Unleashing the Beauty of the Golden Persian
Are you a cat lover who adores the regal charm of Persian cats? If you’re looking for a feline companion that shines bright like gold, then Golden Persians are your purrfect match! These fluffy, affectionate, and charismatic cats have a majestic presence that demands attention and admiration. When they walk, they glide, when they sit, they pose, and when they sleep, they look like fluffy balls of gold. In this article, we’ll explore the enchanting world of Golden Persians and discover what makes them so special.
What is a Golden Persian?
Golden persians are most frequently recognized by their plush golden coats and beautiful green eyes. Their coat color ranges in intensity from light cream to deep red. They may have a red, brown, cream or apricot base. Their paw pads and ear tips are black. Their thick tails have distinct black rings, resembling the tail of a racoon. Like other Persians, goldens come in different face types – doll, flat and extreme face. Their coat texture ranges from cottony to silky and coat type from standard to extreme. While goldens may appear similar to each other in many ways they can also be wildly different. Let’s explore those differences below.
View Golden Persian Photo Album
Shaded vs Chinchilla?
Goldens are categorized as shaded or chinchilla based on the amount of black or brown tipping found throughout their bodies. Shaded goldens have abundant dark tipping on hair strands along their torso, tail, paws and head. Chinchilla goldens have very little dark shading throughout their bodies and sometimes have brown instead of black tipping. Generally, shaded goldens have darker and more continuous mascara on their face – black nose, lip and eye liner. Chinchilla goldens tend to lack or have incomplete nose and lip liner and sometimes have blue liner instead of black.
Eye color:
All golden kittens are born with baby blue eyes that slowly change until the kitty is fully mature, around 3 years of age. Neon to deep green eyes are most common while a small minority have turquoise and aqua eyes. The final eye color ranges from green to blue-green.
Weight:
The females in my cattery tend to weigh between 6-8 lbs and the males between 8-10 lbs, with a few furr balls reaching up to 13 lbs.
Transformation:
- From Kitten to Adult
The transformation goldens undergo from newborn to maturity is breathtaking. As newborns, they appear like dark, largely black or brown tabby kittens. That is because the only color evident is the shading at the tips of their furr. As they age and their undercoat is revealed and the golden undertones are exposed. There is also a dilution gene at play that causes the shading to diffuse as they mature; the gene is not well understood nor very predictable. For these reasons, goldens lighten tremendously over time with the most impactful changes happening during the first 3 months of life but continuing until full maturity at 3 years of age.
- Seasonal
Beyond the inevitable transformation from kitten to adult, some Goldens undergo seasonal transformations. In warmer climates, they often loose majority of their undercoat and much of their top coat which comprises most the warm tones in their coat. This leaves behind some undercoat with a lot of top coat and guard hairs, which contains the shaded portions. This means that the same golden living in a warm region will inevitably appear darker than if it were placed in a cold region. A golden in winter coat is often dramatically lighter colored than a golden in summer coat.
Why are Goldens Special?
Goldens are a rare color. They result from the breeding of two cats with a recessive golden gene. In order to produce pure goldens that have green, turquoise or aqua eyes one must breed within these three colors – golden, silver and blue golden. This excludes 7 color divisions within the CFA; which represents hundreds of colors and variations. If one crosses a cat within the golden color division to that of another the offspring will develop copper eyes instead of green. Eye color can take generations to correct. The restrictions present to consistently produce goldens with beautiful warm coats and blue-green eyes takes years of dedication, a genetically diverse breeding program and a lot of patience. Goldens are a specialty.
