• Question: how do dogs and cats get different coloured hair

    Asked by to Claire on 13 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Claire Vinten

      Claire Vinten answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      Good question!

      Have you heard of DNA? This is a molecule (or chemical) that is in all animal cells. It tells the cell what it should do and what to look like. Everything is controlled by the DNA – they are like instructions for how to make each animal.

      The DNA molecule, or set of instructions, has got written into it what colour fur an animal should have. Some animals DNA will say they should have black fur, while other animals DNA will say they should have white fur!

      When the animal is growing in the womb, before it is born, the DNA tells the cells that are building the animal what colour to make the fur.

      Now, how does the DNA know what colour the hair should be? Animals get their DNA from their parents – half from their mum and half from their dad. So your DNA will half be the same as your mums and the other half will be the same as your dads. So the part of the DNA of an animal that says what colour the fur should be will come from one of its parents.

      This is complicated stuff, so does that make sense?

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