My friend got a kitten and we were wondering what coat he is. She says his parents were a tortoiseshell mama and a bicolor tuxedo for his dad. He's black ofc but there does appear to be a pattern of stripes, sorry if it doesn't show up on the camera well. (last image is his belly)
The stripes aren’t showing very well in these images but I believe I know what you’re referring to based on the description.
He’s a solid black kitten, the markings you’re seeing are “ghost” patterns - which are very common in kittens and are likely to become less noticeable as he gets older, but will still be apparent in certain lighting (ex. if you catch him sprawled out in a nice sunbeam).
The code for tabby is still present in solid cats, the recessive solid gene just causes excess eumelanin production.
Imagine drawing stripes on a canvas with a permanent marker and then spilling black paint all over it, at a glance you have a black canvas but if you hold it up to the light at a certain angle you might be able to make out a hint of those original stripes.
Here’s a pair of black self littermates someone submitted previously where the kitten ghost markings were more distinct and stuck around longer on one sibling than the other.
Here’s a chocolate self BSH kitten with ghost markings beside their littermate who’s actually genetically chocolate classic tabby.
Ghost markings tend to show very well on black solid (“melanistic”) Bengals.
And a couple of black smoke Egyptian Mau kittens just to show the difference between a bonafide smoke and a solid with ghost patterning.
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