Smoke, shaded, and chinchilla are a group of patterns known as the inhibited pattern. Inhibition is a gene that removes a certain amount of colour from each hair, leaving different amounts of the undercoat white (silver) or pale cream (golden) instead of fully coloured. Depending on the specific pattern, the result can range from an almost solid cat with a paler undercoat to one that is almost solid white or cream.

These patterns must use textures to achieve the desired looks - suitable ones can be found in the texture library.

Understanding Inhibition

Inhibition works by removing colour from the base of each hair. If you remove a little, you end up with a cat that almost looks like a solid cat, and you can only see glimpses of the pale undercoat where the fur parts. If you remove a lot, you end up with a cat that looks almost entirely pale, with a dusting of colour from the coloured hair tips. If you remove something in the middle, you end up with a cat that is between these extremes.

The genetics of these patterns were poorly understood until recently. Each of the inhibited patterns are created by a complex reaction of the inhibitor gene (a dominant gene), the agouti (tabby) gene (also dominant), a newly-discovered gene called "wideband" and many subtle modifier genes. Wideband is like white spotting, and intensifies if the cat has two copies of the gene, creating the variety in amounts of silver/golden so common in inhibited patterns. Even today, two cats with the same genetics can have different patterns; and cats with different genetics can have the same pattern! Because of this new research, patterns that we once thought to exist have been proven to not exist - such as "golden smoke".

* Yes, these patterns are genetically identical! The only difference between the two is how much white wideband shows and how clear the tabby pattern is. A ticked tabby is more likely to be classed as a silver shaded, while a classic tabby is more likely to be classed as a silver tabby. Basically, selective breeding really plays a role here.
** This is another selective breeding thing. Basically, in breeds that actively breed for golden shaded/chinchilla, a golden tabby is produced when there is no wideband gene, and golden shaded when there is one. In breeds that do not, a regular brown tabby is produced when there is no wideband gene, and golden tabby when there is one. Usually, anyway! It's not very precise at all.

Silver or Golden?

Shaded, chinchilla, and silver tabby cats can have either a silver base or a golden base. Sometimes, the base colour is included in the description ("shaded silver", "chinchilla golden"). If it's not, assume that it means silver-based; as golden is much rarer, golden is only accepted if specifically mentioned, even if the standard says "in any of the patterns."

As mentioned above, golden is caused by the wideband gene interacting with the tabby gene. Silver is caused by the inhibition gene interacting with the wideband gene.

The Inhibited Patterns

Inhibited Tabby (silver/golden tabby)

As mentioned in the chart above, inhibition and wideband interact with the tabby gene to create silver and golden tabbies. Allowed Silver/Golden tabby combinations can be found on the tabby doc.

Smoke

Smoke is a pattern where the root of each hair is colourless while the rest of the hair retains colour, creating a hazy effect that lets the white or silvery undercoat show through the dominant colour of the cat. Although it is related to silver shaded and chinchilla, in real life smoke is often viewed as a separate pattern. Smoke in petz must be represented using textures

Smoke Pattern:
Generally a smoke cat is darker where the hair is shorter, with shorthaired cats being generally darker than longhairs. Rex/curly coated breeds may use regular smoke textures as there are currently no rex-specific smoke textures. Each smoke cat must have at least two levels of shading, which can either be quite subtle or very dramatic. Multiple smoke textures of the same texture set and colour can be used to create a gradual transition between the lightest and darkest areas.
The requirements for the darkest areas are as follows:

• Minimum: Ears (except ear insides/ear tufts), muzzle, front legs up to and including the wrists, rear legs up to but not including the ankles
• Maximum: Ears (except ear insides/ear tufts), whole head, front legs up to and including the shoulders, rear legs up to but not including the hips, whole tail, darker overlay along the back and sides

Anything between these two extremes is permitted. Furthermore, lighter areas, using a lighter smoke texture, can be found on the neck ruff, the undersides of the body, the underside of the tail, and on elbow and back leg feathering; these light areas are optional.

White spotting may cover areas of the aforementioned smoke pattern - this is allowed without fault

Guidelines for Textures
In general, the texture for the darker shading should be one of the denser, darker smoke textures, e.g. where four levels of texture are available, use the darkest or second darkest for the darker shading, and then use the lighter options for the main coat and optional lighter markings as appropriate. There may be exceptions to this guideline, so always consult the individual breed standard.

The following table provides base colours for permitted textures, which can be found in the texture library. Base colour refers to the dominant colour of the darkest texture in the set.

Black smoke

Chocolate smoke

Cinnamon smoke

Blue smoke

Lilac smoke

Fawn smoke

Red smoke

is not accepted in cinnamon torties where the black-based colour is

Cream smoke

Tortie smoke

Follows above rules, combining the appropriate colours (see Tortie doc). Dark/light texture distribution must follow the above pattern. Tortie smokes can be created using either specific tortie smoke textures or by combining solid smoke textures using paintballz as you would for any other tortie.

Smoke point/mink/burmese

Smoke points must use solid or as the body colour, or they may used -based smoke textures or -based smoke textures. Smoke minks/burmese should use a smoke texture version of a permitted body colour. For all, distribution of dark/light textures must follow the above pattern.

Shaded

In shaded silver/golden, about one-half of all colour on the hair is removed, leaving it silver or gold. Tipping textures, or specific shaded textures, must be used to represent this pattern. The term "cameo" is sometimes used for a red or cream shaded silver. Note that shaded golden is only allowed if specifically listed on the breed standard; if it only says "shaded", it means silver.

• Minimum: Along the spine, topside of first third of tail, forehead
• Maximum: Legs, feet, toes/fingers rest of face, ears, rest of tail, tail tip (may be a solid version of the tipping colour), sides of the body. Tipping flows from the minimum areas through these areas and stops on the required base colour areas. Various degrees of tipping textures may be used to create a transition from the denser shaded minimum areas to the lighter shaded maximum areas
• Required base colour areas: Chin
• Optional base colour areas: Throat, jowls, front of chest and undersides

Only shaded golden cats have light markings and they may be regardless of base colour. At minimum, the chin must be light marking coloured, and light markings may be found on the jowls, throat, front of chest, and undersides. No matter what colour the light markings, the chin can always be

Faint tabby barring is allowed provided the cat has tipping over most of the body. At maximum barring should be no more than the end third of the tail (nearest the tip), the wrists to the shoulders, and the ankles to the knees. Bobtailed cats may show this barring on the whole tail, or as a paintball on the tip/last tail ball. Tabby barring on shaded catz must be shown using specific, accepted shaded tabby barring textures.

Chinchilla

In the chinchilla pattern, only the tips of the hairs have colour, and the cat appears mostly white or golden. Tipping textures are used to represent this pattern; in order to represent only the tips of the cat's hair having colour, tipping textures that are at least 50% base colour must be used. Tipping, as listed below, is required in shorthair and wirehair/curly coated breeds, and optional in longhairs. The term "shell" is sometimes used instead of "chinchilla", particularly for red, cream, or tortie chinchillas.

• Minimum: Along the spine, topside of first third of tail
• Additional allowed tipping: Legs, feet, toes/fingers, forehead, ears, rest of tail, tail tip (may be a solid version of the tipping colour). Tipping flows from the minimum areas through these areas and stops on the required base colour areas. Various degrees of tipping textures may be used to create a transition from the denser shaded minimum areas to the lighter shaded additional areas, provided that no tipping texture used are less than 50% base colour
• Required base colour areas: Chin, inner ear tufts if present, belly, front of chest
• Optional base colour areas: Throat, jowls

Only shaded golden cats have light markings and they may be regardless of base colour. At minimum, the chin must be light marking coloured, and light markings may be found on the jowls, throat, front of chest, and undersides. No matter what colour the light markings, the chin can always be

Tabby barring is not permitted on chinchilla catz

Shaded & Chinchilla Combinations

The following are allowed colour combinations for Shaded and Chinchilla cats:

Silver

Black silver shaded/chinchilla
base with tipping

Chocolate silver shaded/chinchilla
base with tipping

Cinnamon silver shaded/chinchilla
base with tipping

Blue silver shaded/chinchilla
base with tipping

Lilac silver shaded/chinchilla
base with tipping

Fawn silver shaded/chinchilla
base with tipping

Red silver shaded/chinchilla
base with tipping

Cream silver shaded/chinchilla
base with tipping

Golden

Black golden shaded/chinchilla
base with tipping

Chocolate golden shaded/chinchilla
base with tipping

Cinnamon golden shaded/chinchilla
base with tipping

Blue golden shaded/chinchilla
base with tipping

Lilac golden shaded/chinchilla
base with tipping

Fawn golden shaded/chinchilla
base with tipping

Red golden shaded/chinchilla
base with tipping

Cream golden shaded/chinchilla
base with tipping
base with tipping

Tortie shaded/chinchilla
Follows above rules, combining the appropriate patterns (see Tortie doc).

Shaded point, mink, and burmese
Theoretically, shaded/chinchilla can be combined with colourpoint, mink, and burmese, although in practice this is not really distinguishable from regular shaded/chinchilla due to the lightness of the pattern. In most cases eye colour may be the only way to identify the point pattern in these cats.

For shaded/chinchilla points and shaded/chinchilla mink, body colour is and points follow regular shaded/chinchilla combinations. Body may show typical shaded/chinchilla tipping. In golden shaded/chinchilla points the red areas are bleached to .

For shaded/chinchilla burmese, please consult the Burmilla standard as the pattern is not known to occur in any other breed at present.

Examples

Below is a gallery of smoke, shaded and chinchilla catz. Many more combinations than these are acceptable, this is just to provide some visual guidance to the text above.

A black tortie smoke with white in the tuxedo pattern	A black tortie smoke with white in the tuxedo pattern	A blue silver tortie shaded with white in the tuxedo pattern
A black silver tortie shaded with white in the tuxedo pattern. Note that this cat is not a-reg, as the tabby barring extends too far down to the base of the tail for a shaded cat	A blue silver tortie shaded with white in the tuxedo pattern	A lilac tortie smoke with white in the bicolour pattern
A blue tortie smoke with white in the bicolour pattern	A chocolate smoke point	A blue tortie smoke point
A blue smoke	A blue silver shaded with white in the van pattern	A black smoke with white in the tuxedo pattern
A lilac silver shaded with white in the trim pattern	A black golden chinchilla with white in the bicolour pattern	A chocolate golden chinchilla with light markings
A red smoke with white in the trim pattern	A black smoke with white in the tuxedo pattern	A blue smoke with white in the tuxedo pattern
A blue smoke with white in the harlequin pattern	A lilac smoke	A blue silver chinchilla with white in the tuxedo pattern
A red smoke with white in the bicolour pattern	A black silver shaded with white in the trim pattern	A black smoke with white in the tuxedo pattern
A cream silver shaded	A chocolate golden chinchilla with light markings	A blue smoke with white in the bicolour pattern
A black smoke with white in the tuxedo pattern	A black smoke	A blue silver shaded with white in the trim pattern
A blue silver shaded with white in the trim pattern	A blue or lilac silver shaded	A black smoke with white in the bicolour pattern
A lilac or fawn golden shaded with white in the tuxedo pattern	A black smoke with white in the bicolour pattern	A blue silver shaded with white in the trim pattern
A blue silver shaded with white in the trim pattern	A chocolate smoke	A black golden shaded
A black smoke with white in the bicolour pattern	A blue smoke with white in the bicolour pattern	A black smoke with white in the tuxedo pattern