Thursday, March 18, 2010

Coat Color & Personality




There is some question as to whether a cat's coat color is a good predictor of his personality. Any cat owner will tell you this is true, and the web has several lists of personality types.

The book The Domestic Cat: The Biology of its Behaviour, 2nd edition by Dennis C. Turner, lists three possible mechanisms for a causal relationship between cat coat color and personality type.

  1. Coloring can affect the animal's perceptions, putting him at a physical disadvantage that affects his behavior.
  2. The chemicals involved in pigmentation are related to, or metabolized to form, neurotransmitters that affect mood.
  3. The genetic code for personality is on the same chromosome as the genetic code for coat color.


Reference
Turner, Dennis C. The Domestic Cat: The Biology of its Behaviour, 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press. 2000. pg 54.

3 comments:

  1. Hmmm. Does that explain why all our orange kittehs have been CRAY-ZAY?

    ReplyDelete
  2. M says she learned something new today, cuz she didn't know dat. I guess I didn't know dat either.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is very interesting. I never thought about that about cat coat color :).

    ReplyDelete

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