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TONKINESE COLOURS & PATTERNS
Tonkinese kittens are all born pure white, with blue eyes. At 2-3 weeks old, they start developing colour.
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With Point pattern, they develop colour on the points only.
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With Minks and Solids, the point colour comes in first, and the body colour darkens as they age.
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Eye colour of Points stays Blue, and eyes of Minks & Solids start changing from Blue to Aqua at 6-8 weeks old.
To demonstrate, pictures below of my Champagne/Chocolate Mink queen Lily, at 8 weeks, 16 weeks, and 18 months old:
Point colour only Blue eyes
Point colour only Aqua eyes
Fully developed body colour Aqua eyes
COLOURS:
Tonkinese cats come in 10 colours. These are:
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Common: Seal/Natural, Chocolate/Champagne, Blue, and Lilac/Platinum
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Rare: Red, Cream, Apricot, Cinnamon, Fawn, and Caramel
White body Dark Brown points Blue eyes
White body Dark brown points Blue eyes
Light brown body Dark brown points Aqua eyes
Dark brown all over Aqua to Chartreuse eyes
As Chocolate Mink, with Tabby marks in point colour Each hair on body is banded dark-light-dark
White body Chocolate points Blue eyes
Champagne body Chocolate points Aqua eyes
Chocolate brown all over Aqua to Chartreuse eyes
As Blue Point, with Tabby markings in point colour Blue eyes
White body Dark blue points Blue eyes
Light blue body Dark blue points Aqua eyes
Dark blue all over Aqua to Chartreuse eyes
As Lilac Point, with Tabby markings in point colour Blue eyes
White body Warm blueish/fawn points Blue eyes
White to silvery-platinum body Warm blueish-fawn points Aqua eyes
Warm blueish-fawn all over Aqua to Chartreuse eyes
Banding or Spotting should be nice and clear
A deep blue-fawn colour Darker in winter than summer
A brighter fawn than in winter, the colour of honey.
Pattern is striped instead of spotted
COAT PATTERNS:
Point
Point pattern is like the Siamese pattern - white body, coloured Points, and Blue eyes - light china blue to dark sapphire blue
Mink
With Mink pattern, the body is a paler shade of the Point colour, and eyes are Aqua - blueish-green to greenish-blue
Solid
Solid pattern is like Burmese - the body is the same all over, or only slightly lighter than the point colour, and eyes are Aqua to Chartreuse - sea green to a slightly gold-toned green. They should not have pure yellow or amber eyes.
COLOUR PATTERNS:
Colour patterns OVERLAY the Coat pattern - so you'll get Point & Tabby Point, Mink & Tabby Mink, Solid & Tabby Solid, and so on. The three Colour Patterns are Tabby, Tortie, and Torbie.
Tabby Pattern:
Ticked Tabby
Each hair is banded: base colour - point colour - base colour.
Mackeral Tabby
Body is banded with the Point colour, unbroken bars from spine to stomach, stomach generally with short dashes or spots
Broken Mackeral Tabby
Body is banded with the Point colour, in broken dashes - generally the bands starting at spine are the longest, getting progressively shorter towards the belly
Spotted Tabby
Body is spotted all over. Evenly placed, round spotting preferred. Currently, I'm the only Tonkinese breeder in Australia with Tabby Tonkinese.
Tortie Pattern:
As with a normal Tortoiseshell cat, but no white allowed. This gives the Tortie Tonkinese a fairly unusual look - for example, blue with brown patches.
Tabby-Tortie (Torbie) Pattern:
Combines the Tabby pattern with the Tortie pattern.