Cat colours and parentage

[Papergirl1968]

My lovely boy is three today! A very handsome tabby. Which got me thinking about his parents..
So, would either mom or dad have been a tabby?
The same with black or ginger cats or whatever? One parent would have to be black or ginger?

[ImBreakingBad]

Tabby is a dominant pattern as is black a dominant colour. Almost all completely ginger cats are male. Also, almost all torties are female as it requires 2 X genes. If you google Cat Genetics you will find lots of info . I read about this for ages on Sunday!

[ImBreakingBad]

Ps. Happy Birthday to the big 3 year old

[Papergirl1968]

Thanks! He has already been sung Happy Birthday to numerous times, and has a laser toy present waiting. Very spoilt cat!
And I'll be reading up on cat genetics.

[theotherendofthesockportal]

My girl cat (see picture) is black and white. Her mum was a tabby cat, we met the mum when we collected her. We also met our cats brothers, one was ginger and the other was white and ginger.

I often look at mine in amazement as she looks nothing like her mum.

I gave no idea what her dad looked like.

[teenagetantrums]

I have two brothers. One I tabby and white his mum and dad. The other is black and white looks nothing like the rest of his family they had two sisters who l think were tabby as,well. Don't know where her l imagined this but cant gets get pregnant by two different fathers? I'm sure l saw this on one of those vet tv program

[RustyBear]

The rules on cat genetics are quite complicated.

The rules on posting about your cat on MN, however, are quite clear.

Photo is compulsory.

[MycatsaPirate]

We went to see a cat once, a tortie, beautiful girl who had a pure white kitten with her. I just couldn't fathom how this tortie had a pure white baby at all!

We have two tabby's, one tabby/white and a black and white cat.

No idea of their parentage as all are rescues. My black and white cat looks like portals

[Trills]

I agree with Rusty - pictures are compulsory.

Ginger females are unusual but not impossible.

[ImBreakingBad]

Here is one fifth of my feline family. Casually sitting next to me

[Theworldisfullofidiots]

From the same litter we had a black & white tuxedo cat, a sandy girl and a sadly not with us anymore completely black who was a different shape to tge other two. Previous grey and white also had a ginger Tom in his litter.

[BarneyRumbleton]

Ozzy was from a big litter but I don't fully understand how they got the combination they did. He had cream tabby boy/girl sibs, white with blue tip boy/girl sibs, and blue boy/girl sibs.

[BarneyRumbleton]

Oops, I forgot

[TondelayaDellaVentamiglia]

girl cat is a shorthaired silver tabby, with a teeny amount of white (paws/stomach) and idiotcat (her brother) is like a great big tabby and white maine coon, long dense soft fur too

other two in the litter were even more long haired and grey and white markings

Mother was a very dainty, slender build and a gorgeous light brown/black tabby cat like this but creamier

No one really believes that my cats are real actual littermates! She is so dainty and refined like her mama, and idiotcat is the complete and utter opposite of dainty and refined and is possibly half puppy.

[MsJolly]

My naughty torty's sibling were
1)ginger/white
2)black/white
3)tabby

Cat genetics are weird!

[Wh0Kn0wsWhereTheTimeGoes]

My two are a litter pair of girls and completely unalike. Gentle, aloof, slim, elegant Tortie and chunky, feisty, affectionate B&W. No idea of parentage as they came from a rescue as adults.

[browndoobie]

One reason litter mates may not look like each other is that they could come from separate matings with different fathers.

[Trills]

That litter makes sense to me MsJolly - you just have to remember that there are a whole bunch of genes that affect coat colour

One that'll say stripey or not-stripey (tabby)
One says "and white" or not
One that can say ginger or "not-ginger" and if you have one of each you get tortie (and only females can have both because it's on the X chromosome)


There are also EVEN MORE genes, and some of them interact weirdly.
Most ginger or black cats are tabby - you can see dark-ginger-on-light-ginger stripes but you can't see black-on-black stripes. :)

[TondelayaDellaVentamiglia]

not having much luck with photos today, but will try again!

[Trills]

My favourite ever cat was tortoiseshell and white, with very distinct ginger/white/browny-black patches.

[cozietoesie]

My brain is still fried from a previous thread which deteriorated into cat genetics and colouring. I'll stay out of this one!

[BarneyRumbleton]

@trills does Ozzy's litter make sense? Someone told me it's impossible which made me question whether his breeder wasn't telling us everything. She seemed very responsible and the kittens, mums and dad's were well looked after, from what we could tell.

[Trills]

cream tabby boy/girl sibs, white with blue tip boy/girl sibs, and blue boy/girl sibs.

So you've got three flavours there Barney :)

There's a gene that they call the dilution modifier that says "whatever colour you were going to be, make it much paler", which would be involved here.

Blue is actually "black + dilution", cream is "orange + dilution".

So without the dilution modifier you could think of those cats as being:
black (the blue ones)
ginger tabby (the cream stripey)
white with black tips (white with blue tips)

You wouldn't think of that as being SO unusual.

In the same way that there's a separate gene saying "and-white" to get white splotches, there's also one that says "be white/pale in the warm parts of the body, and only show colour at the tips".

I'd be sceptical of anyone saying that any combination was "impossible", because there are so many different genes involved and they interact in various ways.

I am probably massively oversimplifying here, and even with that it's complicated!

[cozietoesie]

Barney

All you need is one window (or suchlike) left open when it shouldn't have been. The most responsible of us would be hard pressed to swear with 100% certainty that there was no chance of any 'interloper'.

[dementedpixie]

I have a short haired tabby plus longer haired darker tabby that are brothers

[Papergirl1968]

Goodness, I didn't know cat genetics were so complicated!
Thanks everyone. Here's the gorgeous boy in all his tabby glory, having spent part of his birthday in the sunshine on the decking!