The red coat color of cats has long been considered traditional. It is present in almost all registered breeds, has a stable genetic transmission mechanism from generation to generation and never causes problems with over-blooming or age-related changes. But even such a stable color has a number of hereditary characteristics on which the appearance of a British cat depends.
RED (RED) BRITISH: PHOTOS OF ADULT CATS AND CATS
The British red cats in the photo are bright representatives of the beautiful red color.
Diseases
Despite a strong immune system, if not properly maintained, a cat may encounter some diseases.
- Obesity. Excess weight appears in conditions of physical inactivity against the background of abundant nutrition, excess consumption of fatty and protein foods. To get rid of fat deposits, you should play with the cat more, let your pet go for walks, and adjust the diet.
- Nail fungus. Timely trimming of nails and constant care for their condition will help prevent the disease.
- Hair loss. Shedding can be triggered by allergies or damage to internal organs.
- Tartar. As a preventative measure, you can periodically give your pet dry food. It is necessary to monitor your cat’s oral hygiene: brush its teeth. If symptoms of tartar appear (bleeding gums, increased salivation, putrid odor from the mouth), the help of a veterinarian will be required. If left untreated, your pet's teeth will begin to fall out.
- Eye irritation. Redness of the proteins indicates the development of an allergic reaction, injury or the appearance of conjunctivitis. For this reason, the cat needs the help of a veterinarian - a specialist will prescribe eye drops.
- Gastrointestinal disorders. It is necessary to monitor the quality of food and the condition of the cat. If your pet is lethargic, you should pay attention to his stool. There may be blood clots in the feces, which indicate the development of internal bleeding. Various parasites can enter a cat's body along with food.
Among the inherited diseases, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy stands out. In such a situation, it is recommended to sterilize the cat to reduce the risk of developing this pathology in kittens. Elderly individuals may develop urolithiasis, plague, and calcivirosis.
Most diseases can be cured with medication or surgery.
PHOTO OF RED (RED) BRITISH KITTENS
The red British kittens in the photo in the gallery are presented below.
| In our cattery you can “buy a real British kitten.” We have many different colors, we will help you choose and answer all your questions! |
Character and who is suitable for
In the cat world, red-haired Britons are considered real aristocrats. A feature of their character is English endurance and independence. These animals will not bother you with their annoying meows. They are very smart and quickly learn to use the litter box.
The cuties are clean by nature and caring for them does not take much time. The British do not allow themselves to be treated with familiarity, they do not like to sit on their laps for a long time, but at the same time they become very attached to their owners. Cats love to be cunning and consider themselves an equal member of the family, demanding appropriate respectful treatment.
They get along easily with everyone, be it children or other animals. They are patient, friendly and fearless. Even a dog can be a good buddy for plush cats.
Cats can tolerate a long time while a child plays with him, but after that the cat will let him know that he has had enough and will leave, and will not bite or scratch. Depending on their mood, they can play with pleasure and even indulge. But more often they behave rather reservedly.
Such a pet does not require a lot of attention; British cats love a calm environment and solitude. Suitable for busy people. However, a kitten should be raised from the first day it arrives in a new home, otherwise this independent pet will do everything in its own way and it will be difficult to re-educate it.
The health of British cats is quite good if the animal is fed with good food and kept in decent conditions.
Conditions of detention
A British kitten requires special care and constant care, but an adult pet can live independently. The first household items will be a tray, as well as a bowl and a scratching post. Your pet should be toilet trained as a child. It is recommended to purchase a large tray to make it easier for your cat to adapt. It is important to remember that the British actively dig out litter, so the container for the pet’s natural needs should be quite deep.
If the scratching post does not cause any interest in your pet, you should trim the claws with special scissors once every 2 weeks. The procedure must be carried out before mating or before an exhibition. To comb and remove excess hair, you will need a rubber or hard bristle brush.
You cannot care for the British dog’s skin with a hard metal tool, so as not to damage the skin and undercoat of your pet.
The cat will need a place to sleep and toys. Moreover, after purchasing various things, you need to constantly use them. A cat quickly gets bored of playing with objects without another animal or person. You need to constantly communicate with a Briton and spend a lot of time.
The most significant drawback of the British cat is excessive shedding at least 2 times a year. Because of this, the pet requires careful grooming. Cats need to be brushed once a week. The number of procedures increases with the arrival of winter, as in cold weather the cat's fur begins to grow quickly. It is recommended to comb the animal every day.
The British do not like bathing, but to maintain the health of the coat it is necessary to wash it at least 2 times every 6 months . During the bath, you need to make sure that water does not get into your pet's ears or eyes. To do this, hold your pet by the base of its neck. You will need to buy special shampoos for animals with soft fur. It is strictly forbidden to use a hair dryer for drying.
To prevent a hairball that gets inside your pet during self-washing from leading to digestive upset, you can use special pastes. The product easily removes hair from the body without harm to the pet. Plaques in the ears and around the eyes should be wiped with cotton swabs or napkins previously moistened with hydrogen peroxide. Kittens need to wipe their eyes every day - small pets are characterized by increased tear production.
It is necessary to regularly inspect your pet's claws for fungal infections. To reduce the risk of developing diseases, you should take your cat for vaccination every year. Deworming needs to be done every 3 months. One of the procedures to eliminate parasites should be done 10 days before vaccination.
Vaccination and deworming are carried out only for healthy pets.
Ticked
Despite the fact that the ticked color belongs to the tabby cat colors, it has practically no pattern and looks like a solid color. The peculiarity is the brightness of the color of the main coat, and the upper part seems to be shaded. If you look closely, you will find that there are stripes on each hair. Of all the standard tabby color requirements, this color only has the letter "M" above the eyes and patterns on the face. If a ticked color has other main features of a tabby color, it will be rejected. This is a rather rare color subtype, because ticked males and females can produce kittens with any pattern on their coat.
BRI e 25 – cream ticked
BRI ny 25 – black gold ticked
Genetics of tabby color
Thanks for the patterned colors should be the agouti gene (A), responsible for the presence of the pattern, and the tabby gene (T), responsible for the nature of the pattern.
There are four genes in total:
- T a – ticked;
- T – striped or spotted;
- tb – marble.
- T a is dominant over the color T and tb;
- T is dominant over tb color;
- tb – recessive color.
- AA - tabby, such an animal will always produce offspring with patterns;
- Aa - tabby, this animal can produce kittens with or without a pattern;
- aa is an animal without patterns, the offspring from it, accordingly, will also be monochromatic.
Spotted tabby (leopard)
With the help of the tabby gene and a set of polygenes, which seem to break the patterns on the cat’s body, a spotted color is formed. The spots contrast with the main color of the animal and are clearly defined, do not merge or intersect. The striped color becomes mottled even with little exposure to polygenes. This explains why spotted cats are much more common. The merle color is not so afraid of the effects of polygenes, because it will be considered spotted only if it is completely divided into clear spots of small sizes. By the pattern on the coat, it is most often noticeable from what color the spots were formed.
BSH n 24
Classic, blotched | marble tabby
It is a form of the tabby gene (tb). It is distinguished by its extraordinary beauty and rarity. The drawing is rich and contrasting. The butterfly-like pattern on the shoulder blades is one of the main distinguishing features. There are wide stripes along the ridge of the animal, and expressive large spots adorn the sides. It has a modification of marble, characterized in that it has a less pronounced middle and pronounced edges.
Red marble BRI d 22
brown tabby BRI n 22
Black marble silver ns 22
silver tabby BRI ns 22 64
Tiger, maskerel tabby (tiger)
This type of pattern is rare among tabby cats, but not as rare as merle. From head to tail there is a straight wide line, from which frequent, unbroken narrow stripes extend. The stripes tend to tear and then the tiger color turns into leopard, which is the reason for the rarity of the striped variety. Formed using the T gene.
Ticked tabby
The T a genome is formed, which is dominant among all others. With this color there are practically no patterns, and the entire body is covered with ticked (striped) hairs. Despite the dominance of the gene, it is quite rare, being a gift from the Abyssinian breed, which does not currently exist. The value of this color is the intensity of the main tone of the animal’s coat and the undercoat of pleasant delicate shades.
BLH ns 25
ds 25 red silver ticked
Disadvantages of tabby color: “torn”, unclear and asymmetrical pattern, absence or non-closed rings on the neck. For light-colored animals, a brown or grayish undercoat color is unacceptable.
Eyes: Shades of orange or emerald eye color are acceptable, based on the basic tone of the British cat.
"Silver" and "gold" tabby
If you pay enough attention to the background, and not just the pattern, then the patterns on the wool take on a beautiful appearance. With the help of additional polygenes, you can give the undercoat a copper tone. Add a golden and unusual hue. And if you influence the pattern with the Silver gene, the tone will change to a pronounced pearl color and become silver.
Cons: There are many requirements for the golden and silver shade of the undercoat. So “gold” should have a color without any admixtures of brown and gray, and “silver” should have no yellow tint. The yellow discoloration that most often appears on the nose, paws and chest is called ruffism. It has been observed that breeds in which the fine “gold” silver contains rufisms, and in the pedigree with good “silver” the “gold” has an inappropriate undercoat color.
Eyes: “gold” must have green shades of eyes, “silver”, in addition to green, may have orange.
Moire or drawing?
When the Aguti gene does not have the proper effect on color, the cat's color becomes flat and without a pattern. The pattern on such cats is visible as moiré, despite the fact that at birth it was quite contrasting. A similar effect is observed in lion cubs and cubs of other feline species. There is a pattern in the genotype of any cat, but in order for it to appear, the influence of the Aguti gene is necessary.
Disadvantages: the disadvantages of cats without a pattern are the features of their patterned counterparts - incomplete moire, uneven coloring of the coat along the entire length. In adult cats, moire should be absent.
Eye color: copper, others are not acceptable.
There are polygenes that eliminate moire, because of this the moire pattern becomes either completely invisible or too bright, which misleads breeders. The cat appears to be tabby in color, which is not the case.
Distinguishing a pattern from a moire pattern is not as difficult as it seems. In tabby, the patterns are bright and contrasting, while in moire, they differ from the main type of coat by only a few tones.
SFL n 22 03
BRI h 22 – chocolate tortoise marble
Features of color
At exhibitions, strict requirements are put forward for pets. A Briton with a uniform, rich red color is allowed to participate. The hair is uniform throughout its length. The standard allows partial tabby coloring on the forehead in the form of the letter “M”, paws, and tail; inclusions in the form of white wool are rejected. The paw pads and nose are a brick-red, terracotta shade a tone darker than the cat's fur. Eye color is red and yellow.
British shorthair
The British Shorthair cat is characterized by a plush coat, round eyes and small ears. The coat is harsh, dense with a thick, uniformly colored undercoat. Soft is a disadvantage.
