Each and every cat is an individual, with a range of varying personality traits. While this seems to appear true based on our experience and other anecdotal stories, the truth is there is no actual hard evidence that personality traits are linked to coat coloring. They’re also known to be talkative, playful, and sometimes aloof. Some people claim both torties and calicos have “tortitude” – loyal, strong-willed, with an attitude. Some cats even have a mix of both distinctive calico and tortoiseshell coats, and it can be extremely difficult to truly discern which it is. Tabby tortoiseshells are called “torbies”. There are also tabby calicos, referred to as “calibys”. Some calicos have very pale orange and black coloring, these are known as “dilute calicos”. But they may have white patches on their paws, face, underbelly, or chest. Tortoiseshell and white cats don’t really have the distinctive patches of orange/black, they will still mostly have a darker coat. Have you ever looked at these cats and quite honestly have not been able to tell the difference? While there are classic torties and calicos, there is also a large gray area in between. The reason it’s even possible for male cats to display classic tortoiseshell or calico coloring is usually due to a rare genetic condition known as Klinefelter syndrome, in which the cat has an extra X chromosome (XXY).īecause of this fact, these male cats are almost always sterile and can have other health problems. So how could a male cat possibly be calico or tortie if they need the XX chromosomes of a female? In calico cats, they inherit a separate “spotting gene” which produces the white fur in addition to the black and orange patches. In bi-colored tortoiseshell cats, the melanocytes arrive relatively early, and the two cell types become intermingled, producing the characteristic brindled appearance consisting of an intimate mixture of orange and black cells, with occasional small diffuse spots of orange and black.“ Pigment genes are expressed in melanocytes that migrate to the skin surface later in development. Cells in which the non-orange ( o) allele is inactivated express the orange ( O) allele. Cells in which the chromosome carrying the orange ( O) allele is inactivated express the alternative non-orange ( o) allele, determined by the (B) gene. “ The cells of female cats, which like other mammalian females have two X chromosomes (XX), undergo the phenomenon of X-inactivation, in which one or the other of the X-chromosomes is turned off at random in each cell in very early development. A cat would need to inherit two X chromosomes – 1 with the orange code and 1 with the black code – in order to display the coat.Īnd then, the cells would have to undergo a process called X-inactivation to produce the brindled appearance of orange and black coloring of torties. However it’s a bit more complicated than this since obviously not all female cats have the coat coloring of a calico or tortoiseshell. So if a cat gets the XY chromosomes, it will be male, and if it gets the XX chromosomes, it will be female.īecause the orange and black color code is attached to the X chromosome, calicos and torties need the double X chromosomes in order to have a chance of displaying the classic coat coloring. The sex chromosomes X and Y determine whether a cat will be male or female. The reason for this comes down to genetics. About 1 in every 3,000 calicos and 1 in every 3,000 torties is born male.
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