Therefore, we do not make use of two different alleles shaded and shell and do not distinguish between the genotypes of shaded silvers and chinchillas (as far as principal Mendelian genes are concerned). But the reader can easily adapt our results to the Shaded/Shell notation if so desired.
J. Jerome, TICA Trend vol. 13 n. 6 (dec. 1992/jan. 1993), pg. 14 and TICA Yearbook 12 (1991), pg. 218

The wide-band-Gene Theory

This is the theory that makes the most sense, the Wide-band Gene was for a long, long time supposed to be a dominant trait, which meant that at least on of the parents needed to be Shaded or Shell to be able to give the traits to the kittens. A shaded was heterozygous on the wideband gene and a Shell was homozygous on the wideband gene. Nowadays we do know by looking at pedigrees and investigate pedigrees that everything points to this gene being a recessive trait. I think it's pretty safe to even say that we today got breeding proof of this since we do have a lot of non-shaded or shell parents that actually do get shaded kittens.

The full article of the different old theories: http://www.mat.uniroma2.it/~picard/Cats/Feline_genetics_notes.pdf

Well, I will continue with the Wideband Gene, first of all, I will share some of my own thoughts around all this. From the beginning, the trait was supposed to be dominant and was therefor typed WbWb for a Shell (old designation Chinchilla), and a Shaded had Wbwb right?
Well as you do know if you know your genetics dominant traits are set to uppercase, like for instance the inhibitor gene (the silver gene).
Homozygous Silver II, heterozygous Silver Ii, and Non-silver ii. When we talk about the dilution-gene which is instead recessive it's the opposite, we type in lowercase like this: Diluted dd, Not Diluted but carrier Dd and Not Diluted and not carrier DD. Can you see my point?

If we did type WbWb, Wbwb, and wbwb earlier when we were talking about a dominant trait, we should now type.
Wideband - wbwb, Not Wideband but carrier - Wbwb, Not Wideband and not carrier wbwb, do you agree? I will actually use this in this article otherwise it will just mess up my mind.

Let's continue, when we suggest that the wideband gene is, in fact, recessive we do encounter some questions.
If the Shaded cat is wbwb, then what about a Shell? Well, we do believe that the shaded and shell colors are due to the wideband gene, this gene will turn the trait on or off like with agouti, where the agouti-gene is turning the visibility of the cat's pattern on or off, the cat still has their pattern, the agouti-gene is just turning the visibility on or off. In this case, the wideband turns the widening of the agouti-bands on or off.
When we have a cat who is homozygous (wbwb) the widening of the bands on the hair is on and the then normal agouti-bands get wider and we get a shaded cat. Then to decide how dark or pale the cat will become we have the polygenes, this is where selective breeding comes in to be able to get those really pale kittens (shell). The polygenes also decide all the different shades of shaded and shell, all from very dark cats to very pale cats.

Now, have to get in on golden for a while since there is something here that I believe should apply also to shaded.
In golden we do have what is called "golden tabbies" a golden is in short a cat with the wideband turned on, but the Inhibitor Gene (silver) turned of, a non-silver cat with wideband effect. This means that in goldens we have golden tabby, golden shaded, and golden shell.
I have my own theory here, that we should have one more "color" on silver. We cannot call it silver tabby, that name is already used so maybe just pale silver or wideband effected silver? Well, I don't really know but it seems like there is a lot of cats who are wideband but do not fulfill the demands to be shaded but still are have the wideband and those would be really valuable in our strive to create more shaded and shell kittens. Today those kittens are registered as normal silver which is kind of wrong, but since we do not have any ems code for them, we do not have a choice but to register them eighter as shaded although they are not really shaded, or normal silver tabby although they are not normal silver tabbies eighter.

Don't mind my very terrible skill in painting, but here are are some, well visually pictures of the coat of the different patterns.


Silver Shell	Silver Shaded	Silver (pale) Still only in theory	Silver tabby	Golden shell	Golden Shaded	Golden tabby	Normal tabby

Below are some explanations of the different colors, I will handle golden in another article.

Silver Shell	1/8 Of the hair is colored, the hair from the root and up to the last 1/8 is pure white.
Silver Shaded	1/3 Of the hair is colored, the hair from the root and up to the last 1/3 is pure white.
Pale Silver	You can see that the cat has some wideband effect but it does have more coloring from the tip and down the hair then 1/3 so it cannot be called a shaded. But you can see that the cat got some wideband effect as you can see above like the golden tabbies those have bands on their hair but the white parts are wider and the colored parts are smaller than on a silver tabby.
Silver Tabby	Well, we all do know what a Silver tabby looks like and you can see above that they got even agouti-bands on their hair, unlike the Shaded and Shell cats.

Determining Shaded, Shell and Pale Silver (wideband cats that do have more than 1/3 tipping)

When looking at those colors, keep in mind that on Maine Coon we have not selected for those colors for decades like the have done on, for example, Persians, so we cannot expect to have perfect shaded and shell. The amount of tipping should be correct if you want to register your cat as a shaded, but still, there might be things your cat has that a shaded or shell should not have to be a really good one.

Shell

Tipping 1/8 of the hair and the tipping should be as even as possible (here we have some work to do in our selective breeding)
Tipping is shading down from the back of the flanks and lighter on the front of the legs.
Face and legs may be slightly shaded with very light tipping.
No rings on the legs are allowed.
No spots on the chest or belly allowed.
Eyes and Nose leather should be outlined with the color of the tipping and even, distinct nose/eye rim is preferred.
The color on the underside of the feet is not allowed to extend up to the joint of the hindlegs.
In general, a shell appears much lighter than a shaded.
There are some more things a shell should not have but a lot of shell Maine Coons do have, like uneven tipping, solid-colored hairs, possibly some shown pattern.

Shaded

Tipping 1/3 of the hair and the tipping should be as even as possible (here we have some work to do in our selective breeding)
Tipping is shading down from the back of the flanks and lighter on the front of the legs.
Broken rings on the legs are allowed, but not unbroken (also here we need to select to get the perfect shaded cats, I have seen many shaded who actually got one unbroken ring but still clearly a shaded cat.
Also, spots on the belly are something we still do see even though we got a Maine Coon that is actually shaded, we need to keep selecting for this.
Coat on the head, ears, back, flanks, and upper side of the tail must be tipped with color.
Chin, ear tufts, chest, and belly, inside of the legs and underside of the tail must be without tipping. (also here we need to allow some faults and keep selecting for better shaded).
Eyes and Nose leather should be outlined with the color of the tipping and even, distinct nose/eye rim is preferred.
The fur on the underside of the feet is colored with the color of the tipping, on the back of the hindfeet the color extends up as far as up to the joint.
In general, a shaded cat appears much darker than a shell.
There are some more things a shaded should not have but a lot of shaded Maine Coons do have, like uneven tipping, visible pattern, all kinds of tabby markings, and solid-colored hairs.

Pale Silver

Well, those ones are not mentioned in the standard since they are not recognized, but they do exist so I will give some hints at least.

Tipping 1/3 or close to 1/3 of the hair, at least you can see that they do not have the bands on the hair like a normal tabby.
They might have some unbroken rings on the legs, but not look like a normal silver tabby.
Overall they look like a bad shaded.

One question I think is asked a lot is: How do I know if I got a shaded kitten in the litter or not?

There are a few things to look at, a dark shaded (black, blue or tortie) shaded is most often dark on the body but is white or really pale in the face and back of the ears.
A red or creme shaded will be completely white on the ears and most of the back of the head and the face a lot less color then a black.


Blue Tortie Silver Shaded (gs 11) She is tested with DNA and she is agouti and completely without white. This one is particularly white, they can be darker but the red circled area should be white or almost white on a shaded.	Blue Tortie Silver Shaded (gs 11) The back of the ears as seen (if not well) on this photo should be white.

I will also show some legs here with rings and completely without rings, not even broken rings (remember a shaded is allowed to have broken rings though).


This kitten got some broken rings, She is almost pure white on the inside of the legs. If you look closely you can see that on the left leg she actually got a very pale unbroken ring.	This one, on the other hand, got unbroken rings, you can clearly see the rings also on the inside of the legs. On the left leg, there is one broken ring.

There is so much more to say about this and I will probably get back to this with more pictures and more details when I get my hands on more pictures. Either by being allowed to use others or by getting the chance to take them myself. I will finish up with a few photos of one of my girls, she is a pretty bad shaded but nevertheless a shaded.

This is Sally as she was in her darkest period, a lot of cats get darker around 6 months to 1 year just to start to be paler again, at around 3 they are completely finished developing their coat and color. Persian breeders say that you can tell the end color of the cat by looking at it at the age of 6 weeks. Whether this is true for the Maine Coon is yet to be seen.

Sallydarkest

I guess you wonder how on earth I could get that one to be shaded, even a bad shaded? Well here is some pictures and if you look at this picture above, on the legs, you can see that she actually does have broken rings on her legs.


In this picture you see the bottom of her fur, she is clearly not a normal silver tabby.	Another picture of the bottom of the fur where it shows that she is actually 1/3 tipped and the rest are white (though if you look you can see that she also got a Merlespot (I will talk about merle In another article), and that the tipping is a bit uneven.	And yet another picture to show the bottom of her coat.

By: Malin Sundqvist

Details: Published: 21 April 2020; Hits: 842

EMS-Codes for Maine Coon

Some fields are marked with blue. Those colors are not recommended to use, since it’s more or less impossible to be sure or to even have a clue. Of course they can be use if it’s crystal clear but otherwise it’s best to not use them.

BLACK
n	Black
n 21	Black Tabby
n 22	Black Classic Tabby
n 23	Black Mackerel Tabby
n 24	Black Spotted Tabby
n 25	Black Ticked Tabby
ny 2x	Black Golden Tabby
ny 11	Black Golden Shaded
ns	Blacksmoke
ns 21	Black Silver Tabby
ns 22	Black Silver Classic Tabby
ns 23	Black Silver Mackerel Tabby
ns 24	Black Silver Spotted Tabby
ns 25	Black Silver Ticked Tabby
ns 11	Black Silver Shaded
ns 12	Black Silver Shell
BLUE
a	Blue
a 21	Blue Tabby
a 22	Blue Classic Tabby
a 23	Blue Mackerel Tabby
a 24	Blue Spotted Tabby
a 25	Blue Ticked Tabby
ay 2x	Blue Golden Tabby
ay 11	Blue Golden Shaded
as	Blue Smoke
as 21	Blue Silver Tabby
as 22	Blue Silver Classic Tabby
as 23	Blue Silver Mackerel Tabby
as 24	Blue Silver Spotted Tabby
as 25	Blue Silver Ticked Tabby
as 11	Blue Silver shaded
as 12	Blue Silver Shell
RED
d	Red
d 21	Red Tabby
d 22	Red Classic Tabby
d 23	Red Mackerel Tabby
d 24	Red Spotted Tabby
d 25	Red Ticked Tabby
dy 2x	Red Golden Tabby
dy 11	Red Golden Shaded
ds	Red Smoke
ds 21	Red Silver Tabby
ds 22	Red Silver Classic Tabby
ds 23	Red Silver Mackerel Tabby
ds 24	Red Silver Spotted Tabby
ds 25	Red Silver Ticked Tabby
ds 11	Red Silver shaded
ds 12	Red Silver Shell
CREME
e	Creme
e 21	Creme Tabby
e 22	Creme Classic Tabby
e 23	Creme Mackerel Tabby
e 24	Creme Spotted Tabby
e 25	Creme Ticked Tabby
ey 2x	Creme Golden Tabby
ey 11	Creme Golden Shaded
es	Cremesmoke
es 21	Creme Silver Tabby
es 22	Creme Silver Classic Tabby
es 23	Creme Silver Mackerel Tabby
es 24	Creme Silver Spotted Tabby
es 25	Creme Silver Ticked Tabby
es 11	Creme Silver shaded
es 12	Creme Silver Shell
BLACK TORTIE
f	Black Tortie
f 21	Black Tortie Tabby
f 22	Black Tortie Classic Tabby
f 23	Black Tortie Mackerel Tabby
f 24	Black Tortie Spotted Tabby
f 25	Black Tortie Ticked Tabby
fy 2x	Black Tortie Golden Tabby
fy 11	Black Tortie Golden Shaded
fs	Black Tortie Smoke
fs 21	Black Tortie Silver Tabby
fs 22	Black Tortie Silver Classic Tabby
fs 23	Black Tortie Silver Mackerel Tabby
fs 24	Black Tortie Silver Spotted Tabby
fs 25	Black Tortie Silver Ticked Tabby
fs 11	Black Tortie Silver shaded
fs 12	Black Tortie Silver Shell
BLUE TORTIE
g	Blue Tortie
g 21	Blue Tortie Tabby
g 22	Blue Tortie Classic Tabby
g 23	Blue Tortie Mackerel Tabby
g 24	Blue Tortie Spotted Tabby
g 25	Blue Tortie Ticked Tabby
gy 2x	Blue Tortie Golden Tabby
gy 11	Blue Tortie Golden Shaded
gs	Blue Tortie Smoke
gs 21	Blue Tortie Silver Tabby
gs 22	Blue Tortie Silver Classic Tabby
gs 23	Blue Tortie Silver Mackerel Tabby
gs 24	Blue Tortie Silver Spotted Tabby
gs 25	Blue Tortie Silver Ticked Tabby
gs 11	Blue Tortie Silver shaded
gs 12	Blue Tortie Silver Shell
WHITE
w	White
BLACK WHITE
n 09	Black White
n 09 21	Black Tabby White
n 09 22	Black Classic Tabby White
n 09 23	Black Mackerel Tabby White
n 09 24	Black Spotted Tabby White
n 09 25	Black Ticked Tabby White
ny 09 2x	Black Golden Tabby White
ny 09 11	Black Golden Shaded White
ns 09	Blacksmoke White
ns 09 21	Black Silver Tabby White
ns 09 22	Black Silver Classic Tabby White
ns 09 23	Black Silver Mackerel Tabby White
ns 09 24	Black Silver Spotted Tabby White
ns 09 25	Black Silver Ticked Tabby White
ns 09 11	Black Silver Shaded White
ns 09 12	Black Silver Shell White
BLUE WHITE
a 09	Blue White
a 09 21	Blue Tabby White
a 09 22	Blue Classic Tabby White
a 09 23	Blue Mackerel Tabby White
a 09 24	Blue Spotted Tabby White
a 09 25	Blue Ticked Tabby White
ay 09 2x	Blue Golden Tabby White
ay 09 11	Blue Golden Shaded White
as 09	Blue Smoke White
as 09 21	Blue Silver Tabby White
as 09 22	Blue Silver Classic Tabby White
as 09 23	Blue Silver Mackerel Tabby White
as 09 24	Blue Silver Spotted Tabby White
as 09 25	Blue Silver Ticked Tabby White
as 09 11	Blue Silver shaded White
as 09 12	Blue Silver Shell White
RED WHITE
d 09	Red White
d 09 21	Red Tabby White
d 09 22	Red Classic Tabby White
d 09 23	Red Mackerel Tabby White
d 09 24	Red Spotted Tabby White
d 09 25	Red Ticked Tabby White
dy 09 2x	Red Golden Tabby White
dy 09 11	Red Golden Shaded White
ds 09	Red Smoke White
ds 09 21	Red Silver Tabby White
ds 09 22	Red Silver Classic Tabby White
ds 09 23	Red Silver Mackerel Tabby White
ds 09 24	Red Silver Spotted Tabby White
ds 09 25	Red Silver Ticked Tabby White
ds 09 11	Red Silver shaded White
ds 09 12	Red Silver Shell White
CREME WHITE
e 09	Creme White
e 09 21	Creme Tabby White
e 09 22	Creme Classic Tabby White
e 09 23	Creme Mackerel Tabby White
e 09 24	Creme Spotted Tabby White
e 09 25	Creme Ticked Tabby White
ey 09 2x	Creme Golden Tabby White
ey 09 11	Creme Golden Shaded White
es 09	Cremesmoke White
es 09 21	Creme Silver Tabby White
es 09 22	Creme Silver Classic Tabby White
es 09 23	Creme Silver Mackerel Tabby White
es 09 24	Creme Silver Spotted Tabby White
es 09 25	Creme Silver Ticked Tabby White
es 09 11	Creme Silver shaded White
es 09 12	Creme Silver Shell White
BLACK TORTIE WHITE
f 09	Black Tortie White
f 09 21	Black Tortie Tabby White
f 09 22	Black Tortie Classic Tabby White
f 09 23	Black Tortie Mackerel Tabby White
f 09 24	Black Tortie Spotted Tabby White
f 09 25	Black Tortie Ticked Tabby White
fy 09 2x	Black Tortie Golden Tabby White
fy 09 11	Black Tortie Golden Shaded White
fs 09	Black Tortie Smoke White
fs 09 21	Black Tortie Silver Tabby White
fs 09 22	Black Tortie Silver Classic Tabby White
fs 09 23	Black Tortie Silver Mackerel Tabby White
fs 09 24	Black Tortie Silver Spotted Tabby White
fs 09 25	Black Tortie Silver Ticked Tabby White
fs 09 11	Black Tortie Silver shaded White
fs 09 12	Black Tortie Silver Shell White
BLUE TORTIE WHITE
g 09	Blue Tortie White
g 09 21	Blue Tortie Tabby White
g 09 22	Blue Tortie Classic Tabby White
g 09 23	Blue Tortie Mackerel Tabby White
g 09 24	Blue Tortie Spotted Tabby White
g 09 25	Blue Tortie Ticked Tabby White
gy 09 2x	Blue Tortie Golden Tabby White
gy 09 11	Blue Tortie Golden Shaded White
gs 09	Blue Tortie Smoke White
gs 09 21	Blue Tortie Silver Tabby White
gs 09 22	Blue Tortie Silver Classic Tabby White
gs 09 23	Blue Tortie Silver Mackerel Tabby White
gs 09 24	Blue Tortie Silver Spotted Tabby White
gs 09 25	Blue Tortie Silver Ticked Tabby White
gs 09 11	Blue Tortie Silver shaded White
gs 09 12	Blue Tortie Silver Shell White
BLACK BICOLOUR
n 03	Black Bicolour
n 03 21	Black Tabby Bicolour
n 03 22	Black Classic Tabby Bicolour
n 03 23	Black Mackerel Bicolour
n 03 24	Black Spotted Tabby Bicolour
n 03 25	Black Ticked Tabby Bicolour
ny 03 2x	Black Golden Tabby Bicolour
ny 03 11	Black Golden Shaded Bicolour
ns 03	Blacksmoke Bicolour
ns 03 21	Black Silver Tabby Bicolour
ns 03 22	Black Silver Classic Tabby Bicolour
ns 03 23	Black Silver Mackerel Tabby Bicolour
ns 03 24	Black Silver Spotted Tabby Bicolour
ns 03 25	Black Silver Ticked Tabby Bicolour
ns 03 11	Black Silver Shaded Bicolour
ns 03 12	Black Silver Shell Bicolour
BLUE BICOLOUR
a 03	Blue Bicolour
a 03 21	Blue Tabby Bicolour
a 03 22	Blue Classic Tabby Bicolour
a 03 23	Blue Mackerel Tabby Bicolour
a 03 24	Blue Spotted Tabby Bicolour
a 03 25	Blue Ticked Tabby Bicolour
ay 03 2x	Blue Golden Tabby Bicolour
ay 03 11	Blue Golden Shaded Bicolour
as 03	Blue Smoke Bicolour
as 03 21	Blue Silver Tabby Bicolour
as 03 22	Blue Silver Classic Tabby Bicolour
as 03 23	Blue Silver Mackerel Tabby Bicolour
as 03 24	Blue Silver Spotted Tabby Bicolour
as 03 25	Blue Silver Ticked Tabby Bicolour
as 03 11	Blue Silver shaded Bicolour
as 03 12	Blue Silver Shell Bicolour
RED BICOLOUR
d 03	Red Bicolour
d 03 21	Red Tabby Bicolour
d 03 22	Red Classic Tabby Bicolour
d 03 23	Red Mackerel Bicolour
d 03 24	Red Spotted Tabby Bicolour
d 03 25	Red Ticked Tabby Bicolour
dy 03 2x	Red Golden Tabby Bicolour
dy 03 11	Red Golden Shaded Bicolour
ds 03	Red Smoke Bicolour
ds 03 21	Red Silver Tabby Bicolour
ds 03 22	Red Silver Classic Tabby Bicolour
ds 03 23	Red Silver Mackerel Tabby Bicolour
ds 03 24	Red Silver Spotted Tabby Bicolour
ds 03 25	Red Silver Ticked Tabby Bicolour
ds 03 11	Red Silver shaded Bicolour
ds 03 12	Red Silver Shell Bicolour
CREME BICOLOUR
e 03	Creme Bicolour
e 03 21	Creme Tabby Bicolour
e 03 22	Creme Classic Tabby Bicolour
e 03 23	Creme Mackerel Bicolour
e 03 24	Creme Spotted Tabby Bicolour
e 03 25	Creme Ticked Tabby BicolourBicolour
ey 03 2x	Creme Golden Tabby Bicolour
ey 03 11	Creme Golden Shaded Bicolour
es 03	Cremesmoke Bicolour
es 03 21	Creme Silver Tabby Bicolour
es 03 22	Creme Silver Classic Tabby Bicolour
es 03 23	Creme Silver Mackerel Tabby Bicolour
es 03 24	Creme Silver Spotted Tabby Bicolour
es 03 25	Creme Silver Ticked Tabby Bicolour
es 03 11	Creme Silver shaded Bicolour
es 03 12	Creme Silver Shell Bicolour
BLACK TORTIE BICOLOUR
f 03	Black Tortie Bicolour
f 03 21	Black Tortie Tabby Bicolour
f 03 22	Black Tortie Classic Tabby Bicolour
f 03 23	Black Tortie Mackerel Bicolour
f 03 24	Black Tortie Spotted Tabby Bicolour
f 03 25	Black Tortie Ticked Tabby Bicolour
fy 03 2x	Black Tortie Golden Tabby Bicolour
fy 03 11	Black Tortie Golden Shaded Bicolour
fs 03	Black Tortie Smoke Bicolour
fs 03 21	Black Tortie Silver Tabby Bicolour
fs 03 22	Black Tortie Silver Classic Tabby Bicolour
fs 03 23	Black Tortie Silver Mackerel Tabby Bicolour
fs 03 24	Black Tortie Silver Spotted Tabby Bicolour
fs 03 25	Black Tortie Silver Ticked Tabby Bicolour
fs 03 11	Black Tortie Silver shaded Bicolour
fs 03 12	Black Tortie Silver Shell Bicolour
BLUE TORTIE BICOLOUR
g 03	Blue Tortie Bicolour
g 03 21	Blue Tortie Tabby Bicolour
g 03 22	Blue Tortie Classic Tabby Bicolour
g 03 23	Blue Tortie Mackerel Bicolour
g 03 24	Blue Tortie Spotted Tabby Bicolour
g 03 25	Blue Tortie Ticked Tabby Bicolour
gy 03 2x	Blue Tortie Golden Tabby Bicolour
gy 03 11	Blue Tortie Golden Shaded Bicolour
gs 03	Blue Tortie Smoke Bicolour
gs 03 21	Blue Tortie Silver Tabby Bicolour
gs 03 22	Blue Tortie Silver Classic Tabby Bicolour
gs 03 23	Blue Tortie Silver Mackerel Tabby Bicolour
gs 03 24	Blue Tortie Silver Spotted Tabby Bicolour
gs 03 25	Blue Tortie Silver Ticked Tabby Bicolour
gs 03 11	Blue Tortie Silver shaded Bicolour
gs 03 12	Blue Tortie Silver Shell Bicolour
BLACK HARLEQUIN
n 02	Black Harlequin
n 02 21	Black Tabby Harlequin
n 02 22	Black Classic Tabby Harlequin
n 02 23	Black Mackerel Harlequin
n 02 24	Black Spotted Tabby Harlequin
n 02 25	Black Ticked Tabby Harlequin
ny 02 2x	Black Golden Tabby Harlequin
ny 02 11	Black Golden Shaded Harlequin
ns 02	Blacksmoke Harlequin
ns 02 21	Black Silver Tabby Harlequin
ns 02 22	Black Silver Classic Tabby Harlequin
ns 02 23	Black Silver Mackerel Tabby Harlequin
ns 02 24	Black Silver Spotted Tabby Harlequin
ns 02 25	Black Silver Ticked Tabby Harlequin
ns 02 11	Black Silver Shaded Harlequin
ns 02 12	Black Silver Shell Harlequin
BLUE HARLEQUIN
a 02	Blue Harlequin
a 02 21	Blue Tabby Harlequin
a 02 22	Blue Classic Tabby Harlequin
a 02 23	Blue Mackerel Harlequin
a 02 24	Blue Spotted Tabby Harlequin
a 02 25	Blue Ticked Tabby Harlequin
ay 02 2x	Blue Golden Tabby Harlequin
ay 02 11	Blue Golden Shaded Harlequin
as 02	Blue Smoke Harlequin
as 02 21	Blue Silver Tabby Harlequin
as 02 22	Blue Silver Classic Tabby Harlequin
as 02 23	Blue Silver Mackerel Tabby Harlequin
as 02 24	Blue Silver Spotted Tabby Harlequin
as 02 25	Blue Silver Ticked Tabby Harlequin
as 02 11	Blue Silver shaded Harlequin
as 02 12	Blue Silver Shell Harlequin
RED HARLEQUIN
d 02	Red Harlequin
d 02 21	Red Tabby Harlequin
d 02 22	Red Classic Tabby Harlequin
d 02 23	Red Mackerel Harlequin
d 02 24	Red Spotted Tabby Harlequin
d 02 25	Red Ticked Tabby Harlequin
dy 02 2x	Red Golden Tabby Harlequin
dy 02 11	Red Golden Shaded Harlequin
ds 02	Red Smoke Harlequin
ds 02 21	Red Silver Tabby Harlequin
ds 02 22	Red Silver Classic Tabby Harlequin
ds 02 23	Red Silver Mackerel Tabby Harlequin
ds 02 24	Red Silver Spotted Tabby Harlequin
ds 02 25	Red Silver Ticked Tabby Harlequin
ds 02 11	Red Silver shaded Harlequin
ds 02 12	Red Silver Shell Harlequin
CREME HARLEQUIN
e 02	Creme Harlequin
e 02 21	Creme Tabby Harlequin
e 02 22	Creme Classic Tabby Harlequin
e 02 23	Creme Mackerel Harlequin
e 02 24	Creme Spotted Tabby Harlequin
e 02 25	Creme Ticked Tabby Harlequin
ey 02 2x	Creme Golden Tabby Harlequin
ey 02 11	Creme Golden Shaded Harlequin
es 02	Cremesmoke Harlequin
es 02 21	Creme Silver Tabby Harlequin
es 02 22	Creme Silver Classic Tabby Harlequin
es 02 23	Creme Silver Mackerel Tabby Harlequin
es 02 24	Creme Silver Spotted Tabby Harlequin
es 02 25	Creme Silver Ticked Tabby Harlequin
es 02 11	Creme Silver shaded Harlequin
es 02 12	Creme Silver Shell Harlequin
BLACK TORTIE HARLEQUIN
f 02	Black Tortie Harlequin
f 02 21	Black Tortie Tabby Harlequin
f 02 22	Black Tortie Classic Tabby Harlequin
f 02 23	Black Tortie Mackerel Harlequin
f 02 24	Black Tortie Spotted Tabby Harlequin
f 02 25	Black Tortie Ticked Tabby Harlequin
fy 02 2x	Black Tortie Golden Tabby Harlequin
fy 02 11	Black Tortie Golden Shaded Harlequin
fs 02	Black Tortie Smoke Harlequin
fs 02 21	Black Tortie Silver Tabby Harlequin
fs 02 22	Black Tortie Silver Classic Tabby Harlequin
fs 02 23	Black Tortie Silver Mackerel Tabby Harlequin
fs 02 24	Black Tortie Silver Spotted Tabby Harlequin
fs 02 25	Black Tortie Silver Ticked Tabby Harlequin
fs 02 11	Black Tortie Silver shaded Harlequin
fs 02 12	Black Tortie Silver Shell Harlequin
BLUE TORTIE HARLEQUIN
g 02	Blue Tortie Harlequin
g 02 21	Blue Tortie Tabby Harlequin
g 02 22	Blue Tortie Classic Tabby Harlequin
g 02 23	Blue Tortie Mackerel Harlequin
g 02 24	Blue Tortie Spotted Tabby Harlequin
g 02 25	Blue Tortie Ticked Tabby Harlequin
gy 02 2x	Blue Tortie Golden Tabby Harlequin
gy 02 11	Blue Tortie Golden Shaded Harlequin
gs 02	Blue Tortie Smoke Harlequin
gs 02 21	Blue Tortie Silver Tabby Harlequin
gs 02 22	Blue Tortie Silver Classic Tabby Harlequin
gs 02 23	Blue Tortie Silver Mackerel Tabby Harlequin
gs 02 24	Blue Tortie Silver Spotted Tabby Harlequin
gs 02 25	Blue Tortie Silver Ticked Tabby Harlequin
gs 02 11	Blue Tortie Silver shaded Harlequin
gs 02 12	Blue Tortie Silver Shell Harlequin
BLACK VAN
n 01	Black Van
n 01 21	Black Tabby Van
ny 01 21	Black Golden Tabby Van
ny 01 11	Black Golden Shaded Van
ns 01	Blacksmoke Van
ns 01 21	Black Silver Tabby Van
ns 01 11	Black Silver Shaded Van
ns 01 12	Black Silver Shell Van
BLUE VAN
a 01	Blue Van
a 01 21	Blue Tabby Van
ay 01 21	Blue Golden Tabby Van
ay 01 11	Blue Golden Shaded
as 01	Blue Smoke Van
as 01 21	Blue Silver Tabby Van
as 01 11	Blue Silver shaded Van
as 01 12	Blue Silver Shell Van
RED VAN
d 01	Red Van
d 01 21	Red Tabby Van
dy 01 21	Red Golden Tabby Van
dy 01 11	Red Golden Shaded Van
ds 01	Red Smoke Van
ds 01 21	Red Silver Tabby Van
ds 01 11	Red Silver shaded Van
ds 01 12	Red Silver Shell Van
CREME VAN
e 01	Creme Van
e 01 21	Creme Tabby Van
ey 01 21	Creme Golden Tabby Van
ey 01 11	Creme Golden Shaded Van
es 01	Cremesmoke Van
es 01 21	Creme Silver Tabby Van
es 01 11	Creme Silver shaded Van
es 01 12	Creme Silver Shell Van
BLACK TORTIE VAN
f 01	Black Tortie Van
f 01 21	Black Tortie Tabby Van
fy 01 21	Black Tortie Golden Tabby Van
fy 01 11	Black Tortie Golden Shaded
fs 01	Black Tortie Smoke Van
fs 01 21	Black Tortie Silver Tabby Van
fs 01 11	Black Tortie Silver shaded Van
fs 01 12	Black Tortie Silver Shell Van
BLUE TORTIE VAN
g 01	Blue Tortie Van
g 01 21	Blue Tortie Tabby Van
gy 01 21	Blue Tortie Golden Tabby Van
gy 01 11	Blue Tortie Golden Shaded Van
gs 01	Blue Tortie Smoke Van
gs 01 21	Blue Tortie Silver Tabby Van
gs 01 11	Blue Tortie Silver shaded Van
gs 01 12	Blue Tortie Silver Shell Van

Details: Published: 21 April 2020; Hits: 372

Genecodes for genetic pigmentation Maine Coon

Basic colors black or red.
Genotype		Notes
Oy	Red	Male
oy	Black	Male
OO	Red	Female
Oo	Blacktortie	Female
oo	Black	Female

The agouti-gene, turns on or off visibility of the pattern.
Genotype		Notes
AA	The cat is tabby	Homozygous, all kittens without exception will be tabby from this cat.
Aa	The cat is tabby/Carries solid	Heterozygous, offsprings can eigher become tabby or solid, depending on the other parent.
aa	Non tabby/Solid	Mated with another solid cat the offsprings will always become solid. But with a parent who is Aa the kittens can be either solid or tabby.

Genes for tabby
Genotype		Notes
McMc	Mackerel Tabby
Mcmc	Mackerel tabby, carrier of classictabby
mcmc	Classic tabby

Genes who modify the normal tabby-genes
Genotype		Notes
SpSp	Spotted
Spsp	Spotted, carrier of non spotted
spsp	non spotted
TT	Ticked Tabby
Tt	Ticked tabby, carrier of non ticked tabby.
tt	Not ticked tabby

Dilution
Genotype		Notes
DD	Not diluted/not carrier	Will not be able to get any diluted kittens.
Dd	not diluted, carrier	If the other parent is carrier or diluted itself this cat cat can get diluted kittens.
dd	Diluted	Will with another diluted only get diluted kittens, with a carrier the offsprings can be either diluted or full color, if the other parent is DD all offsprings will be full color (not diluted), but they will all be carriers

Whitespotting
Genotype		Notes
WW	White
Wws	White, carrier of whitespot.
Ww	White, not carrier of whitespot.
wsws	Whitespot	Different grades are: Van, Harlequin, Bicolor
wsw	Whitespot	Bicolor or indefinite amount (09)
ww	Not white/Not whitespot	This cat got no white

Silver
Genotype		Notes
II	Silver	Homozygous silver, all offspring will become silver
Ii	Silver	Heterozygous silver, offsprings will be either silver or non silver
ii	Not silver	No offsprings will be silver unless the other parent is silver.

Widbandsgenen
Genotyp		Notering
WbWb	Homozygous wideband	Tipped (Shaded, Shell, Golden tabby, Golden shaded)
Wbwb	Heterozygous wideband	Carrier of above
wbwb	Not wideband	Normal pattern no wideband

Details: Published: 05 January 2020; Hits: 640

The Silver trait is a dominant trait. With dominant means that the cat only needs to have ONE copy of the gene for it to appear. So you if you see it, it’s there, if you do not see it, there is also nothing to inherit.

But most rules got exceptions, I just want to mention it very briefly and it’s not something we should go deeper into, but it has been proven over the years that the silver sometimes hides, especially on blue cats. The cat appears to be non-silver, but it got the silver gene and inherits it to its offspring. So there are cats with "invisible" silver, although this is relatively uncommon.

Then we have the purely linguistic that can make it hard for new, a cat with this gene is called different depending on whether it is agouti or non-agouti.

Agouti = Black silver tabby, red silver mackerel tabby , blue silver ticked tabby etc….

Non-Agouti = Blacksmoke, Redsmoke, Bluesmoke etc ...

In this article, I will talk about the trait itself and will just call it silver.

The silver trait is designated I (for the inhibitor gene).

ii	Non-silver	The cat has no silver gene and will not show silver nor inherit any silver.
Ii	Heterozygous silver	The cat has one copy of the gene and will be able to give either silver or non-silver to its offspring.
II	Homozygous silver	No matter what the cat is mated with, all offsprings will be silver if the parent is homozygous since it will always inherit one copy of the gene (I).

If we do a test mating, one can easily see that two non-silver will never ever be able to get any kittens that are silver, however, two heterozygous silver will be able to get kittens that are non-silver.

As can be seen in the table below, where both mom and dad are non-silver, the kids will also be non-silver. Thus, as seen here, there is no I, only i.

Male

Female

If we take another example then we will see another scenario here, both mother and father are here Silver but both are heterozygous and got 1 set of the silver-trait.

In this example, 50% will be silver but carriers of non-silver. 25% will be homozygous silver and 25% will be non-silver.

Male

Female

If we take another last example were let the female be homozygous silver, and then we will see below that all offspring become silver. 50% will be heterozygous and 50% homozygous.

Male

Female

There is not much more to say about silver genetics when it comes to silver itself. However, silver can be tricky and can have a wide range of expressions, everything from very vague silver to cats with razor-sharp contrasts.

Now I will get into a very exciting part but also a very tricky one, and remember that here we are no longer talking about certain facts but only about theories of which there are a lot.

I am talking about the patterns Shaded/Shell, (I will not deal with golden in this section other than very very brief, this will be complicated enough anyway).

For many, many years, a theory of an incompletely dominant wideband-gene has been put forward, at least in our neighborhoods, as the cause of these colors.

Chinchilla (old designation it’s now called shell for all colors)/Shell = WbWb (ems code: 12)

Shaded = Wbwb (ems code: 11)

However, this theory has begun to be questioned by both researchers and breeders.

One of our most persistent researchers, regarding the color-genetics on cats, Leslie Lyons, says that today the wideband-gene is suspected to be recessive, so two copies of it are required for the trait to appear. But then we get to the question, IF now the wideband-gene is recessive, then what makes chinchilla/shell? The theories are that we are talking here about polygenes and selective breeding of the brightest cats.

Until we have a genetic explanation, we have to settle with the fact that this is something we are only able to have theories about. We simply don't know anything for sure. Or, well, we have succeeded in finding out by studying pedigrees and cats that we are most likely dealing with a recessive wideband-gene.

One could say that the wideband-gene turns on or off the trait itself, then polygenes play a part in how light the cat gets, whether it falls on the border of normal silver or on the border with Shell or even becomes Shell, it is probably the closest we come to the truth today, without knowing anything for sure.

I have studied these colors a lot lately and I have come to the conclusion that we have many more "shaded" than we think, however, we are most likely to have a lot of "bad" shaded just as we can have bad tabby, spigrés (Swedish nickname for a combination between mackerel tabby and spotted, generally bad pattern with other words) in English it would probably be called Spackerel or something.

Many who breed shaded today got, seen with "my" eyes, in fact, cats that are shell, I have been active on many different forums where these colors are discussed and I hear over and over and over the repetition of the words "in my opinion" pronounced. Personally, I prefer standards and some written guidelines, based on previously set rules and if we take a look at these, none of them comment on how light or dark a cat may be to be considered shaded or shell, other than that a Shell should be perceived as much lighter than a Shaded.

The gene code for Shaded/Shell according to the above theory, with recessive wideband-gene is.
A- I- wbwb (The cat must be agouti, silver and have to copies of the wideband-gene).

Then how do I know if I have a shaded? What shall I to look for? Some standards are more distinct then others, in the descriptions and express themselves slightly different but you can use below as a first step.

Shaded shall have ⅓ tipping (color) and the rest of the hair shall be white.
Shell Shall have ⅛ tipping (color) and the rest of the hair shall be white.

If you look at the standard when it comes to Shaded, then it is much more to it.
The cat should not have any visible pattern even if it is agouti, it should be brighter on the legs and sides, nor should it have any unbroken rings on the legs. Broken rings are allowed and it shall be perceived as much darker than a Shell.

The coat on the underside of the feet is colored and on the hindfeet the color may extend all the way to the joint.

When it comes to the Shell it is stricter, no visible pattern allowed, face and legs may be slightly tipped with very light color. They should be much lighter than a Shaded and the color of the hindlegs may not extend all the way up to the joint of the hindlegs instead they shall be without any tipping there.

Just to very briefly mention golden, the theory is that a goldenshaded is a shaded cat but without silver.

Hence the gene designation is: A- ii wbwb, if you follow the above theory. These should basically look like a shaded but the bottom shall be apricot instead of white.

Above is a good guideline to follow. If you like to read the standard it is a good idea to read through all the standards of the different federations to get a clearer picture of what they say.

YankeeCatsAngelOfJoy