Expert: Norman Auspitz - 9/14/2010

Question
Hello. I have two new kittens, both of which have traditional Siamese markings. The father is a Chocolate Siamese, and the mother is a black/white American short hair. Of the two kittens that I have, the one has beautiful light blue eyes and has started turning a French Vanilla colored body, with chocolate markings, this is why we named her Frenchie. :) She resembles her father. The other has a solid white body, and his Siamese markings are a light grey. His eye are light blue on the outside and pinkish red in the middle. And this is a constant eye color and not just a reflection of light. A local cat breeder told me that I had a true albino cat, but I wanted to get a second opinion just to be sure. What do you think? Could my other kitten be a true albino? I know that Siamese cats are white when born, and change color as they get older and depending on thier environment. And Frenchie was no exception to this as she was white when she was born. There was also another Siamese born in this litter that was also white when born. However, both of these cats have since changed to the colors they are now. The one that I was told was an albino is still white. We named him Glacier because of this. lol Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.

Answer
Christopher,

Congratulations on having such fun kittens.  

As far as I know true albinism is very, very rare in cats.

The Siamese pattern (recessive gene) is what is known as a semi albino. Yes, all Siamese are born snowy white and, as the body temperature cools, they begin to color up.  All kittens have a somewhat higher body temperature than the adults, and, the way the Siamese pattern works, the color comes in where the body temperature is coolest, i.e. the extremities (the ears, face, paws, tail, and genital area).

It sounds to me as if Glacier may be a lilac point, if he is light gray in his "points" ("points" is the term used for the ears, face, paws, tail, and genital region). Since he is beginning to color up, he is, most probably, not an albino.  Lilac points tend to color up a bit more slowly than chocolate points. There used to be a shade of lilac point called frost points which had a colder paler color, but we do not see these very much at the shows anymore.

I have included a link on albinism in cats with some pictures:

http://albinocat.com/Albino-Siamese.html

You should be able to compare Glacier to some of these and see if he truly is an albino.

Best regards... Norm.