Bimetallic British Shorthairs are a new and emerging colour in the world of British Shorthairs. This colour is so new that it is barely understood and there are only a handful of cats in the world who are thought to be of this colour. 

The colour has been termed ‘Bimetallic’ because these cats seem to be both silver and golden at the same time. This should be impossible. Current understandings of genetics tell us that a cat is either silver or golden but cannot be both silver and golden.  Silver is thought to be a dominant gene so if a cat has even one silver gene then it is a silver cat. 

But a few cats have been known to show both colours. It is thought that these cats are actually genetically different from their silver and golden counterparts. They have been called ‘bimetallic’ cats. All of the bimetallic British Shorthair cats found in the world so far can be traced back to one single ancestor. This makes it more likely that what we are seeing is a new genetic colour. 

This is an incredibly exciting development. It is not often that a truly new colour emerges and the Bimetallic British Shorthair is incredibly beautiful and unusual. 

An even more exciting development is that we have recently had a kitten born who appears to be bimetallic. We will be keeping a close eye on how his colour develops as he grows up. His father is descended from the one cat that all bimetallic cats have come from, so it is entirely possible that we do have a genuinely bimetallic kitten. If you look at the image, the right side of his face is clearly silver, whereas the left side appears to be golden. This may change and develop as he gets older...we will be keeping a close eye on him as he grows. 

Find out if we have any kittens available on our kitten page.