A white cat in the sun is hard to miss. But some of them miss a lot: the car coming round the corner, the call at dinnertime, the dog until it’s close. Many white cats are born deaf, and it’s been known for a long time. Even Charles Darwin wrote about it.
Here’s why it happens, how to tell, and the other thing white cats need help with in a sunny place like Cyprus: their ears.
In short
| Why white? | A gene called dominant white, or W, hides the cat’s real colour. |
|---|---|
| Why deaf? | The same gene can stop the inner ear from working. |
| Blue eyes | Raise the odds. Two blue eyes, highest of all. |
| Albino? | Almost never. Albino is a different, very rare gene. |
| The sun | White ears burn, and burns can turn into cancer. |
White isn’t really a colour
A white cat isn’t a cat with white paint. It’s a ginger, a tabby or a black cat underneath, wearing a white coat over the top. The gene behind it, dominant white, stops the colour cells from reaching the skin while the kitten is growing. One copy is enough, which is why two white cats can still have a tabby kitten, and a white mother can have a litter of every colour.
In 2014, geneticists found what the gene actually is: a scrap of old virus DNA, which cats have carried for ages, that landed inside a gene called KIT. KIT helps colour cells travel through the body. With that scrap in the way, they never arrive.
Why the ears go too
Colour cells don’t only colour fur. A few of them live deep inside the ear, where they help keep the hearing organ working. In a white cat they may be missing there too. Without them, part of the inner ear breaks down in the first few weeks of life, and the kitten grows up deaf, in one ear or both.
The eyes give a clue to what happened inside. An eye with no colour cells looks blue. So a white cat with blue eyes is more likely to be missing those cells in the ears as well.
How many white cats are deaf?
The classic figures come from a 1971 study by Bergsma and Brown, reviewed by the veterinary deafness researcher George Strain at Louisiana State University. Counting cats deaf in one ear or both:
- About 22% of white cats with no blue eyes were deaf.
- About 39% of white cats with one blue eye.
- About 65% of white cats with two blue eyes.
A later study, by Mair in 1973, put the last figure as high as 85%, which is why you’ll often see the range 65 to 85% quoted by Cornell’s Feline Health Center. A 2019 study of pedigree kittens in the UK found lower numbers, about 30% of white kittens, but the same pattern: the more blue in the eyes, the more likely the kitten was deaf.
So most white cats with green or gold eyes hear perfectly well, and plenty of blue-eyed ones do too. For a cat with one blue eye, the deaf ear is more often on the blue side. There’s more on that in odd-eyed cats.
Not albino
People often call white cats albino. Almost none are. A true albino cat carries a different gene that stops it making pigment at all, and it’s very rare. Albino cats have very pale blue eyes and pink noses and ears. The deafness in this story belongs to the dominant white gene. There’s more on albinos in the rarest cat coats.
How to tell if a cat is deaf
It’s harder than you’d think. Deaf cats watch everything and feel vibrations through the ground, so they can seem to hear. A few clues, from Cats Protection:
- It doesn’t respond when you call it.
- It startles easily when you walk up behind it.
- It doesn’t react to loud noises, like a vacuum cleaner.
- It meows very loudly, or hardly at all.
A deaf ear on one side is almost impossible to spot at home. The only sure test is a BAER test, a quick, painless check that some vets and specialist centres can do.
Deaf cats outside
A deaf cat can live a full, happy life. But it can’t hear traffic or dogs, so International Cat Care advises keeping it indoors or in a secure garden. If a deaf cat lives on your street, feed it well away from the road, approach from the front where it can see you, and tread a little heavily so it feels you coming. Adoption into a home is the safest future for it.
White ears and the sun
White cats have pink skin under thin fur, and the ear tips and nose get the most sun. They burn easily, and years of burns can turn into a skin cancer called squamous cell carcinoma. Cornell calls sunlight “far and away the most common cause” of it in cats. In a hot, sunny place like Cyprus, it’s a real risk for white street cats.
- Shade. Put food and water in shade, and keep house cats in during the middle of the day, when the sun is strongest.
- Sunscreen, only the right one. Never use human sunscreen: cats lick it off, and some ingredients can harm them. Use only a product made for pets and labelled safe for cats, and ask your vet first.
- Watch the ear tips. Redness, crusts, or a small scab that doesn’t heal on the ears or nose needs a vet. Caught early, it’s very treatable.
More on keeping cats cool is in cats in summer heat.
Questions people ask
Are all white cats deaf?
No. In the classic study, about 22% of white cats without blue eyes were deaf, rising to about 65% of those with two blue eyes. Most white cats with green or gold eyes hear normally.
Are blue-eyed white cats always deaf?
No, but many are. Figures range from about 65% to 85%, and some are deaf in only one ear.
Can I put sunscreen on a white cat?
Only one made for pets and labelled safe for cats, and ask your vet first. Human sunscreens can contain ingredients that harm cats when they lick them off.
Snap the white cats on your street. Next summer, you’ll know whose ears to keep an eye on.
