So, now that we've covered some basic genetics, we're gonna look at some more complex stuff, such as colorpoints!

A colorpoint is a cat that has a lightly colored fur with a darker muzzle, tail tip, ear tips, and paws, which are known as "points" (hence the name colorpoint). Certain cat breeds such as the Siamese, Burmese, Birman, Ragdoll, and Himalayan are colorpoints! But it is important to know that colorpoint is the name of a pelt coloration, and not a breed. The colorpoint coloration can be found in multiple different breeds, and a colorpoint cat that doesn't have a breed would be known as a colorpoint short/medium/longhair

The color of a cat's "points" are determined by its fur color genes. A gray cat with the colorpoint gene would have gray points, and a ginger cat with the colorpoint gene would have ginger points, sometimes known as a flame point. A colorpoint can even be a tortoiseshell (known as a tortie point), or have tabby markings on their points (known as a lynx point)! Colorpoints can even have white-spotting, and any areas that are covered in white will not receive any color.

Colorpoint cats are part albino, and the colorpoint gene is responsible for restricting pigment in certain areas of the cat's body. Another thing to note is that colorpoints are born completely white (or at least a pale color), and their markings become darker over the span of a few weeks. This is because of the temperature decrease that is happening from when the kitten is born, to when the kitten is a few weeks old. Like albino cats, colorpoints are heat sensitive, and the coloration is found on the areas of the cat with the least amount of heat.

The three main types of colorpoints are the Siamese, Tonkinese, and Burmese. Each breed is part albino, but some have more melanin than others.
Note: While the Siamese, Burmese, and Tonkinese cats are all cat breeds, I am not referring to the cat breed itself. Instead, I am JUST referring to the type of point coloration found in each cat. For example, the Ragdoll cat might have the Siamese point coloration, but Ragdoll cats are not the same as Siamese cats.

The Siamese colorpoint is the most well known, and has the highest color contrast between the rest of the body, and the cat's points. The Burmese cat has the lowest contrast, and the Mink cat is somewhere inbetween. Here is an image of what each one looks like!

"No color restriction" is represented by a capital C, and is dominant to both the Siamese and Burmese coloration (I will explain the Mink coloration soon), making both the Siamese and Burmese colorations recessive. The Siamese coloration is represented by "cs" and the Burmese coloration is represented by "cb". In order for a cat to have the Siamese coloration, a cat must have the genotype cs/cs. For a cat to be Burmese, they must have cb/cb.

Tonkinese color restriction is where incomplete dominance comes into play, once again. If a cat has the genotype cs/cb (one allele for Siamese, and one allele for Burmese) they will be a Tonkinese colorpoint!

Lastly, colorpoint cats usually have specific eye colors. A Siamese colorpoint normally has blue eyes, a Tonkinese colorpoint normally has aqua eyes, and a Burmese colorpoint normally has golden eyes!