Thread by @Yara_Haridy

🧬Time for some #CatScience!🧬

Siamese #Cats are born white and gain their colour through their life!

It’s based on.. wait for it TEMPERATURE 🥶 ❄️

Siamese cats are temperature dependent albinos! A.K.A a live kitty heat map!

A thread featuring my cats🧵 👇🏽

New born Siamese Cats are almost completely white!

I’ll keep the genetics simple here so stay with me. Siamese cats have a specific gene that blocks colour 🛑

BUT the enzyme made by this gene only works at a certain temperature. ~101F (38-39.2 C) a cats body temperature!

The womb is pretty warm. Kittens come out white, but as they cool the colour blocking begins to stop working. Staring with the extremities!

Look at their little noses and ears they get dark first because they are the coolest part of their body.

Friggin adorable.

This continues through their life!

Here is my Sobia at 3 months (left) and at 1.5 years (right).

So simply put, where they are coldest is where they are darkest!

COLD=DARK

So look at Sobia’s warm belly! She is a walking heat map!!

And yes, if you shave their fur, and it’s exposed to cold. They will grow darker fur in that area!

See below an example of a kitty that was shaved for a procedure during the winter

📸: Lisa Richman

I obviously over simplified the genetics, but if you are interested there are plenty of info out there about Temperature-sensitive albanism genes.

And yes, this was an excuse to break up your timeline with my cats!