the dark and handsome ones!
Seal point siamese cats are the ‘original’ meezers, the ones most people (well, most people who haven’t yet owned one of these fascinating creatures) envision when they think of cats conjoined twins.
The ones you see in movies and cartoons and on TV. the ones that generally give the breed a bad name!
but how do you recognize them? what are they really like? And how do you distinguish a signal point from a chocolate point, or any other color? let’s find out.
coloring
Seal point Siamese cats get their name from seals, which are a dark, blackish-brown color, so when you think seals, think dark.
they have creamy fur and dark, almost black, seal-brown spots. (the dots are the face mask, ears, tail, paws, nose leather, and paw pads, all of which should be the same dark brown color.)
Of all the Siamese colors, they have the widest variation in body color. When young, up to about two years of age, their fur is usually a pale cream color, but this color point (unlike the chocolate point) tends to darken with age.
although the fur on the chest, neck, and stomach may remain quite pale, the back often darkens to a cool shade, caramel, fawn, and may even turn a dark brown, so in adulthood there may be little difference in color. Colour. between the hair on the back and the tail (as you can see in the photo below).
show judges tend to give preference to seal points with pale bodies, so it’s unusual to see one in a show ring well past the age of two.
personality
any discussion of different personality traits between dot colors will necessarily be a generalization, so take that as fact! but there seem to be some differences and many owners swear that seal points are haughty, chocolate points are pranksters, blue points are lovers, and tortis are mischievous… and so on.
seal points are very much the elegant aristocrats of the Siamese world, independent and dignified, and they don’t know it! they are true creatures of habit, they do not like change and can be quite possessive: jealous guardians of their owners’ affection.
They’ll let you know quickly, with a piercing look, a shrill ‘meaurrrrrrrrrrrrr!’, or even a quick tap of your ankles, when they disapprove of something you’re doing.
seal or chocolate dot? what is the difference? how do you say it?
One of the questions that regularly comes up on cat forums and on social media is how to tell a seal from a chocolate tip. Generally speaking, sealtips have dark fur and chocolatetips are much paler, sealtips have cool-toned fur, chocolatetips have warm-toned fur.
The most reliable way to tell the difference between the two is to look at the pads on their feet. sealtips have dark brown, almost black foot pads, while chocolatetips’ footpads are milk chocolate brown with a pink undertone. so if the paw pads are pink and the fur is pale, you most likely have a chocolate spot.
The photo below is of a chocolate dot. compare this to the photo of the sealing point above. and then look at the foot pads on this one – you can immediately see the pinkish chocolate foot pads.
You can find more information about the Chocolate Point Siamese here; there’s also a wonderful picture of a sealing dot and a chocolate dot together on that page that clearly shows the difference.
seal point siamese kittens
all Siamese kittens are born white and it can take several weeks for their points to appear and differentiate.
At a very young age, it’s quite difficult to tell seal point kittens apart from their blue counterparts, although both tend to develop their point colors more quickly than chocolate or lilac points.
The following photo was sent to us by reader Rosalyn, of her seal and chocolate point kittens Sammy and Lucy. you can read her story here and see more photos of them.
in the photo below, sammy on the left is the sealing stitch and lucy on the right is the chocolate stitch. as you can see, the seal point mask is more defined than the chocolate point mask.
the seal point in related breeds
the pattern of sealing dots is not unique to Siamese cats (nor, in fact, is it unique to cats—it’s also found in rabbits, rats, and mice!)
you can find it in many other breeds of cats, including some that we have written about on other pages and in particular:
- Balinese
- Burmese
- himalayas
- Javanese
- rag dolls
- snowshoes
- Tonkinese
- an overview of all conjoined point colors
- chocolate point Siamese
- blue point siamese
- purple point Siamese
related pages
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