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The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

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Original poster

Tortie or calico?

59 replies

WeirdAndPissedOff · 09/01/2018 07:52

Not the most important/pressing of matters, but one Ive been puzzling over for a while: We have a 3 year old tortie and white cat, and for a while I've been curious as to whether she counts more as a calico or a tortie - from googling it seems torties have speckled coats with only small flecks of col our, and little to no white whereas calico have larger patches of colour and more white.
Well our little Beastie has a typical tortie back and head - muted black with flecks of orange - and white paws and stomach - sort of a tuxedo tortie. She also seems to be more "patchy" on the edges of her white areas - almost like she's a tortie from above and a calico underneath.
I'd say her colouring makes her a tortie, but the consensus online seems to be that a tortie with a significant amount of white would be a calico.

We don't know her parentage as she was one of several litters found in a barn.
So I thought I'd come here for a few opinions. And show her off
Pics attached!

OP posts:

Thread gallery

flumpybear · 09/01/2018 19:19

Yes it'sme..... holy shit that's the IMAGE of my cat!!! Do you live in the East Midlands? I'm sure we co-own a kitty lol 😆

Tigresswoods · 09/01/2018 19:23

Thanks ginger we are her third, and hopefully, forever Home. She's beautiful & so loving. On arrival with us she was spayed, microchipped, given a mani/pedi & wormed/defleaed.

It's been plain sailing since & that's almost a year now. She's one happy lady.

Weedsnseeds1 · 09/01/2018 22:17

The grey/ white / apricot upholstered versionis called dilute tortoiseshell

maamalady · 09/01/2018 23:00

This is our beautiful tortie and white, about a year before she died aged 22 ish. We got her when she was 12 - she must have been magnificent as a young cat.

I reckon she's a good example of a calico, with splodges and plenty of white. I like the term "brindle tortie" for the non-splodgey sort, that's very descriptive.

ToadOfSadness · 09/01/2018 23:03

I was confused (nothing new).
www.seregiontica.org/Colors/tortietorbie/tortietorbie.htm

maamalady · 09/01/2018 23:04

AuntLydia your kitty is gorgeous! So many pretty kitties here :)

Polkadotties · 09/01/2018 23:09

My old girl :)

Murinae · 09/01/2018 23:11

This is mine and she is very naughty!

YesItsMeIDontCare · 09/01/2018 23:15

@flumpybear - we're West . Leroy is an indoor boy so unless he's sneaking out we're unlikely to be co-parenting. Check where @Weedsnseeds1 is though!!!

Weezol · 09/01/2018 23:24

I would say calico. I've always assumed the name was a nod to the fabric commonly used for patchworking.

Are calicos known for general cheekiness and bare faced misbehaviour? When I got mine a friend said 'Oh - she's one of those ones. She'll be a handful' and she has been, no sign of calming down and will be seven soon.

I love her dearly, but suspect she'll never grow out of doing wall-of-death runs around the house at 3am.

Want2beme · 09/01/2018 23:36

She's a white tortoiseshell - UK. Calico is American. I had a naughty tortie, whose markings made her look very cross, but she was the complete opposite of that I had a white tortie who looked like an angel, but she was the meanest so and so. She used to bite and scratch and stick her claws into my head at every opportunity.

AuntLydia · 10/01/2018 06:42

Wow, 22 evilgiraffe! You must have taken such good care of her.

This thread is tortie/calico heaven. They're such pretty cats. Calicos are definitely outnumbering the torties though.

lljkk · 10/01/2018 06:50

I am American.
Calico = white, ginger & black. In splodges or stripes or tiny bits or any other way. It's those 3 colours in a cat, however those colours are present.

I gather from this thread that (British) tortoiseshell = only ginger and black? So then torties can be males, Who knew?

Trills · 10/01/2018 08:00

So then torties can be males, Who knew?

Torties are no likely to be male than calicos (extremely unlikely). It's the black-or-ginger gene that is on the X chromosome. Different amounts of white are encoded elsewhere.

Weedsnseeds1 · 10/01/2018 08:03

South West want2beme , so I think Leroy and my boy were separated at birth, rather than that we are co-parenting!

flumpybear · 10/01/2018 09:55

Weeds where's the pix of your black cat?

Want2beme · 10/01/2018 10:31

Weeds, this is my girl, who is from the same gene pool as yours and Leroy. She is the best little puddin'.