Somali Cat Colors: The Palette That Is Exactly the Abyssinian's, on Purpose

Here is the finding that organises this whole page. The Somali's registry color architecture is not merely similar to the Abyssinian's: it is NUMERICALLY IDENTICAL to it at every one of the five registries we read, and four of the five say so in their own text. A registry could easily give a semi-longhaired variety its own color list; none did. What varies is the vocabulary, and that is where buyers get confused.

The five-registry count, exactly

TICA recognizes six base colors (Ruddy, Cinnamon, Chocolate, Blue, Fawn, Lilac), each doubled by silver for twelve. Its Somali and Abyssinian share one standard document. CFA recognizes four (Ruddy, Cinnamon, Blue, Fawn), no silver division, and its own page says the Somali is "available in the same colors" as the Abyssinian.

GCCF recognizes eight base colors (Usual, Sorrel, Chocolate, Blue, Lilac, Fawn, Red, Cream), building to 28 with tortie, silver and tortie-silver classes. CCA-AFC recognizes four (Ruddy, Sorrel, Blue, Fawn) and routes shorthair-coated Somalis back onto the Abyssinian standard for judging. Australia's ACF recognizes four (Tawny, Blue, Cinnamon, Fawn) plus their silvers. Its standard literally instructs: "Refer to Abyssinian standard for colour descriptions."

Sorrel, Cinnamon, Red: one coat, three registry words

The color a UK ad calls "Sorrel" and a US ad calls "Cinnamon" is the same warm copper-red coat. TICA and CFA currently say Cinnamon (CFA's own older articles said "Red" until its dated 2022 rename). GCCF and the UK's Somali Cat Club say Sorrel. CCA-AFC says Sorrel too. And ACF calls the base ruddy color "Tawny" where most others say Ruddy or GCCF says "Usual". None of these is the correct name. Each is its registry's own word, and a buyer reading two ads in two countries is usually looking at one color with two labels.

Even the exception proves the rule

GCCF is the one registry that gives the Somali a fully independent breed standard. Yet its own Somali Breeding Policy, read for this research, repeats the Abyssinian Breeding Policy's ticked-tabby (Ta locus) and color-gene passages almost word for word. The only difference is the coat-length gene: the recessive longhair allele that makes a Somali a Somali. Administratively independent, genetically administered as "the Abyssinian plus one gene". That is also the honest one-line genetics of the whole breed.

What the ticking means on a longer coat

Every Somali color is a ticked coat: multiple bands of color along each hair shaft, the same agouti mechanism as the Abyssinian, stretched over a semi-long coat with a ruff and breeches. The silver versions put an icy-white base under the ticking. On a kitten the full effect takes time. The ruff, breeches and full ticking mature over the first years. A young Somali's color is a promise more than a fact, worth knowing when buying by color.