At the start of the 20th Century Silver
Abyssinians were popular, although not
universally admired. The reddish 'ruddy'
belly of a good Usual Abyssinian is due to 'rufous polygenes' in other words several
different genetic influences are thought to
give this desirable rich tone.
A good Silver has a clear white coat. The
dominant Silver gene strips most of the
colour from the coat leaving it snowy white
with coloured tips to the hairs, a beautiful
effect. The tips are in Black, Chocolate,
Sorrel or Red, or their dilute versions
Blue, Lilac, Fawn or Cream, or indeed
Tortoiseshell colours.
* Thanks to Linechasers and the Electronic Register of Somalis for
their invaluable resource material. |
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Unfortunately in a Silver Aby the “rufous”
desired in Usuals can become a light
yellowish effect or “tarnishing” on the
coat, so it’s very hard to breed good
Silvers and good Usuals at the same time.
It’s often thought that a cat that has
inherited Silver from both its mother
and its father will have a clearer coat.
Cats believed to be Silver - called
Aluminium I and Aluminium II, and
Aluminium Silver - were bred by Mrs
Constance Carew Cox and she exported
them to the USA in the early 1900s to
found the breed there. However by the
1920s Silvers had died out in the UK.
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