Can a Tarnished Silver Classic Maine Coon Become "Untarnished"?

Hi, everyone.

We just got a new Maine Coon kitten two months ago. She arrived home at 14 weeks, and was a beautiful silver with lots of white. Her breeder described her as a silver classic with high white. Her coat was initially a clear black and white. Over the last few weeks, however, her black stripes have turned brown and the formerly white or silver areas of the coat are either cream, brown, or a strange brindle color.

I talked to the breeder, and she told me that my kitty is showing signs of tarnish-- and that the colors may stay or revert back to their original black and white. I read up a little about this and it appears that silvers mated with brown tabbies often produced tarnished silver offspring. My kitty's parents are a brown classic tabby and a silver classic tabby. I've not come across any instance of a tarnished silver reverting back to its original colors.

I'm a little sad, as I'd really wanted a silver Maine Coon. However, we are now emotionally attached to our kitty, who is in all other ways a wonderful Maine Coon, with a fantastic personality. Has anyone heard of a tarnished silver Maine Coon becoming "untarnished" as it gets older?

Also, do you think the breeder should have warned us that the kitty would not remain a pure silver? I'm feeling a bit misled.

Skydancer

What a shame you have not achieved the colour of kitten you really wanted. I have a silver tabby girl, who was also very distinctly silver when she came home with us at 16 weeks, but gradually she became grubby looking, and has remained that way ever since. She is now 6 and is a very much loved pet, but I understand your disappointment.

Mating silvers and blue silvers with red keeps the silver clear and clean, introducing brown will lead to the discolouration, I understand, though not always. As a breeder, it is not easy to predict the final adult colouring of some kittens as they can change as they grow and develop. Your breeder may have had other silver kittens that remained silver, or had kittens that became tarnished, but are still classified as silver. Not all owners keep in touch with their kittens' breeder, so finding out how the kittens develop can be problematic. I have no idea whether it is possible to reduce or remove the tarnish with a change in diet, for instance. That would be interesting to find out.

Thanks so much, Musicalife, for sharing your experience. I wish I had known that mating browns and silvers can result in tarnishing. However, I'm still very much in love with our MC. She is such a hilarious, sweet, loving kitty.

Sid's Dad is a classic silver and is Mum is solid chocolate. He is dark grey with silver stripes but dies look distinctly grubby at certain times if the year - his full coat is sort of tinged with brown/mange but once he starts to moult and we FURMINATE him, he reverts to a two-tone black and silver mackerel tabby, with a bit of cream around his face. So, maybe you'll get different cats?

Just seen this thread and thought I'd share our experiences of 2 of our 5 coonies. When we got Bran he was registered as a brown tabby (parents are a blue solid and tortie tabby). His breeders thought he was a cold brown tabby. We loved his dark brown colouring and copper eyes and he has indeed turned out to be a very striking cat. We started showing this year, and took Bran along to a show in the SLH section. He was awarded a Premier certificate, but an experienced judge in a side class said he was the wrong colour and took the time to explain to us and the breeders (who were also at the show) why she thought this - she was lovely.

Her opinion was that he's a very heavily tarnished silver tabby and would probably lose out to other brown tabbies in the SLH section. We were really interested as we've always wondered why he didn't have the same cream/beige underparts like other brown tabbies. She recommended we show him in the Pedigree Pets section, which we did this Saturday. He won 2 Best in Colours at the double show!

In the meantime, we've got another silver tabby who is now 6 months old. Wolfie's parents are a red tabby and a blue tortie smoke. He is a very clear silver classic tabby, and when you see the 2 of them together, Bran and Wolfie look very much alike (they are related anyway). The only difference is Bran is MUCH darker and his dark silver is more like a dark brown. Bran definitely did not look like a silver tabby as a baby.

At some point I'll probably apply to have his colour officially changed on his paperwork, but he is such a gorgeous cat that it doesn't matter at all that the colour was wrongly registered initially - we were looking for a brown tabby. Maine Coon kittens go to their new homes at 12 weeks and I think it can be very difficult to get the colour right. I've seen a fair few instances of colour changing - red tabby/red self, blue/blue silver, red silver tabby/red silver shaded. They take so long to develop to maturity that I guess sometimes people get the colour wrong.

Update: Sid has lost all the brown tarnish completely and is now grey/black with a touch of cream on his muzzle and his eyeliner (80's New Romantic).
Meanwhike, Ava has gone from pale strawberry blonde to definitely ginger with white bits.
Who knows what colour they'll end up!

Weasel - your Ava is our Wolfie's sister. :)

I wonder if she's a red smoke maybe?

That is great! Ava definitely needs her roots "doing", much like Sid, so you may be right. She is listed as "red silver classic tabby & white", but she really is a strawberry blonde with white feet. I like white toes on a cat, it makes it much easier to see what you are doing when cutting their toenails.

We remember meeting your Wolfie - he was quite lively at 12 weeks old! In fact, we came away quite relieved that he was not our kitten - he was into everything and Ava seemed a lot calmer.... she was just on her best behaviour and has now shown her true colours. Lovely temperament, kind and gentle, but my goodness is she strong-willed! If she wants to sit on you, it's easier just to give in. She now thinks all tins contain tuna, Sid is a cushion and the whole world revolves around d her. Which it does, really.

We are currently trying to lead-train her for Pets as Therapy. Sid is brill, can sit on command and is learning "up" but Ava is taking a long time to twig what is required. I don't think she's dim, just not so keen to please me as Sid. We will get there, though. She loves being fussed so is perfect for visiting the elderly - she is already visiting my Mum in her nursing home and is very well behaved, just not yet very well trained!

Do you live near Helen

Chuckling away here at your description of Wolfie. He's turning into a big, heavy lad and yes, he's totally into everything! Jabbers away at us and adores cuddles. Runs round like a lunatic, but our older MCs let him know where he is in the hierarchy. If he gets out of line, our eldest girl Emmy (the Boss) gives him a smack! One of his favourite things is to steal cat food pouches and stash them away. He's a right little character, we love him to pieces!

Ava sounds like a sweetheart. We always thought she was very pretty and got a chance to cuddle her a couple of times when visiting. We live about 40 minutes down the M1 from Helen and Brenda, so not too far at all. :)

Wolfie and Ava are so similar - she has something to say about everything, has to have cuddles every evening (but from my husband, not me - she is a terrible flirt with any man, but my husband must smell special!). sadly, Sidney is a bit pathetic most of the time and Ava can get away with nearly anything with him, she so bullies him and has from the first day they met! Aside from that, well, and the fact that she has turned into a SAS-style killing machine in the garden (got either a small rat or a big vole the other day, ate it before I could really identify it), she is utterly adorable and the gentlest creature in the world with people. Her fur has got quite dark now, proper ginger with a white undercoat, but everyone who sees her asks if she is the O2 "be more dog" cat!

Do you have any pics of Wolfie? Here is one of Ava after we groomed Sid yesterday, the fur is in the bag, and one of her after she'd been out hunting in the rain. She was soaked, but only the top layer - these cats are pretty waterproof!

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Here is Wolfie in Meerkat Mode! Can't believe he's nearly a year old already.

Ava sounds fab and I think she has everyone wrapped around her paw by the sound of it! She looks lovely, and she is really going darker isn't she. We always though she was a sweetheart.

There's a 2nd litter from the same mating at Elmcoon at the moment and we are having the tortie girl - so Wolfie will have a full sister living with him. :)

Wolfie is GORGEOUS!!!

Ava has just got naughtier and naughtier. Sid is no better. I now need a new bedroom carpet.

I asked my son to give them their breakfast tuna whilst I had my shower. He didn't quite manage such a herculean task all by himself (well, he is only just 18!) and wandered off doing something else. The cats were furious. I was in the shower and had shut the en-suite door - Sid couldn't get in to complain to me so he pulled the carpet up all along the wall and dug through the underlay to try and tunnel in. He managed to pull off several square inches of carpet. Meanwhile, Ava yanked a potted orchid off the windowsill and spread the compost-stuff everywhere - which has stained what was left of the pale pink carpet black. I had sort of hoped that they wouldn't start working together... they get on really well now, sleep curled up together, hunt stuff together, climb trees together, eat out of the same bowl. Really sweet. I just wish they could each learn the other's good, not bad, habits!

Just looked at the kittens - they are lovely!

Final answer to the original question - yes, tarnished silver can become untarnished. There is no speck of brown on Sid at all now, he's 3 and had two serious moults and it's all gone.
I'm not using spot-on treatments again, though, as he got bleached all the way across his shoulders and that had to grow out too!