Rusting Cat
Posted by terrepruitt on March 18, 2019
At the end of last week I was walking down the stairs and my eyes landed on our black cat. I was struck with the thought of how black she is. Then it occurred to me that we have had a lot of rain, a lot of days without hours and hours of sun. I call Teagan my Sunshine Girl because she LOVES to be in the sun. She will go from window/door to window/door to get the most sunshine throughout the day. She will sit in the sun until she is so hot it makes me wonder if it is good for her. When she sits in the sun hour after hour she starts to rust.
Yeah, it’s a real thing. Black cats can “rust”, their black coats start to turn a lighter shade, it becomes somewhat brown. It kinda looks like rust. According to Wiki the black fur pigment is fragile and cats that sit in the sun a lot “rust”. The black fur pigment is called eumelanin. Information on the internet also states that a tyrosine deficiency could cause a black cat’s fur to turn red. If a cat is being fed a nutritious diet of food formulated for cats, this type of deficiency is rare. I am confident that Teagan does not have a tyrosine deficiency, especially since she was so black.
I have noticed her rusting in the past, I think that is why I noticed her total blackness recently. It took me a while to acknowledge she was a deeper black than she usually is. She is always a black cat, but as I said, it just occurred to me that she was very black with hardly any of the brown undertones. I say “was” because the sun has been out for days now and she and her sister are taking advantage of it. With the temperatures warming up to hot (for me) the doors have been open pretty much most of the day for the past few days and both cats have been parked in front of one of them soaking it up. I think Teagan might already be starting to rust.
To me the rust looks like it starts in the undercoat and not at the ends as does a bleaching of human hair in the sun. I could be wrong, but it seems as if the brown is more visible when her fur is brushed one way or the other.
If the cloudy days are gone, then Teagan will continue to rust and get lighter and lighter as the days go by.
Have you noticed a cat rusting?
Terre Pruitt's Blog 
Catwoods said
I’ve definitely noticed the reddish tones in all of our black cats if they’re in strong enough sunlight. It was much more pronounced in our long-haired black cat. Teagan’s a beautiful cat in all the pictures!
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terrepruitt said
Yeah, I remember noticing long hair cats having more rusting. At the time, though, I didn’t know that is what it was called. Thank you, we think she is beautiful, too. That is what her name means!
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bipolar-uninvited said
Yes, I recall this with many of my black cats in the past, but only now that you mention it. Hmmm.
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terrepruitt said
Ha! Me, too. Catwoods mentioned longhaired cats and that reminded me of longhaired cats I knew that were rusty!
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bipolar-uninvited said
I think my orange tabby is affected by external factors as well. Some days his fur is a deeper orange, and it seems like the days he’s not feeling as well that he looks more of a sandy color with his stripes not as predominant.
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terrepruitt said
I agree! As I was looking into the pigment information, I saw stuff that said things along the lines of black cats are just cats with a gene (Dang, either WITH or WITHOUT a gene?!) that restricts the tabby coloring. And information about the gene that is for the red pigment. And their fur could be reflective of the way they feel. Perhaps, it is a nature thing? When he is feeling good he can be his deep orange-self, because if need be he could fight off any attackers? But when he is not feeling well he needs to be more muted so he can hide and go unoticed?
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bipolar-uninvited said
That’s a really good point. I bet you’re on to something there.
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terrepruitt said
I dunno, could be, huh? Nature is amazing!
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