The golden tabby colour in cats: a case in Turkish Angoras

1. The golden tabby colour in cats: a case in Turkish Angoras
by Jenni Sairanen
Disclaimer: the author is a PhD student in animal breeding, but this text is not written as a scientific article, but as an
essay for fellow cat breeders.
1 Tangerine's Cheyenne (Sirpa) at 10 months, the author’s golden cat
I was inspired to write this piece on golden tabby colour, because quite unexpectedly one of my Turkish Angora
kittens (Tangerine’s Cheyenne, or Sirpa for short) turned out to be golden spotted (TUA ny 24). I had not even
realized it was possible for this colour to occur in this breed. But the older she gets, the more evident her colour
becomes, and it has now been confirmed by several cat show judges. Golden particularly is not an easy colour to
photograph, so many photos here don’t do her justice. The one above is pretty close to what she looks like in real
life. I have tried to include many photos: they are all by me unless stated otherwise.
I did some research over the internet, and found that there have been some previous cases of golden Turkish
Angoras. And many of those are linked my kitten’s pedigree.
This piece puts together some general text book knowledge of the inheritance of golden (and silver, to which this
colour is closely attached), and my own thoughts on the matter. The description of the colour is mainly based on my
cat. I would appreciate comments, feedback, additional photos of relatives.
Contents
1. Basic inheritance and appearance......................................................................................................................2
2. Closer (and more speculative) look at inheritance..............................................................................................4
3. Pedigree analysis................................................................................................................................................4
Parents and grandparents.......................................................................................................................................4
Siblings ...................................................................................................................................................................6
Pedigree..................................................................................................................................................................9
4. From kitten to adult – how the golden tabby colour develops.........................................................................10
5. Future plans......................................................................................................................................................12

2. 1. Basic inheritance and appearance
What is golden tabby, and how is it different from brown tabby? According to general theory, goldens have the so
called wide band gene, but not the silver gene. Wide band gene basically causes the cat’s base colour (black, blue,
etc.) to be expressed only on the tips of agouti hairs (tipping). Silver gene is the inhibitor gene, which changes the
normal yellowish pheomelanin of a brown tabby to a silvery white.
But there seems to be something else going on, too. According to my observations and comparisons between my
golden tabby, Sirpa, and her brown spotted grandmother, Galibe, there are three main things. Wide band, light
colour on the inner legs and belly, and the colour tone (shade of pheomelanin).
2. Brown spotted TUA (left) and golden spotted TUA (right).
Wide band is something they’ve been breeding for in shaded silvers and chinchillas. In shaded silvers, the wide band
gene (or actually there would be several individual genes), causes only the very tip of the hair to be coloured, and
the base of the hair to be white. In a normal silver cat (as opposed to a shaded silver), in the agouti areas, you should
see variating bands of white and black (ticking). Similarly, in a brown tabby, the agouti hairs have bands of yellow
and black.
3. Brown tabby hair (with ticking effect) on the left, golden tabby hair (with wide band effect) on the right
Breeders of Persians and British shorthairs have been able to reduce the intensity of tipping to the minimal extremes
you can see in chinchillas by using selective breeding. It has been a long process requiring many generations. This
would imply that wide band is in fact a quantitative trait, caused by a large number of genes, and not just one gene.
However, I would assume there is at least one major gene (with more impact than the others). Selecting for a right
allele in that gene has provided the starting point in the breeding process for the shaded colours.

3. 4. Shaded silver (left), golden shaded (center) and golden tabby (right) British shorthairs. The BRI goldens appear to have a duller, less red
colour tone than semi-longhair goldens. (photos: catza.net)
Shaded silvers have no detectable tabby pattern, because such a small portion of the hair is coloured. In goldens you
generally need to reduce the amount of tipping even further, if you want to lose the tabby pattern completely. A
golden tabby has the wide band effect, just not intense enough to totally lose the pattern. You can see the rather
faint golden stripes or spots on the sides, and the more intense blackish stripes on the legs. On the flanks only a tiny
portion, a couple of millimetres , of the tip of the hair is black. In parts, the tipping is difficult to notice unless you
look really closely. The back looks darker, andthe length of the black tip can be up to a quarter of the lenghth of the
hair.
The inner legs and belly look like they belong to a silver cat. The base is white, and the stripes are black.
5. The inner legs and belly are white with black stripes and spots.
Otherwise, compared to a brown tabby’s yellowish shade of pheomelanin, a golden has a red shade. Rich apricot on
the sides, and deep red on the back. This best describes the goldens in natural semi-longhair breeds. It seems in
some breeds they have selected for more yellowish goldens. After all, the colour tone is just a matter of quantitative
genetics: it may also be possible for a regular brown tabby to have a very warm, reddish tone, near to the base tone
you see on goldens.
The tip of the tail is black, as well as the tips of the ears. The paw pads are also black, but the black area does not
extend up to the heels. The eyes are greenish, getting a deeper and deeper green shade as the cat ages.
What I find striking, is how close this pattern of lighter inner legs and belly and a very warm tone in the upper body,
is to the coloration of some wild felines, such as tigers.

4. 2. Closer (and more speculative) look at inheritance
First, it’s important to realize that you can only observe the phenotype caused by the wide band gene(s) on an agouti
cat. For instance, a solid black cat does not have agouti hair, so you cannot see how wide the agouti bands are. Still,
all cats, including the solid ones, have some combination of alleles of the wide band genes in their genome. They
may a have combination that causes the shaded silver/golden phenotype, or a combination that causes the regular
tabby phenotype.
You only get a hint of a solid cat’s wide band genotype by looking at his or her agouti offspring and ancestors. When
a solid-coloured cat that has the alleles that cause extreme wide bands, has offspring with a regular silver cat, part of
the offspring may be shaded silvers or golden tabbies or both. Since there is variation in the wide band trait, some of
those offspring would grow to have “clearer” wide band coats than some others, and some would be without wide
bands. Furthermore, if we mate two “mediocre” wide band individuals, we may end up with both clear and
mediocre wide bands as well as non-wide band individuals.
But does one of the parents of a golden cat always need to be silver or golden? In practice, that is the general
assumption. If considering the wide band factor alone this does not need to be so, but there appear to be other
factors present that need to come from the golden or silver parent.
The general assumption in the inheritance of silver is that there is only one major gene for silver, and the silver allele
is dominant over the non-silver allele. However, it has proven difficult to locate this gene and develop a genetic test
for this trait. Quite possibly there are other factors contributing to the silver coloration in addition to that one major
gene. They may or may not be the same factors associated with some of the features of golden.
3. Pedigree analysis
Parents and grandparents
Sirpa, or properly Tangerine's Cheyenne, was born on the 18th
of September 2013. Her father is Tangerine’s Body
and Soul, a black and white cat (n 03), whose parents are Benito Rosa Glauca (n 01) and Josmarin Galibe (n 24).
There is not much chance of confusion for their respective colours. The father is most definitely black and white, and
the grandmother is indeed brown spotted (with a warmish tone, or so I used to think until Cheyenne and her
brothers were born). The grandfather has an extreme van pattern, he has black colour only on his tail. I cannot 100%
rule out smoke, but he is definitely not an agouti cat though.
6. The father: Tangerine's Body and Soul (Photo: Tessa)

5. 7 The father's mother: Josmarin Galibe (TUA n 24) 8 The father's father: Benito Rosa Glauca (TUA n 01) (photo:
Sofia Holmberg)
Sirpa’s mother is Sada Ramona Rydy. Ramona has a more puzzling colour. She is registered g 23, blue-cream
mackerel tabby. She has many features of a silver cat, though. The insides of her legs are white with contrasting blue
stripes, her belly is white with some spotting, and the underside of her tail is white. In the age of four years she now
has beautiful green eyes. Ramona’s mother is Sada Oona Orkidea, a silver tortie mackerel tabby (fs 23). I have no
photo of her, but I’ve seen her, and she is clearly silver. Ramona’s father is Nazarlik Sakinmaz, a cream boy (e). He
could also be a cream smoke.
9 The mother: Sada Ramona Rydy (registered as TUA g 23), from 8 months to 4 years

6. 10 The mother's father: Nazarlik Sakinmaz (TUA e) (photo: catza.net)
Siblings
Ramona has given birth to 11 kittens total, six of them in the same litter as Sirpa. In her first litter with a white male
she had five white kittens, four males and one female. All of them had dark kitten caps (but the markings were small
and faint, could have been black, blue or silver). In Ramona’s second litter, along with Sirpa (golden spotted, ny 24),
there were five boys. The first kitten in this litter was unfortunately stillborn. He appeared to be a silver mackerel
tabby with white (ns 03 23), but how he would have turned out we can only guess.
11 The stillborn baby.
I registered one of Sirpa’s brothers as brown tabby (n 22), but he had the exact same golden shade and wide band
effect as his sister, and could have actually been ny 22. It would be necessary to see adult photos of him to be sure.
One of the siblings was brown mackerel tabby with white (n 09 23). He was clearly different from his golden siblings.
He had a colder (yet still warm) shade, and he didn’t have the same wide band effect. Then there was a black boy
(who turned out black and white, when a tiny white area in his lower belly was discovered), and a black and white
bicolour boy.

7. Table 1: The colours of the siblings
colour sex
Kitten 0 ns 03 23 m
Kitten 1 n 03 m
Kitten 2 n 09 m
Kitten 3 n 09 23 m
Kitten 4 n(y?) 22 m
Kitten 5 (Sirpa) ny 24 f
Kitten 1: TUA n 03, Caspian. Kitten 3: TUA n 09 23, Carioca. He did not have the wide band effect of
his golden siblings, even though he had a warm tone in his coat
Kitten 2: TUA n 09, Cosmo.

8. Kitten 4: TUA n(y) 22, Charleston. Lovely colour (my favourite of the lot), just like his sister’s, but with the classic tabby pattern, hence
darker.
The peculiar thing about the tortoiseshell mother’s offspring is that even though she has had 11 kittens, none of
them have been red (the 9 boys) or tortoiseshell (the 2 girls). Even the five white kittens all had dark head markings
as babies. If we don’t count the white girl (about whom I can’t be quite sure), the probability is tiny: 0.5^10=0.1%.
However, this cat is clearly phenotypically tortoiseshell, and indeed must be so genetically due to her parents’
colours. I assume this is just a strange coincidence that has nothing to do with the genetics of golden.

9. Pedigree
Table 2: The pedigree of Tangerine's Cheyenne
This is based on what I (quickly) found from vangoran.se and pro-cat registry.
Tangerine's Body
and Soul, TUA n 03
Benito Rosa Glauca,
TUA n 01
Cheerioh Rosa
Glauca, TUA fs 03
24
Feng Shui Rosa
Glauca, TUA ns 01
Vaha's Yannica,
TUA n 09
Dancing Queen
Rosa Glauca, TUA f
24
Gino Rosa Glauca,
TUA ds 11
Vaha's Yannica,
TUA n 09
Aimée Rosa Glauca,
TUA f 02 21
Bonifác Yildiz, TUA
es 03 23
Dancing Queen
Rosa Glauca, TUA f
24
Gino Rosa Glauca,
TUA ds 11
Vaha's Yannica,
TUA n 09
Josmarin Galibe,
TUA n 24
Wi'nte Sams Harry
Boy, TUA n 24
Mulaï II de Saint
Glinglin, TUA n 23
Phoenix de Saint
Glinglin, TUA ds 25
Zahava de Saint
Glinglin, TUA f 22
Bashar de Saint
Glinglin, TUA as 22
Rosé Supérieur de
Saint Glinglin, TUA
ds 09 25
Phoenix de Saint
Glinglin, TUA ds 25
Josmarin Eldem,
TUA w 62
Nazarlik Parali
Prens, TUA w 62
Elekatin Katerine,
TUA n 24
Kuutuulen Kedar,
TUA ns
Wi'nte Sams Little
Freddie, TUA ns
Wi'nte Sams Tawny
Rose, TUA f
Sada Ramona Rydy,
TUA g(s?)23
Nazarlik Sakinmaz,
TUA e
Sada Niilo Boy,
TUA n
Wi'nte Sams Robin
Roy, TUA d 24
Wi'nte Sams Tawny
Rose, TUA f
Kissduurin Bahar
Zerlina, TUA f
Nazarlik Ourania,
TUA w 61
Cat Napper's
Svengali-of-
Nazarlik, TUA w 63
Nazarlik Lolita, TUA
es 24
Nazarlik Ibtisam,
TUA e 23
Nazarlik Eda
Misafir, TUA f 23
Sada Oona Orkidea,
TUA fs 23
Josmarin Ashraf,
TUA ns 23
Kuutuulen Kedar,
TUA ns
Wi'nte Sams Little
Freddie, TUA ns
Wi'nte Sams Tawny
Rose, TUA f
Elekatin Gisella,
TUA f 09 24
Sada Niisku Lady,
TUA f 23
Wi'nte Sams Robin
Roy , TUA d 24
Wi'nte Sams Tawny
Rose, TUA f
Kissduurin Bahar
Zerlina, TUA f
•Full sibling to a golden
•Parent to a golden/goldens
•Grandparent to a golden
•Assumed golden carrier
•Interesting colour in photos, but perhaps not golden?

10. On the father’s side of the pedigree there are particularly many links to golden colored cats. Angel Rosa Glauca (full
sister to Aimée Rosa Glauca, grandmother to the father), is definitely golden based on photos on the internet. I may
later add some photos of her and other interesting cats in the pedigree here, if I get permissions from the owners.
The father’s father (Benito Rosa Glauca) is line bred to the very cats that have produced golden. He’s not an agouti
cat (so we can’t see his wide band genotype), so I assume he carries “golden”, and has passed it on to his son
(another non-agouti cat).
Also the father’s mother (Josmarin Galibe) has links to golden cats, but those are further away, and behind agouti
cats that don’t appear to have the wide band phenotype. Still, without full knowledge of the inheritance of the trait,
I can’t rule out the possibility, that he may have inherited some factors contributing to the golden colour also from
his mother’s side. In the vangoran.se database Phoenix de Saint Glinglin has two daughters and a granddaughter
registered golden (there are some photos, as well).
The mother’s pedigree has only some pretty far-fetched links to goldens, but they are included for the sake of
completeness. My guess would rather be that the mother is just a (low grade) silver cat, who happens to have that
something that makes it possible to have golden kittens with the right mate.
4. From kitten to adult – how the golden tabby colour develops
12 1 day old
Already as a newborn baby she had this very warm look. I also thought it was strange her heels were so light.
13 1 week
The head looked really red at this point. I hoped for a second that maybe she’d be a tortie after all. But then I
noticed her classic tabby brother had the very same red tone in his face, too. Sirpa’s colour did not look particularly
appealing to me. I had been hoping for a tortoiseshell-and-white girl, but the only girl happened to be this messy-
coloured creature. If there’d been another girl of any other colour, I would have sold Sirpa as a pet, and would
probably never even have realized she was in fact golden.

11. 14. 6 weeks, together with classic tabby patterned brother
With some hindsight, I should have started to consider the golden possibility here. But I had absolutely no idea. I did
think she was getting prettier, though.
15. 4 months.
In her first cat show (at 3.5 months), I first heard the suggestion that she might be golden. I had thought of many
options, but not that one. But it made sense.

12. 16. 6 months: together with grandma Galibe (n 24)
The difference to her brown spotted grandmother is huge.
17. 10 months.
Now she has this glorious golden colour. It has developed into its full glory in the last couple of months. She was 8
months when a cat show judge first called her golden, and at 10 months the judges seem unanimous.
5. Future plans
I actually thought I’d forsaken all my colour breeding prospects as I chose to keep this girl, who I thought at the time
was just another (and rather messy looking) brown tabby. There were three things I wasn’t sure about her: the
colour, the tail, and the character. The colour was ugly and unclear, the tail seemed short, and she had a strong
temper. It turned out I was wrong on all those accounts: her colour turned golden, her tail grew just fine, and her
temper has developed into this huge self-confidence that she uses to charm the judges and other cats she lives with.
So yes, I will use her in breeding. I love the colour and hope to preserve it. My first plan is to breed her to a silver
tabby male. It would be awesome to find a shaded silver or golden male for her sometime in the future, but it does
not seem feasible, because those colours are so rare. Or perhaps a very warm brown tabby? I will look into it further.

13. I still have both the parents unspayed, and I intend to let them have another litter together (maybe sometime in
2015 or so). Since the mother always seems to produce different colours than I’ve hoped for, I’m sure this time I’ll
just end up with a bunch of red boys, but whatever. Realistically, the chances for goldens out of this match are not
that huge; there are loads of other more probable colour possibilities.
For the father, who appears to be a golden carrier, I’d like to find a high-grade silver lady, and see what happens.
Luckily he’s been a rather tidy boy, so I expect to keep him unspayed for a few years longer, and there’s no hurry
with this. He is also available for stud for outside females if someone is interested (limitedly, anyway).
I personally find the golden colour very appealing, and many people seem to share this view. I’ve noticed that Sirpa
attracts lots of attention in cat shows, mainly because of her colour. And I don’t mean just curious cat show
enthusiasts, but the general public. People stop at her cage and tell me they want a cat of that colour, what is it
called? Well, unfortunately it’s a bit complicated, I keep answering them…