bluish pink eyes in ragdoll kitten

Question
recently purchased a ragdoll kitten from a reputable breeder. kitten is 4 months old and is a blue lynx mitted male. ragdoll cats have blue eyes and this color and type should have dark nose leather and paw pads. We started to notice a pink hue in both eyes. his iris and pupil have a pink hue. He also has pink paw pads and pink nose leather. His face has the blue lynx markings his tail is grey and his paws are mitted. His body is white and off white. However it takes a few years for them to color out completely .
When you research bluish pink eyes in cats you get a great understanding of the genetics of cats and their color. But I still don't understand if my cat has the w gene or the s gene or has a type of albinism. The breeder says she has never heard of this. Have you ever seen this and can you explain if my cat is or is not an albino of sorts. Thanks for any info you can share.

Answer
Hi Tyler,

Your question is complex!

I'm not sure how much you already know, and a lot of this might be redundant, but I'll post it in case someone else comes across the answer.

First, we can rule out the W gene. The White gene results in a solid white cat. The capital stands for a dominant gene, so a cat that inherits the W gene will be an all-white cat. All cats carry two "w" alleles. Only one allele needs to be W for him to be completely white. But since your cat is expressing other colors, we know that he did not inherit W - he is ww.

As for the S gene, this is the white Spotting gene, also called the Piebald gene, and rather than causing a solid white coat, it causes white spots on a cat with an otherwise solid coat. The S factor is also dominant and must only be inherited from one parent to be expressed. As far as whether your cat has inherited the S gene, I would have to guess most certainly. In Ragdolls, it's the gene that causes the mitted pattern. The other gene that causes white in Rags is the Van gene, but this causes more white than just mitts & blazes. The Van gene typically causes the bicolor pattern.

To make things more complicated, Ragdolls ARE, indeed, albinos, to a degree. All color point cats derive their coat coloring from a gene the exhibits temperature-sensitive albinism. At warmer temperatures, the genes produce less pigment. You may notice Ragdolls are born all white. This is largely because they have been entirely incubated in mom's womb! After birth, the cooler parts of the body - the tail, ears, face and extremities - darken. As the body is warm, it tends to stay light. But if a patch of fur is shaven off, usually the fur will initially grow back dark where the skin was exposed to the cool air. Cats do continue to darken with age.

It is common for white cats to lack enough pigment in their eyes to completely conceal the blood supply, and sometimes a pink hue is visible. But fully albino and color pointed cats, in particular, appear to have very pink eyes because they also lack pigment on the tapetum. This is the membrane behind the lens of the eye that reflects light back through it and gives cats such great night vision. While most cats have a green-pigmented tapetum, color-pointed cats usually have no pigment in theirs, and light reflects back to us giving the pupil a pink or red appearance.

So after all that mumbo-jumbo, I think that your cat does carry and express the Spotted gene, since he's mitted. And I think the fact that he's color pointed (partial albino - little pigment in the eyes) accounts for the pink hue to eyes. As for his leathers, they will certainly darken over the coming months. It's normal for them to be a sweet pink color at his age.

Hope that helps!
Jessica