Is this boy a Siamese??

[Mgoodwin14]

Hello:
Please give me your opinion if this beautiful boy is Siamese or maybe a mix.
All input will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Michelle

[fjm]

I can't see much Siamese there, although he may have some in his ancestry. Siamese are temperature sensitive colour points - the cooler areas of the body (muzzle, ears, legs, tail) are darker than the warmer body. They also tend to lean litheness and a long, wedge shaped muzzle, although the latter is largely down to fairly recent selective breeding. Whatever he is he is beautiful!

[Ruth B]

I too don't see a lot of Siamese there. Siamese normally have dark faces, paws and tails, and lighter coloured bodies, and are very lean cats (we are breeding them too lean in my opnion), to me he looks a nice solid cat. There could be Siamese in his ancestory, it could be a queen escaped and mated with a local tom and that tom's genes are dominant. Whatever he is, he looks to be a beautiful cat and I'm sure you will have a great time with him in your life.

[susand]

It’s not a great photo but if he is a pure-breed I’d think of Snowshoe. I assume as you are thinking Siamese he has blue eyes - Snowshoes do too. I’m not an expert though, it’s just from the photo he looks like he has a brown and white coat and the right build so if his eyes are blue, that would fit.

[Mollycat]

No.

Cat genetics are complex and amazing, and very very interesting. For example, there are 3 different whites, genetically speaking, so a cat can be white covered with white with white markings. A cloned genetically identical cat can be a completely different colour, depending on conditions in utero.

What we think of as Siamese is just a breed that is exclusively colourpoint. Any common moggy can be colourpoint without ever having any Siamese in their heritage. Colourpoint with blue eyes (not exclusive to the Siamese breed) is a form of albino, only instead of white with red eyes, they are temperature-sensitive colour with blue eyes. But the colour genes came first and the breeds came second, bred from cats that all had those colour genes.

Remember the Global Hypercolour T-shirts that were all the rage in the 80s? That's colourpoint technology - the cooler the body in that area, the darker the temperature-sensitive albino colourpoint will be. If you bandage a paw for weeks, then remove the bandage, the fur under it will be much paler.

Siamese crosses on the other hand are less likely to have the colourpoint markings, unless the other parent also just happens to be a colourpoint carrier, then only a 50% chance.

[Mgoodwin14]

I can't see much Siamese there, although he may have some in his ancestry. Siamese are temperature sensitive colour points - the cooler areas of the body (muzzle, ears, legs, tail) are darker than the warmer body. They also tend to lean litheness and a long, wedge shaped muzzle, although the latter is largely down to fairly recent selective breeding. Whatever he is he is beautiful!

[Mgoodwin14]

I too don't see a lot of Siamese there. Siamese normally have dark faces, paws and tails, and lighter coloured bodies, and are very lean cats (we are breeding them too lean in my opnion), to me he looks a nice solid cat. There could be Siamese in his ancestory, it could be a queen escaped and mated with a local tom and that tom's genes are dominant. Whatever he is, he looks to be a beautiful cat and I'm sure you will have a great time with him in your life.

[Mgoodwin14]

It’s not a great photo but if he is a pure-breed I’d think of Snowshoe. I assume as you are thinking Siamese he has blue eyes - Snowshoes do too. I’m not an expert though, it’s just from the photo he looks like he has a brown and white coat and the right build so if his eyes are blue, that would fit.

THANK YOU! Snowshoe definitely fits him.