SILVER SHADED Maine Coon
Since I personally like these colors very much, here is a page for shaded variations. Shaded is possible with all silver tabby or silver torbie colors, black silver shaded, red silver shaded, blue silver shaded, cream silver shaded, also in torbie or with white.Shaded always means that the cat is tabby. In nonagouti (smoke) there is also bright silver, but no name for it. Nonagoutis with silver are always called smoke, no matter how light or dark the silver is.
In shaded, the hair tips are about 1/3 colored, the bottom 2/3 of the hair is silver. If only about 1/8 of the hair tips are colored, it is called chinchilla or shell. Shaded cats should no longer have a recognizable tabby. In kittens the body may still show tabby, but the face or better the whole head should be "white" (silver) without tabby.
Silver cats often go through a bright period in their youth, at which time they look almost shaded. One must not confuse cats in this "chlorixphase" with shaded. Real shadeds usually have a much brighter face at birth than silver tabbies.
In Maine Coon shaded is still rare. Red silver shaded or cream silver shaded is more common because the bright silver works better in the red series. Black silver shaded or blue silver shaded are very rare, and chinchilla/shell is the rarest colour.
Since shaded is not caused by a single gene, the transitions between the colors are flowing. Where is the line between silver tabby and silver shaded, where between shaded and chinchilla? Silver cats do not always look the same, but can be sometimes lighter and sometimes darker in color, depending on their age or season. Therefore, depending on its development, a cat in adulthood can be lighter or darker than it was classified as a kitten in the color determination.
My shaded and chinchilla breeding boys and girls:
My previous shaded kittens :
