White Cats????

Question

I heard white cats are really rare to get.I just got mine Sunday from a friend.I am wondering why they say they are rare.Mine is pure white with brown eyes.I also heard white cats with blue eyes are most likely to be deaf.Is any of that true?

Answer 1

I don't know if white cats are rare. I had two - with golden eyes, and they reproduced and had five kittens. Of those five kittens, 3 had blue eyes. Of the three blue-eyed kittens, 2 of those are deaf. My parents are now raising the older cats, and I've had the deaf ones for 6 years.

Not ALL white cats with blue eyes are deaf, but it is extremely common. There is a genetic link between deafness and being white and blue-eyed in cats.

I copied the following from another website:

95% of the general cat population is non-white cats (i.e. not pure white) and congenital deafness is extremely rare in non-white cats.

5% of the general cat population is white cats (i.e. pure white). 15-40% of these pure white cats have one or two blue-eyes.

Of those white cats with one or two blue eyes, 60-80% are deaf; 20-40% have normal hearing; 30-40% had one blue eye and were deaf while 60-70% had one blue eye and normal hearing.

Of the 5% of white cats in the overall population, 60-80% had eyes of other colors (e.g. orange, green). Of those 10- 20% were deaf and 80-90% had normal hearing.

Deaf white cats with one or two blue eyes account for 0.25 - 1.5 of total cat population

Total number of cats with white coat and blue eyes account for 0.75 - 2.0% of total cat population

Answer 2

White cats are not rare. It is true that white cats with blue eyes often have a higher prevalence of deafness. It's a genetic thing, not all white cats with blue eyes are deaf though.

Answer 3

In reference to a couple of earlier posts, not only are some breeds (especially dalmatians) of dogs likely to be deaf on the side that has the blue eye but also another way to tell if they are deaf is if they don't have the black "mascara" around the eye. They're more likely to be deaf is that area is white.

Answer 4

Yes,pure white cats are hard to come by. I have a pure white cat with one blue and one green eye. She has had two litters of kittens and all her kittens were pure white. My vet told me that 75% of all white cats are deaf. I advertised the kittens in the paper and gave them away. I was getting calls for the kittens 2 weeks after we gave them away. Everybody wanted them and luckily we were able to find good homes for every one of them. Since then I've had the cat fixed because she was the queen of escaping the house when she was in heat. Out of both litters,she only had one kitten with one blue and one green eye.

Answer 5

I guess it depends , when working with pure bred cats in a breeding program and knowing the genetics and family tree of your cat you can breed pretty much any color you want . It is true that a higher percentage of blue eyed white cats are deaf .

Answer 6

odd-eyed cats with only one blue eye are more likely to be born deaf than those with two blue eyes...and like the person above said, deafness is usually on the blue side. it's not just cats - other animals are the same way, like dalmations, blue heeler cattle dogs, etc.

genetics is an odd thing.

Answer 7

I don't know how rare it is, my cat just had a litter of 4, 3 are white, of course she is a calico so they may turn out with siamese coloring. Blue eyes are just hereditary, siamese have them, our nuetered male is a siamese and isn't deaf. It could be that your cat is part siamese as their colors take a few months to come in.

Answer 8

I had a white cat with one blue eye and one yellow. My veterinarian told me that blue eyed white cats are deaf and that my cat with one blue eye was deaf on the blue eyed side.

Answer 9

I had a pure white cat with blue eyes...he was not deaf.

Answer 10

I see lots of whit cats around. A high percentage of white cats with blue eyes are in fact deaf---30-70% with one or two blue eyes. Look it up at messybeast.com.