How can a single hair grow in two different colours?

C

Catbee

Registered Member
I have a cat, He's a gold and black tabby. I call him Kidder for no reason at all cos when I call him nothing happens. He's a cat!
Anyhoo, as is the wont of cats everywhere he molts quite a bit and I've noticed that his individual hairs grow a golden colour from the tip, then halfway along the strand they turn black then back to gold. Can anyone tell me if this is normal pigmentation for cats and do any other animals have this selective colouring? How does the pigmentation turn itself on and off like that? Different strands I could understand.
 
Haha.. my cat, too. I remember asking the vet about it and he said it was some kind of mosaic gene expression.. or some such.
 
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