The breed standard for a non-tabby cat requires that a ‘self’, or non tabby cat, does not have a tabby pattern showing through on their fur. Some people are working with ticked tabbies to introduce the ticked tabby gene to their non-tabby cats. Interestingly, all cats are tabby cats, but some have a gene that masks the tabby appearance. A silver ticked tabby British Shorthair cat has a silver undercoat with black tips (or blue, chocolate, etc depending on what colour the cat is). The ticked tabby gene restricts the pigment in the hair to the tips. The ticked gene is an additional gene that works on top of the underlying tabby pattern. The ticked silver tabby has a very interesting appearance. There are 4 variations on the tabby gene, and each results in a different appearance in the tabby pattern: The ticked silver tabby British Shorthair This removes the pigment from the hairs, giving the silver effect rather than a more cream-yellow effect of a non-silver tabby.Īll silver tabby cats also carry one or two copies of the Agouti gene, which is the gene that is responsible for the tabby pattern. The most common silver tabby, and the one that people think of, is the black silver tabby.Īll silver tabby cats carry either one or two copies of the silver gene. All silver tabby cats can come in all of the basic colours of British Shorthair cats: black, blue, chocolate, lilac, red, cream and tortie.

Silver tabby