Bald kittens.....

[Meandmymunki]

I had a litter of kittens come into my rescue 6 weeks ago with no mother, they were 2-3 days old and had to be hand reared, there were 3 blacks and one tabby although one black was shinier than the other 2, by 2 weeks old the fur on the duller 2 blacks was thinning ridiculously all over, 3 vets were stumped and the 4th came up with congenital something or other and to biopsy at 6 weeks, by 4 weeks old the shiny black also had a strip of fur missing down her back, now aged 6 weeks all their bald bits have grown back grey and feels very soft and looks a bit like oriental cat hair, the kittens look a bit oriental but that could be the lack of fur length! Anyone seen this before?

[Hunnybunny]

It looks like a 'fever coat' which happens usually as the name would suggest after a very high temperature. The coat usually returns to the original colour over time.

[Meandmymunki]

I had kittens with fever coat last year but they were nothing like this as these went bald first.

[Lyn from Australia]

They look a little like some cats and kittens I saw online recently - the breed name eludes me atm, but they had a very thin coat - the reason being that some congenital anomaly meant that while they had a "top coat", they didn't have an "undercoat" (Sphynx are the opposite - have the undercoat, thus the velvety coat which gives them the bald appearance). If their fur all grows back normally I suppose you may never know, unless you Google the symptoms and come up with something out of left field. They are rather cute!

[Meandmymunki]

Their fur feels like that of an oriental cat but that's cos it's so short I guess, I have googled til I can hardly see but nothing anywhere near comes up. I have added a pic taken today, the stripy bulge next to the kitten is the body of the worst one.

[Lyn from Australia]

Ah what a sweet face. It will be interesting to see how these little things turn out.

[Meandmymunki]

I have been posting these on fb too and alot of rescues are saying they have had it happen too, always to black kittens and they always eventually return to black! Very odd!

[Jacks]

I have NO experience of this at all, but it occurs to me that the blue eyes and interesting markings (they are gorgeous by the way) could suggest they have some special genes and it may be that they don't retain their birth hair but will grow new coats...

Looking at this page about hair-loss in cats:
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm ... 41&aid=195" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...the only thing that makes any sense is Congenital hypotrichosis - interestingly more common in Birmans, amongst others - and Birmans have blue eyes. Probably unrelated as many kittens are born blue eyed but this changes as they grow and yours are very young. It will be really interesting to see how they develop but as long as they have been vet checked and are healthy I'd try not to worry and celebrate your unusually beautiful little kitties...

[Melissa573]

Have you figured out the reason for this issue- I see this post was from a long time ago- but I have a kitten with a similar issue? Trying to find information and google searches have only brought me here. The kitten is a tabby- littermates are black. But the body looks just like the pictures you've posted. Totally stumped!