Silver-Point vs. Silver-Shaded British Shorthair: What’s the Difference

1 Two Shaded Variants, One Color Family

Both silver-point and silver-shaded cats fall under the same shaded color group, but the silver point is the pointed (colorpoint) member of that family. The difference shows up in how much of each hair is dark: on a silver point, only about 1/10 to 1/12 of the hair shaft carries color at the tip, whereas a silver shaded carries roughly 1/8 to 1/9. That small fraction is what gives the silver point its washed-out, almost white look.

Eye color follows the same split. Silver points have blue eyes, while silver shaded cats show pure green or yellow-green eyes. Together, coat depth and eye color are the two reliable markers that separate the two.

2 The Quickest Way to Tell Them Apart

If you are standing in a cattery trying to decide between the two, look at the eyes first. Blue eyes signal a silver point; any other eye color means silver shaded. After that, compare the coats — the silver point is consistently much lighter overall, reading as a soft, silvery white, while the silver shaded shows more visible gray tipping across the back and flanks.

3 Reading the Show-Class Color Codes

Show-quality cats carry coded labels that describe their exact shading. A few of the common ones:

(AS 11) — silver shaded with black hair tips.

(AS 11 33) — black hair tips with blue eyes.

(NS 11) — silver shaded with brown (coffee) hair tips.

(W61) — no tipping at all; pink paw pads and nose leather with blue eyes, the pure-white British Shorthair.

The silver-point code (NS 11 33) breaks down as: NS for brown-tipped hair, 11 for the palest back-coat shade (closest to white and generally considered the highest quality), and 33 for sky- or lake-blue eye pigment. Because the silver point sits at the lightest end of the scale, breeders often use it to ‘brighten’ a line, lifting the overall coat tone of later generations.