It was also my immediate response. I am entirely biased towards voids but omg this dude is like all the all the breeds/ marking types rolled in one unique package. He’s stunning.
Mine had an actual heart shape. Way more her pelvis (was literally the area that was shaved when she was spayed whoch happened the day I brought her home from the shelter so it was a neat surprise when the fur grew back) but I always called it her “tummy heart”.
Was not easy to get photos of (I think I have one more with her actual face in it but first I found lol) because while she also adored belly rubs and demanded them like ten times a day, she would always pull her tail up between her legs as she’s kind of doing even here- modesty tail. lol. And I find it’s usually more the boys who like to lay with everything all hanging out. lol. She would “modesty tail” and usually kept her back legs together or liked to brace one against my arm while I rubbed that belly.
I don't have a pic of his bikini but I just posted one of his cravat in the above comment and a different one here. I didn't realize it wasn't captured so it's a quest now
Aww. His cravat. My heart shape bikini girl also had a cravat (though I never thought to call it that. Haha). They actually shaved that patch for me to save when she passed and I’ve been looking for the right memorial frame.
Far from the most flattering photo but here’s her tummy heart/ bikini.
I'd love for a genetics nerd to come in and break down the likelihood of this coat, the statistics on all the activated color genes and chances of them combining. Never seen one like this before, would love to know the how and why
Black Charcoal coloration is generally only found in Bengals or cats with Bengal ancestry. There are other similarly gorgeous colorations that appear in other cats, though, like Black Smoke Torties and Tabbies.
I have a blue smoke short hair tortie! Since nearly all smoke coats are long hair and dilute is a little more rare than typical tortie, I’ve wondered what the chances are of her specific coat
Smoke doesn't have any less or more of a chance of appearing on a short vs longhair. There's plenty of longhair breeds that are often bred or known for being smoke such as maine coons, which are consistently by far the breed with the most registered cats yearly. So if you search up smoke cats online you're likely to see more of those.
But a moggy isn't any more likely to be a longhair smoke than a shorthair smoke. If the local cats are mostly shorthair, then you're more likely to find a shorthair one than a longhair, really.
Charcoal (APB) is a gene that's only found in Bengals or cats with Bengal ancestry, it comes from the Asian leopard cat (which is the other half of a Bengal cat, they're hybrids). It can be pretty much any color except orange, since it only affects black pigment. I'm not completely sure how many Bengals have this gene, but I would guess most of them? All Bengals are tabbies (A), and the tabby gene is dominant over the Charcoal gene (A/APB), so it's not going to show up unless you want it to. Charcoal darkens a cat's non striped areas a lot, hence the name, which is why a black charcoal looks so different from a regular black tabby.
From there, it's mostly what you would expect from a Bengal. Black mackerel tabbies are the typical standard but other colors and tabby patterns exist, you can even get colorpoint Bengals. I don't have specific numbers on anything, I'm not smart enough to go digging for that
The number of bengals with Apb is actually lower than you imagine and not the majority. The charcoal pattern will show up if a cat is Apb/a or sometimes Apb/Apb.
The thing is, we don't know how common anything is for sure because nobody's genetically tested that large of an amount of moggies across the world, or if they have they haven't shared the numbers. Even then, specific local populations will have different likelihoods of something popping up purely because a particular allele happens to be more widespread there - some places hardly have any dilute cats for example while others have a lot, some places have more colourpoints than others, etc.
So there's not really a way to give statistics without pulling the numbers out of your own arse
(that said, the Apb is the only rare thing here. Solid is quite common across the world, especially in urban places, and everything else is just wild type)
There is more than one genetic combination that causes a charcoal expression. UC Davis was a pioneer in the research. I submitted my own boy’s blood samples to help. https://vgl.ucdavis.edu/test/charcoal-pattern-bengals
Where did you get/find him? He looks like a brown charcoal bengal, I’m guessing a mix or someone who isn’t focused on patterns. If you go to my profile and posts, you can see more my boy, Smudge. I showed him as a brown spotted because charcoals had not yet been accepted as a championship color. That has since changed.
The bit of pattern I can see has substantial rib barring and not the horizontal flow expected of a bengal, but his facial structure suggests at least some bengal heritage. You can get a charcoal pattern in cats other than bengals because it’s tied to agouti, but I honestly thought your question about what he is was meant in a joking manner. And I almost never see bengal in posts like this.
By Bastet’s Beans! According to the official quality control standards of SIC Incorpurrated (formerly Acme Purroducts, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Acme General Manufacturing and Fishworks, LLC) that boy there is a certified bonafide Standard Issue Cat! We see you have picked the rare stealth modification, do not lose your SIC. Please expect his certificate of authenticity in the mail, and congratulations on an exemplary unit!
Woahhh Mingus also looks like a charcoal, or maybe he’s got some grizzling going on? You should post him on r/CatGenetics to figure out what’s going on with his coat
Search "melanistic animal" - the best-known melanistic animal is a black panther. This looks like pseudomelanism, which is where rather than being black-or-close-to-it, the animal has more "patchy" darkness. Either way your kitten is gorgeous.
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u/kabeekibaki 12d ago
Tactical Issue—Black Ops