Why We Decided to Discontinue Our British Silver Breeding Line

Hello everyone,

Today I would like to talk about the Silver British cat color. For some reason, these colors are named after precious metals — Gold and Silver — although in reality the cats are not literally golden or silver. Golden cats have a warm apricot-colored undercoat, while Silver cats have a white undercoat covered with a delicate layer of dark tipping.

Today I would like to introduce the Black Silver Chinchilla and Black Silver Shaded British cat. I will not focus on the difference between Chinchilla and Shaded, as detailed descriptions can easily be found elsewhere. In short, Shaded cats have more tipping and therefore appear darker than Chinchillas.

The Silver British cat can generally be divided into two major groups. The first is the traditional Silver British cat, and the second is the Silver Point, sometimes informally referred to as the British "Masquerade" cat. The term "Masquerade" originates from the Neva Masquerade Siberian cat, which has a similar color pattern. While the official name is Silver Point, many people use the term "British Masquerade" because it more accurately describes the cat's appearance.

Let's first look at the traditional Silver British cat.

According to breed standards, a Silver British cat should have a pure white undercoat with either Chinchilla or Shaded tipping. The tipping should be evenly distributed across the back, neck, and head without visible spots or stripes. A slightly darker concentration of tipping along the spine is acceptable, gradually fading toward the sides and belly. The darker shading continues along the tail and ends with a dark tail tip or clearly defined tail rings. This is considered the classic Silver British cat.

Silver Point cats represent a wide range of color variations characterized by darker markings on the face, ears, paws, and tail. However, today we are focusing on the traditional Silver color and the reason why we eventually decided to discontinue this breeding line.

When we were building the foundation of our cattery, our primary goal was to focus on Golden British cats. At the same time, we wanted to diversify our breeding program by adding one exceptional Silver female. As a result, we imported Lucia, a beautiful Silver female from a respected European cattery specializing in Silver British cats.

Lucia was truly an outstanding cat. During her journey to our cattery, she attracted attention everywhere she went. Her blue eyes, soft Chinchilla tipping, and overall quality made her a remarkable representative of the Silver color.

So what went wrong?

Since all of our breeding males were Golden British cats, we followed the breeding rules that allow Silver and Golden cats to be bred together. While these pairings are accepted, our experience showed that consistently producing high-quality Silver offspring from such combinations is extremely difficult.

The first thing we noticed was that every kitten inherited green eyes, which are characteristic of Golden lines, instead of the blue eyes of their mother. Not a single kitten retained the blue eye color that made Lucia so distinctive. For many breeders, this fact alone is enough to reconsider mixing Golden and Silver Point lines.

The second issue was the appearance of warm reddish or rusty tones in the undercoat. Breeders

often refer to this as "tarnishing." Although it does not appear in every kitten, it can significantly affect the purity and overall appearance of the Silver color.

Another challenge was uneven tipping distribution and coat patterns that are not considered desirable for a traditional Silver British cat. Some kittens displayed characteristics that fell somewhere between the typical Golden and Silver appearance rather than clearly representing either color group.

Taken together, these factors make it extremely difficult to consistently produce high-quality Silver kittens from Golden × Silver pairings.

To produce exceptional Silver British cats, both parents should ideally come from established Silver breeding lines. Most catteries specializing in Silver cats focus exclusively on Silver and Silver Point breeding programs for this reason.

It is important to note that these issues are purely cosmetic and related to color quality. Mixing Golden and Silver cats does not negatively affect health, temperament, structure, or overall quality of life. These kittens are just as healthy, affectionate, and beautiful as kittens produced from pure Golden or pure Silver pairings.

After carefully evaluating the results of our breeding program, we decided to discontinue our Silver line and focus exclusively on Golden British cats.

This decision allows us to concentrate on preserving and improving the qualities that make Golden British cats so distinctive and desirable.

Thank you for taking the time to learn about our experience and the reasoning behind this decision.