Following our previous article on the Persian, a breeder underlined a few things we had omitted on the colours. She accepted to give us her point of view on the selection of the Smoke Persian and Exotic Shorthair.
The Smoke is one of the most spectacular varieties of the Persian and Exotic Shorthair breeds. Paradoxically, it’s one of the less represented in France. This variety is particularly difficult to breed, and as years go by, it’s getting more and more rare, as more and more breeders prefer to breed the more basic varieties, such as the bicolour or the solid for the Persians and the tabby for the Exotic Shorthair. Yet the black smoke was among the first varieties to be recognised. Indeed, in the 1800’s the Blue was a new colour, and was accepted only in 1889. Besides, the silver category was recognised only in 1893, while the smoke was recognised as an entire variety the same year in the USA.
No one knows for sure the real origins of the Smoke. The most probable and genetically possible version states that it results of a cross between Silver Tabby Persians and Black, and Blue Persians. The other theory, far less realistic, was developed in 1963 by David Martin, an American journalist, in the magazine All Pets Magazine, in an article entitled: Breeding Smoke Persian. This hypothesis stated that from a Silver Tabby Persian, a mutation in the tabby gene had occurred. This tabby gene, instead of expressing itself with silver by an alternation of black strips and discoloured strips, would have undergone a modification, to express itself only with a first part of the hair discoloured, and the other part in black. Picture of Oceanicor Ragtime Cotton Club, a two months old Black Smoke Persian.
At the beginning of the 60’s, Carolyne Bussey, an American breeder, created the Exotic Shorthair, by attempting to obtain a Brown Persian. She crossed a Red Tabby Persian female with a Burmese male, in order to keep the brown colour. Her attempt was not successful, yet there appeared a litter of shorthaired kittens. She then decided to create a new breed, a shorthaired version of the Persian. And that’s how the Exotic was created. The breed kept on diversifying itself, until it got all the colours and varieties of the Persian, including the Smoke.
Visually, a smoke, as the name tells it, has a smoked aspect, the fur seems to be finely sprinkled with white. And when the cat moves, the beauty of this pattern is then entirely revealed. That’s when the contrast between the coloured and discoloured parts of the hairs is the best seen. When the conditions are optimum, the body and face are of the basis colour, and the cat has a splendid sliver ruff, as seen on the picture on the right, the adult Black Smoke Persian Oceanicor Miss Black Melody.
Genetically speaking, the smoke belongs to the family of the Silver. There are five different categories for the Persians and the Exotic Shorthairs: solid, tabby, colour point, silver and particolour. The silver family is made of three categories, ranging genetically from the most basic to the most complex:the Smoke;the Silver Tabby;the Chinchilla (and its varieties: silver shaded, golden shell and shaded, cameo shell and shaded.)The silver gene is identified I+, and called in genetics “Inhibition”. Its effect is to decolourise the hair, in different ways according to the genes it is associated with. The smoke is the most basic of the three cats of the silver family, as there are no other genes besides the I+ gene. Unlike the Silver Tabby, which is made of the silver gene I+ and of the tabby gene A+, or the Chinchilla, which is made of the silver gene I+, of the tabby gene A+ and of the chinchilla gene Ch+ .With the Smoke, each hair is discoloured on the half of its length, starting from the body, and pigmented in the basis colour (black, red, blue, etc.) on the other half, till the tip. This is due to the silver gene.
Picture of one month old Black Tortie Smoke Persian kitten, Oceanicor Hell’s angel. The Smoke can come in any variety of colours, both with the Persians and the Exotic Shorthairs. There are five basis colours, and five other colours, which are the dilution of the previous ones:Black, and its dilution, blue;Red and its dilution, cream;Chocolate, and its dilution, lilac;Black tortie, and its dilution, Blue cream;Chocolate tortie, and its dilution lilac Cream.The blue cream is also sometimes called “Blue Tortie”, and the lilac cream, “Lilac Tortie”.
And when these colours are combined only with the silver gene, this gives:Black Smoke, and its dilution, Blue Smoke;Chocolate Smoke, and its dilution, Lilac Smoke;Red Smoke, and its dilution, Cream Smoke (top picture, la Reina’s Cimarron of Sho-Dazzler, an adult Red Smoke Persian);Black tortie Smoke, and its dilution blue Cream Smoke;And Chocolate Tortie Smoke, and its dilution Lilac Cream Smoke.
The smoke pattern can be combined (picture of Mary Hills Indirah, two month old Chocolate Smoke Persian, picture Axel B. Fieldler/DR) with other categories of Persians or Exotic Shorthairs: the colour point and the particolour. You then find the same colours in Smoke Point: Seal Smoke Point, Blue Smoke Point… When the smoke is combined with the tabby gene A+, it is called Silver tabby, which comes second in the silver family.
You got to be careful not to mistake the Red/Cream Smoke and Cameo. The Cameo indeed belongs to the silver family, but it’s literally a Chinchilla, or a Silver Shaded of a red colour or Cream, depending on: - Red Cameo Shell = Red Chinchilla;- Red Cameo Shaded = Red Silver Shaded;- Cream Cameo Shell = Cream Chinchilla;- Cream Cameo Shaded = Cream Silver Shaded .
The silver gene I+ is a dominant gene, which means it needs to be present in only one parent to express itself and give kittens with the silver gene (picture of Doll’s Like Jamilya, three month old Black Tortie Smoke Exotic Shorthair). Then, to produce Smoke kittens, one of the two parents has to be Smoke, Silver Tabby, Chinchilla or Cameo, otherwise you’ll simply never have them. The silver gene never appears spontaneously in a litter, no matter the fact that there are silver ascendants, unless the parents have the silver gene themselves. The term “carrier” is used only in the case of a recessive gene – the opposite of dominant – i.e. a gene the two parents need to carry to transmit it to their descendents. That’s the reason why there’s no carriers of the silver gene or of the smoke gene, no carrier of tabby, no Exotic Shorthair carrier. On the other hand, you’ll have a “dilution carrier” when talking about a cat of a non diluted colour issued from one diluted parent, and of a “colour point carrier” when talking about a cat not expressing the colour pattern, but issued from a colour point parent.
The Smoke kitten has a look completely different from the adult, as his hair is like a down on which the contrast is not yet clearly defined. The contrast will appear the following months, when the kitten will acquire his adult hair. That’s why one can’t see the hair demarcation coloured half/discoloured half; it’s more of a fuzzy aspect on the whole body. What’s more, one can quite frequently see ghost tabby marking on a Smoke kitten on the legs and tail, as well as the M on the forehead – picture of Oceanicor Hell’s Angel, a two month old CPC Black tortie smoke kitten. These marks are allowed on the kittens and the young cats, for the smoke an all the other colours of the Persians and Exotic Shorthairs, as they disappear as the kitten grows old. Yet, when these marks remain, they are considered a flaw on the adult Smoke cat.
Log in
