What's your favorite colour of cat? Also, is it morally wrong to choose a cat based on color?
This is not meant to be discriminatory. Every cat is beautiful, but which which color do you personally prefer?
I personally like orange cats or orange/white mix, but I couldn't find one at the rescue that was set up at PetSmart so I was depressed, lonely and I was desparate for the love of cats got so I just adopted a tabby brown cat.
My least preferred colors are pure white or pure black cats, but I somehow still like a mix white/black cat. I mean, if one showed up to my door and was friendly and had a great personality, I'd take him/her in, but I probably wouldn't be looking for those color of cats if I were looking to adopt a cat in a shelter/rescue.
Are you being a bad person by picking cats based on their color? To be honest, if there was an orange cat at the PetSmart I'd likely not have chosen my tabby brown. I kinda feel horrible for thinking this way, but I mean, it's just like this weird feeling, this attachment to specific color cats. I just loved orange cats so much. But once I gotten to know my tabby brown, I now prefer tabby browns as much as orange cats.
Again, every cat is beautiful, but I just have weird preferences for some over others for some odd reason.
Edit: To be clear, I was looking for ANY cats, but I wanted an orange one if possible, but if not, I would've taken ANY cat. I didn't care that much, I just wanted some cuddles with a warm little fellow living being.
I always try to rescue black cats because of the stigma around them and how people mistreat them. I love my shiny voids.
That’s still a thing? Humans are idiots… black cats are beautiful ^^
I really hope the stigma is fading. Looking at this thread black cats seem popular which is great to see (obviously not representative of everyone)
I've had multiple cats throughout my life for the past 50 plus years.
As an adult, I've had several cats of all varieties of colors. One of my longest living cats was an all black. His name was Knight.
Fairly recently, I owned a beautiful calico named Autumn based off the colors of leaves in the fall season. When she passed away I had the crazy idea of getting an all white cat so I could call it Winter.
So in November of 2022 I found an 11-year-old from a shelter that had been in that shelter for one year. All white and very beautiful and loving. I included a photo to pay the cat tax.
https://imgur.com/gallery/1cwMsdG
Chonky equals beautiful <3
She was great. RIP.
Having a preference is not morally wrong. It's part of being human. I happen to have a strong affinity for all black cats. But I am still a cat lover at heart and my guess is so are you.
I like black because it accentuates the goofy faces cats make sometimes. I also just like the way they look in general.
Practically, it's easy to see when there's something in their fur and when it needs brushing.
As a bonus, they're easy to adopt. Every shelter seems to have a bunch.
So here's my perspective: you should get a cat you'll love, because that cat will need to depend on you for care. Not going to be a great relationship if 2-5 years down the road you find yourself sighing, reminding yourself that "it's for the internet" and/or "I'm not a cat racist" / some other bullshit as you sign the credit card bill for $50/mo in cat food, litter, cleaning supplies, etc, or worse, $500+ in vet fees to treat an illness.
No, you need to love your cat because you love your cat. Not because a rando on the internet said you're morally obligated to love any/all cats.
That is some expensive cat food. I buy a 6,5kg bag for 50 euros and that lasts my cat 5 months. And it's no cheap stuff, comparatively, either.
We combine wet and dry food for 2 very small cats, and we probably pay 60€ / month. If we'd buy the high quality tier, it would be easy too spend 150€ and more. Location: Germany. It's easy to spoil your pets around here.
To be fair, I did have a comma after that. The $50 included litter, which should be changed at least every 2 weeks, and is currently about $18 for the stuff that works best in my household.
Black cats are the best cats.
I really love black cats but I’m unfortunately allergic to them. Looking forward to the day you can be routinely vaccinated against cat allergies, apparently that’s a thing.
Are you only allergic to the black ones?
I had no idea that was possible! Science is amazing. Are you allergic only to black cats?
Google search shows this:
Some research found that dark-colored cats are more allergenic than ones with lighter fur, but other studies suggest that fur color had no link to allergen amount. Another study found that people living in the Western U.S. had higher cat allergen concentrations in the homes than those in other parts of the country.
https://www.petmd.com/cat/grooming/cat-dander-8-things-you-didnt-know#:~:text=Some%20research%20found%20that%20dark,7.
Yeah I read about it a year or so ago! It’s not just the black ones, it’s shorter haired ones in general for some reason. My old boss’s Maine Coon was never an issue.
Black cat fur is easiest to conceal on my clothing without spending a half hour lint-rolling everyday. That's about the only preference I maybe have.
I love all cats, they're all little weirdos. I don't much like the idea of preferencing people and animals for purely cosmetic reasons, and the idea of assigning personality types to coat colours also makes me uncomfortable. I just don't know if there's any evidence for that correlation, and the concept hits too close to home for me. I also am not a fan of breeding for cosmetics.
I still enjoy the images that come from oneorangebraincell, because I like seeing any cats doing silly things.
I think my favourite is jet black for cat fur. But being honest I like the coat of bengals the most, and they're a tabby type. Lilac burmese running up second.
You do you. People choose cats for whatever reason. Some don't want long haired, some want a specific sex, some want them to be friendly and won't adopt a cat that doesn't greet them first. What matters is that you love and take care of your pet.
I like being owned by black kitties too!
I forgive you lol, and your cat doesn't have to because it will never know. Nothing wrong with liking a certain kinda cat. I like cats with piercing yellow eyes
Black cats are the best.
As long as you're not choosing based on superstition i dont think its wrong personally
When my wife and I are looking for a cat we are looking for their personalities.
Our oldest is a void, we were at a local shelter and she was just immediately so outgoing, reaching her paw to us from the cage, meowing at us. It was an open adoption weekend so there were a lot of people there, turns out we asked to adopt her just 15 minutes before someone else wanted to take her home.
The second is a calico who’s mama was caught in a trap and release program. My friend who works for the program fostered the litter and posted a picture of the tiniest calico fluff ball and when I went to meet her she was an instant friend, she’s lying between my legs right now, she sleeps with me every night.
The youngest is a Hemingway that came from a different shelter, he was so scared when we met him, but you could tell that he was friendly if he could be comfortable. He turned into my wife’s lap cat, though she’s not a fan of when he sits with his back to her so his puffy tail is in her face.
You might be missing out on a wonderful friend if you go in just looking at them for their coloring.
That said my dad has 4 orange dummies, so different strokes and all that
Black is the best color for cars and cats
Fun fact: most cats with more than two colors are females
The only cats I can think of with more than 2 colors are calicos, and I thought the genotyping meant they were 100% female?
It’s a good colour for boats as well, sailing boats especially. A sailing ship painted black with gleaming white sails is a beautiful sight, but it works well for stinkies too.
I wanted a brown girl and ended up with a grey boy who feels like a perfect personality match for me. My goal is life is to be as chill as my cat.
Nothing wrong with having a preference, but don't exclude any kitty just because it's not the right color you may miss out on the best kitty ever.
We went to a cat shelter for a specific black and white kitten. We went home with his orange and white brother. His name is Gizmo.
You could have chosen both!
Um… all of them.
Torties are the best. Obviously. Hands down. All the tortitude that spills out of them is hilarious.
It is not wrong to choose animals based on colors. In ornithology this is a big criteria in bird selection and pricing. For example, there is a whole category of canaries based on their colors. Other small parrots have been bred specifically to be of some color or color mutation and it is a big factor on bird price. This is also very common to choose dogs based on color when the breed has many.
I like black voids.
Just don't buy a cat. Adopt.
I love all cats, but I'm especially fond of how goofy black cats look. Like eyes floating in a shadow. They're hilarious.
It's a little funny to me that you asked this question because a few years ago, I remarked to my partner that I don't like orange cats (in general) and she jokingly called me a cat racist. I felt so guilty about it that I was like I HAVE TO START LOVING ALL CAT APPEARANCES EQUALLY. I still feel a little guilty about it tbh 😂
Anyway, my actual answer is that black and white cats are my favourite. But I can now accept that orange cats have an allure for some folks 😆 I did know an orange cat who was lovely and I liked him a lot. Just if faced with the choice of multiple cats with personalities suited to mine, I'd pick the black and white one first.
As long as you don't buy an animal, no moral wrong in having a preference in appearance. Adopt and rescue.
orange
Wasn't really a fan of calico until I got Salome:
Hey, I think it's fine to cut yourself some slack on this issue. :-)
You like what you like, and if you're going to commit resources and time to another being over 18 years or so, I think it's fine to enjoy the way it looks! I for example love gray cats, but only because of a positive association I have with a previous pet. Are all gray cats as loving as he was? I'm sure not, but I still have such positive thoughts in my head about the grey babies. 
Ginger cat 🙀
There are individual differences of course, but cat colors do have some correlation with personality. People who work with animals often in rescue or other work often observe this. I've worked in rescue before and can agree.
Ones that I can think of off the top of my head:
There's also nothing wrong with having a preference. People can't adopt or take care of infinite animals, so we do need to have some way of deciding. Color, personality, expression, etc are all valid ways of choosing a pet.
As long as you're not discriminating against or attacking cats that's not your favorite color, I don't see an issue.
I mean, don't beat yourself up too much about it, it's a pretty normal feeling, and there's a decent chance all of our cat based emotions are caught up in complicated fungal infection web, but I would push back lightly in saying that I felt what you're feeling and had a strong preference for female short haired calicos since I was very close to ours growing up, but in the ensuing ~17 years, I've lived with, taken care of, and grown to love a large number of different cats, and these days it's a lot easier to see through the fur to the personality, so to speak.
It sounds like you're experiencing a cognitive bias towards the type of cats you've been close with, or just biased because of some other phenomena (maybe you had a bad experience in an all white ikea kitchen or whatever), but cognitive biases are a normal part of how are fast thinking brains work, quickly, but wildly biased at times. The important part is not to beat yourself up about it until you're in an anxiety loop, just use your slow thinking brain to recognize it as a normal somewhat biased reaction that you can probably see through if you squint real hard. This is a good video on the two different systems of thinking that your brain uses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBVV8pch1dM
Short hair black cats are my personal favourite. I grew up with a black cat so I have a particular fondness for them. Little things like the way they rust in sunlight, blend into black/darker colours (which apparently is a reason people don't adopt them as much as they don't photograph well??), and the lightness/sleekness of their coat make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside when I see them.
My wife wanted an orange cat while I wanted a black one. We both got what we wanted with a black tortie with orange fur speckles. Having a preference isn't bad and honestly someone will have a preference for every type of cat. For example: I'm not big on hairless cats (lots of upkeep I've heard) but I know multiple people who go out of their way to adopt only the hairless babies. Just because it's not your preference doesn't mean they won't find a loving home elsewhere!
I have a preference for black kitties, and currently have five in my life (thankfully not all at my house). When we went to adopt I was specific about not wanting a long-haired cat with how much a pain it is to clean all the fur around the house. Naturally we came home with one.
Preferences are normal and totally fine!
I've had a lot of cats as pets over my life to date.
Three of my favourite were all black kitties.
Then there was my dark tortoiseshell who will always have a special place in my heart.
you could choose your partner by the color of their eyes, and then, after 40 years of life together, you would tell your children the story about how you chose your partner, and you all laugh and no judge. same with cats, IMO. just don't buy a cat. save its life: adopt a stray one, or take one (or three) from a shelter. I am a father of 3 stray cats, and they are all grateful and loving. my neighbors got this huge mainecoon cat from the store, and the cat is arrogant and rude, they don't love the cat as a result. the cat is neglected and thus more rude. and he's constantly I'll, and they treat him without loving him. baad story.
I love all cats but the colouring of the cats I have been close to shines out for me.
I think the cats made me come to love their coat colours because I associate those colours with them.
I've only adopted one so far, but I find that I absolutely love torties. The funny thing is I don't even like the color orange that much but I think my cat wears it super well. Black cats are a good second place. I almost adopted a black kitten but my heart just wasn't in it that day, and I ended up finding my tortie instead.
I like orange and white best based on their personalities. I’ve had all kinds of cats and they all have had wonderful personalities.
I've long been partial to orange tabbies and standard issue cats, but my current one - a stray that just showed up one day and moved in - is a tuxedo, and that just might be my new favorite.
The prettiest one I've had was a Siamese/tabby cross (also known as a lynx-point Siamese), She had classic Siamese markings and blue eyes, but instead of solid color points, her dark patches were gray tabby stripes.
Morally wrong? lolwut? Please don't ask the internet moral advice...
This is literally a discussion forum for talking about whatever you want.
As opposed to figuratively a discussion forum for talking about whatever you want?
I'll see you in the town square
Lol that's because I remember some redditor called another redditor a "racist" for having preference in cats color.
If you can think of a stupid opinion you can find a redditor that holds it, that's just what happens when you have a huge terminally online community.
You know what's crazy is I am pretty sure I remember that thread...
There’s nothing wrong with having a preference. At the end of the day, when you adopt a pet - you are saving their life and dramatically changing yours. How you come to that choice is deeply personal. It doesn’t matter if it’s superficial or whatever, least of all to the cat. As long as you give them love, warmth, food and shelter.
 I don’t really have a preference on breed, I just care of they’re sociable and friendly. I do have a preference for girl cats. My dearly departed cat was a girl, and my wife’s cat (very much alive) is a dude. Love him, but it’s not the same.
I love black cats and tortoiseshells. Had a lovely tortie on my street growing up who would talk to you and follow you up the street every day 💙 (let's not have the outdoor cat argument please, not my cat, this is the UK, etc).
I adore Ragdolls aesthetically but never interacted with one so not sure I would get one as a pet until I had.
I am slightly biased against ginger cats as there was another cat on my street growing up who would scratch us after seeking us out for pets. I don't dislike them but I probably wouldn't get one
You can have a preference for any color or type of cat as long as it isn't a protected class.
Calico. And no.
Hairless cats are my favorite. So pink I guess.
I like to think that I am a good person...
Tuxedo patterned cats are my favorite. Especially if they have a mustache.
I also like orange cats. A friend of mine had an orange kitten and I told her I wanted him.  When I went to her house to meet the kittens, a little gray one climbed on my lap and fell asleep. She was the one I eventually took home.
Giving a rescue cat a good home is a good thing to do. It doesn’t matter why you feel drawn to one cat over another.
Why would preferring certain cat colors be wrong? Are you not a human?