Tortoiseshell cats

[PetiteRaleuse]

I was told the other day that cats with three distinct colours are always female. Is this true? Thinking about it all the tortoiseshells I have known have been female.

[lljkk]

yes, thought everyone knew this, lol. Breeders desperate to try to make male Calicos, no luck yet.

? 91% of ginger cats are males.

[scottswede]

I did not know that about gingers. I have 3 beautiful little calico sisters at the moment, their 2 brothers are black and white though.

[PetiteRaleuse]

I have known a ginger female but yes, they do seem to be rare.

Looks like I was the only person not to know that then :o

[OddBoots]

They are the result of absolutely fascinating (to me anyway) epigentic processes resulting from orange and black coat alleles being on the X chromosome.

www.bio.miami.edu/dana/dox/calico.html

[PetiteRaleuse]

I don't quite understand all that but it is interesting. Thanks.

[cozietoesie]

Torties, female, gingers mostly male. That's all you need to know, really.

[LisaMWill]

We had a ginger female. She was the most ginger cat I have ever seen, she even had ginger eyes!

[cozietoesie]

They are going up in numbers. lljkk quoted 91% but I've seen studies with a 75%/25% split. I guess it depends where you're from.

I had thought that it might be the effect of a few right ginger hussies in the feral population but someone (sorry - I forget who) once pointed out that owners like ginger cats and that if they had a ginger female, might be more inclined to let her breed than a cat of another colouring. I think that there might be some truth in that.

[NorbertDentressangle]

Tortoiseshell cats always seem to be a bit bonkers too - we didn't know this until after we had one who was as mad as a box of frogs and then we'd hear all sorts of stories about this being the norm.

They all seemed to be the tortoiseshell ones that don't have any white on them too.

[cozietoesie]

Genetics are fascinating OddBoots. I've sometimes wondered how they got so much tortie gene into the Siamese population for example - but have never pursued the question.

[TooTabooToBoo]

They're called Nortie Torties for a reason

My neighbour's Tortie is the naughtiest little bugger ever! She is my Ginger Moron's bestest friend in the world. They roam the street as if an ASBO is just around the corner!

Tortie is in love with my Evil Cat, EC thinks Tortie is beneath her and regularly puts her in her place.

Tortie terrorizes my cat-friendly dog. My dog has had many a beating from Tortie and once when my dad came to the dog's rescue, Tortie turned on him!

She can often be found asleep on top of cars/vans and one time the lamp post outside the house!

She is anything but dull

[issey6cats]

yes torties and calicos are always female, we had one male calico in the rescue last year and he was a one in a million cat, and male torties are sterile he was the only male calico that yorkshire cat rescue has seen in 21 years of rescue so very rare, and the myth about ginger cats is all male its about 60% male 40% female my ginger girl was orange tabby from head to toe behaved like a bloke though she was the one who liked hunting, visiting other houses, fighting with anyone who dared come into our garden i do miss her

[PetiteRaleuse]

Really interesting. What about 3 distinct coloured cats that don't have red bits. I have a female tabby who has large white areas, but the male is just your big standard black and brown tabby?

[issey6cats]

tabbies and tabbiy and whites is evens stevens 50/50 and tabbies are usually nice natured, black cats are usually friendly and black and whites tend to be nice but dim

[TooTabooToBoo]

my black cat is evil and my ginger cat is nice but dim..

Wonder if I can get a refund?

[moonbells]

I am never going to be convinced that black and whites are dim... I have now lived with two tortoiseshell and whites and two black and whites. The first tortie was utterly bonkers. Used to ambush feet. I could never wear tights or stockings as they'd be laddered in seconds. The second tortie is my current girl and we are still getting to know her. But she is definitely independent and wants to call the shots. Not quite so mad (ex-stray in both cases, neither lapcats). Both B&Ws have been devious, slightly psycho and very intelligent madcaps who purr like mad and like laps. OK one's only 17 weeks so far and psycho could apply to any kitten of that age!

[FindingSanity]

Well they say you learn something every day.How interesting! I wasn't aware of that either. I didn't know that about not just torties but gingers also.

[PetiteRaleuse]

Glad I'm not the only one :)

[ubik]

Oh we had an evil black cat


After keeping my black cat overnight (years ago when I was a child) the vet muttered that he was a 'devil' when we came to pick him up.

Vet was right. Our cat was so evil we were actually quite glad when he died (of old age after a very long, luxurious but malevolent life.)


He used to throw himself into the fridge of you opened it, yowl outside the oven if you were cooking chicken. He would chase dogs up the road outside our house. You would wake suddenly in the night with this tremendous weight on your chest to find him sitting on you purring and kneeding you with claws fully extended and if you tried to move him he would try to scratch your eyes out. God help you if he was sleeping on your bed or on the sofa - if you tried to move him he would attack you, hissing. He would fart horrifically and drool all over you if he sat on your lap and you would be too terrified to push him off.

He was an absolutely horrid black cat, but we loved him. Sort of.

[Trazzletoes]

What's the difference between tabby and tortie?

[moonbells]

ubik you owned Scarface Claw, didn't you?

Trazzle Tabbies always have an M-shaped mark on their foreheads and look like wildcats. Usually stripey but can have white paws and tummies. Torties are more randomly marked, and white torties can have quite large patches of the same colour along with the white.

[LovelyMarchHare]

I had a ginger female who was run over when she was about 3. She was beautiful. Had very soft and silky fur whereas I think some males are a bit wiry

[LovelyMarchHare]

I had a ginger female who was run over when she was about 3. She was beautiful. Had very soft and silky fur whereas I think some males are a bit wiry

[FindingSanity]

Moonbells, my tabby does indeed have that stripe on the forehead. More noticeable when he was a kitten though. He's white pawed and white bib.

[lottieandmia]

Our tortie was definitely crazy (had no white as described above). My parents didn't know what hit them when she came to live at our house - she would always get caught up in some terrible drama because she'd squeeze herself into a tiny space and get her paw stuck or something. She also used to bounce off the wall to get up the stairs - every single time. She walked around hitting random objects with her paw if she heard a strange noise. Oh and she was totally neurotic poor thing. But she was wonderfully entertaining.