PEWTER

This lovely breed is the outcome of many years of dedicated work, beginning with Chinchilla out crosses, and developing the qualities we recognise today.  There is an increasing number of lovely Pewters appearing on the show bench, and we hope that more and more young people will come along to join in the work of perpetuating and developing this wonderful variety.

No longer is it necessary or advisable to out cross to chinchilla, since this would weaken the gorgeous deep copper eye colour that has taken long years to develop, however our pewters have their chinchilla ancestors to thank for their lovely coats and the even tipping that gives them their characteristic mantle.

It must be remembered that the Pewter is genetically a tabby cat, and therefore almost all Pewters will carry some tabby markings.  Ideally we would like Pewters to have no tabby markings visible, but there is a way to go yet in the breeding of them to achieve this perfection.  When breeding Pewters it is advisable to avoid using those with the heaviest tabby markings, although some of these can be lost by mating to one that has a very pale coat.

Currently we have two colours in this breed.  The black Pewter should have black paw pads, black visible skin around the eyes, nose and lips, and a brick red nose leather.  The blue Pewter's paw pads and visible skin around the eyes nose and lips is blue, and they will have a dusky pink nose leather.

The pewter mantle, will be variable, and the degree of tipping will vary as it does with the Cameos and Golden's.  The black or the blue mantle, should spread evenly from the top of the head, all the way down the back and sides and to the tip of the upper side of the tail.  The face should be lightly tipped with the appropriate colour, and as pale as possible.  Invariably there will be a ghost M on the forehead.  Although it is genetically not possible to have the colour white anywhere in our tipped cats, we do in fact want the pewter's undercoat to be profuse and to appear to the eye to be as white as possible.  Blue pewters are more likely to have an undercoat that is tinged with blue, but their undercoat should still be very pale and profuse.  The chest, tummy and underside of the tail should also be the same colour as the undercoat, and free from tabby markings.  There should be no brown or cream tarnishing anywhere in the pewter's coat.

A pewter's eyes should be large and round and deep orange or copper in colour.  Early examples of the pewter carried a legacy from Chinchilla matings and had pale eye colour or green rims.  No longer do we use Chinchilla as first choice, in our breeding programme for pewters, and therefore it is reasonable to expect good eye colour.

When Pewter kittens are first born, they appear very similar to silver tabby kittens in coat colour and pattern.  Those born with the classic tabby pattern usually grow to be the ones with the more heavily tipped pewter mantle, and those with the spotted or mackerel patterns usually develop a much paler mantle.  In kittens, the tabby pattern can take a while to fade, so that young kittens on the show bench are likely to be more heavily marked than would be acceptable for an adult Pewter.  Similarly the characteristic colours of the nose leather can take a few months to appear.  Newborn pewter kittens often have a solid black nose leather.  A small spot of either brick-red or dusky pink will appear from the middle, and then take varying lengths of time to spread across the width of the nose.  Kittens who's nose leather is incomplete should not be penalised, but it is expected that all adult pewters will have the correctly colour nose leathers.

 When breeding Pewters, it is important to know their Agouti status.  All cats have the agouti gene, but they also have alleiles for either agouti or non-agouti.  If you wish to breed Pewters you need to be sure that your cat has the agouti allele.  This can be discovered by a simple DNA test.

Cloe_25May2014
Julius 10 July 2015
Eva_23June2014
Dezzili_05June2011
Prince_15July2012
Black Diamond 22 May 2016
Titan 2 May 2016
Photos by Barry Newcombe
Hubert 24 July 2016
Misty 2 May 2016