Black Base

Black is one of two primary coat colors. Over 50% of cat colors that you may want are produced from a black base coat. To learn more about how a cat inherits a black base coat, see Basic Cat Genetics.

All cats on this page will have the black base coat (X^b). If there is a specific color or coat pattern you are interested in, please refer to the Cat color and pattern codes that have been entered and let us know what you’re interested in.

Black can have many modifiers which affect the color of the kitten, including tabby, dilute, and white. The black base can also have gold, silver and bimetallic modifying it. To see examples, see silver and gold.

Please Note:

Almost every color that is possible to produce in the Siberian Forest cat is listed, however, some are difficult to identify.
If we, at DevinePaws, have not produced a particular color, we have found pictures from the internet with watermarks where possible. All pictures on this site are copyright and not to be used without permission.

Black Self

Black self means that your kitten will have no tabby markings along their body. They can still have white markings (mitting, white spotting, etc.) and will still be considered black self. Black self, or solid, is a recessive gene, meaning that the parents can be tabby (non-solid) and still produce a solid kitten if they carry the solid trait.

Your kitten will appear completely back, not including any white markings they may have (See the second photo). Your kitten may also express ghost markings (your kitten is genetically a solid, but may still have some light tabbying in the coat)

Black Self (Solid) PawPeds EMS Code: n

Tabby Modifier

When a black based kitten has the tabby gene (Agouti A Locus), it is known as a brown tabby. A brown tabby can be any tabby marking; mackerel (Mc), classic (mc¹), ticked (ti+) or spotted. To see more information about tabby markings, see Tabby Coat Markings.

When first born, a brown tabby will appear much darker. Depending on the kind of tabby pattern, the pattern may be more evident at birth, when the hair is shorter, but that is not always the case.

Brown Classic Tabby PawPeds EMS Code: n 22

your kitten will appear brown with a bullseye pattern on their sides.

Brown Mackerel Tabby PawPeds EMS Code: n 23

Your kitten will appear brown with stripes along their sides.

Brown Spotted Tabby PawPeds EMS Code: n 24

Blue (Dilute)

Dilute is a recessive gene, meaning that their parents do not need to be dilute to produce dilute kittens.

Dilute is a modifier which changes black to grey; known as blue.

Blue Self (solid)

A blue solid must inherit the dilute gene and the solid gene, both of which are recessive. This means that the parent does not have to be dilute or be solid to produce a Blue Solid kitten.

Blue Solid PawPeds EMS: b

Blue Tabby

A blue tabby is a tabby cat which also has the dilute modifier.

Blue Classic Tabby PawPeds EMS: a 22

Blue Mackerel Tabby PawPeds EMS: a 23

Blue Spotted Tabby PawPeds EMS: a 24

Blue Smoke

A blue smoke is a kitten that is a blue silver, with the solid gene.

Solid is recessive, which means that the parents do not have to be solid to produce a solid kitten

Blue smokes can be hard to identify as dilute (blue) makes the hair follicle lighter to produce a grey color. When silver and solid get added to that, the bottom of the hair follicle lightens as well, to produce a white color.

Blue Smoke PawPeds EMS: bs

Point (NEVA)

The NEVA gene is a recessive gene, which means that the kittens parents do not need to be NEVA to produce NEVA kittens.

Pointed kittens will appear white, except for their ears, legs and tail. Temperature can affect the cat’s white coat. So as they age, it’s not uncommon for their white coat bodies to get darker. If they are clipped down, if their environment is warm, their coats will stay white, if their environment is cold, their coat will come back dark.