Can Cat Fur Color Shape Human Allergies?

Discovery News ^ | June 1, 2011 | Marianne English

[decimon]

Strange as it sounds, the question has been thrown around in previous years and even studied by scientists. A recent write-up on the website Improbable Research revisits whether cats with darker coats wreak more havoc on their owners' immune systems.

Pet dander, skin flakes, saliva and urine can aggravate owners' allergies and asthma, but for cats in particular, a specific protein called "Fel d 1" is a common culprit. It's secreted by cats' salivary and sebaceous (or oil) glands, so when a cat grooms itself, it spreads the allergen to the outermost surface of the fur, increasing human exposure to the protein.

But does allergen production vary among cats with different coat colors, with darker ones creating more allergy problems for humans than lighter cats?

[coloradomomba]

yep...that’s what I thought...it’s got to be that crazy “alien” fur.:)

[goodnesswins]

aaagghhh...FIVE cats!...bless your heart.....One dog, and one cat is enough (we did at one time have 2 dogs and 2 cats - and now I think I know why I had such “allergic” problems.) This guy we have now literally dropped into our yard (3+ft wall) and his feral mommy ran away....when he was about 6weeks old. Love him, but he certainly does NOT sleep in our bedroom...which kinda makes him mad, because the dog does!

[LadyDoc]

I once was given a black persian cat and I was allergic to it...it would sleep on my bed, and I’d wake up with my eyes swollen shut.

the other cats only bother me a little.

Had to give the persian cat away...sigh...

[Newton]

I’ve always had allergies with cats, but thankfully Eddie has never bothered me, I nozzle in his fur and everything. he’s a tuxedo - or part ceiling cat and part basement cat as I like to say!

[PA Engineer]

Yep. Cats for the first time are banished from the bedroom.

It is difficult for us when we have had an epidemic of abandoned pets this past year. We counted nine cats and now only two made it through the winter. We fed what we could, but the predators and cold got the rest. A little over a month ago we did take in our fifth.

She showed up on our porch. She was 8 lbs, ticks all over her head, one side of her mouth's teeth were kicked in, over ten bite wounds on her back and her whiskers were falling out. She was near death, but somehow managed to survive winter and our woods. I petted her and she wrapped her paws around my legs. That was it.

Fast forward 38 days to today. She is 22lbs (still a bit underweight) and is the biggest female our family and vet has ever seen (Russian Blue Torte mix). Totally lovable, but not fully acclimated with the others. What can I say. I'm a softy at heart. I just wish people understood what they are doing to their pets when they abandon them in the "country".

[Slings and Arrows]

Gizmo sure has let himself go.

[CurlyDave]

I find a cat is much easier to tolerate if I keep a spare bedsheet on top of the bed all the time and just was it every other day. Not elegant, but effective.

The cat knows I don’t want her on the bed so she jumps on it every chance she gets...

[Inyo-Mono]

Fuzzy?

[SWAMPSNIPER]

[goodnesswins]

Well..there’s another reason he doesn’t get to be in the bedroom....we’d never get any sleep....he’s an attacker...especially at night, and seems to take great joy when my husband (his wrestling buddy) is laying down, and he can REALLY attack.

[tanuki]

Not your fault, but your post will give me a little trouble getting to sleep tonight. The thought that people can be so ignorant and callous is always unsettling.

God bless you for giving one of his creatures a loving home.

[Fawn]

I had a cat that would open the doors. He learned to do that when I shut the bedroom door once in a while to get a solid nights sleep. So, it made him mad and he learned how to open them. It was a good thing one day, when I shut the door and went to work, realizing at work, that I left another cat in my bedroom by mistake. Got home that evening to see that 'Dusty' had opened the door and let the cat out by himself...lol. I appreciated that. :)
He just had to have every door open.

[TheOldLady]

That’s a Purgatory Cat.

Buddy of mine had a cat named Newton, LOL!

[TheOldLady]

He’s not ugly, just different. The story at the link says that he’s a completely normal cat in every other way. Too bad his sister didn’t make it. I’d take a sweet, ugly cat over a nasty beauty any time.

Oh, heck. You know me, I’d just take them both.

[goodnesswins]

HA...we have a LOCKING door....

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

That's a good-lookin' kitty! Reminds me of our fur-baby...

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

He looks like he’s up to something... and it probably isn’t good.

[Slings and Arrows]

As would I.

[TheOldLady]

Goes without saying, my good man.

[Fawn]

Well...if Dusty encountered a locking door, I envision him trying to open it all night long....being quite frustrated....which would cause me to lose even more sleep than I would leaving the door open.