How true is this?

[~Karen~]

I was told that it is an extremely rare find if you see a MALE calico cat.

I had never heard of this before that statement and since then I have been on the look out to see if I spot any MALE calicos. So far the statement has been holding true, I have only seen female calicos.

If this is a true statement, how does the color play a factor in the sex?

Have you seen a MALE Calico?

~Karen

 

[lilmiraclesfarm]

You know, somehow I really find that hard to believe, but I have heard that somewhere else before.

 

[RAPfrosty]

I beleive that it is a true fact. However, I have no idea why. I work at a vet, so if I remember to I'll ask one of them this week!

 

[runamuk]

It is a lethal gene when combined with a male gene. It is similar to the lethal roan, or the LWO in horses.........

What is even more interesting though is how often orange cats are male...................orang females are rare but not nearly as rare as a male calico.

 

[minisaremighty]

females are rare but not nearly as rare as a male calico.

I can't say if it's true or not, but it's what I've heard for years and years.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

There has been one documented case of a pedigree Calico shorthair male- he was blue base.

He was also infertile!!

Definitely a sex related colour but I do not think it is anything like LWO and Merle- neither of which is sex related.

I have had many Red Tabby females- the most interesting thing was that, in all the years they bred, I NEVER had a Red Tabby females kitten!!!

The only one I ever got was from a Calico daughter of a Red Tabby female.

Over the years I must have had at least ten- starting right back with my first feral litter- all Red Tabbies and all stated to be male!!

Well out of five I kept two and rehomed the rest.

I was a mite surprised when "Ginger" had a litter of kittens by "Orange"

She had to change her name to "Ginny"!!

Had loads of Calicoes out of her, a Silver Tabby and many other patterns and colors, along with people queuing up for her kittens, which was handy!

My last Barn Kitty Red Tabby died about eight years ago, my last house cat Red Tabby died last year- but I'll get another soon, cats find you, when they know you are looking

:

 

[Sonya]

I have a tabico..(tabby and calico...I believe that's what my vet called her)...he said also that you'll only find these in female.

 

[ChrystalPaths]

I have never seen or heard of a male calico but in my barn right now is a cat...an orange one and a female. Sami showed up here last summer nothing but a rail of bones and near death. I almost put "him" down but a sweeter more loving cat I hadn't had....so I fed and pampered and doctored "him". Week by week the weight was put back on, a nice round tummy then one day..you guessed it! SHE had kittens but they were dead. Now I planned to spay this lovely queen but the vet felt her health wouldn't support the surgery then so we waited. She never showed another heat so time went by. 5 weeks ago she gave birth to a live litter of 6, she lost 2. In her litter is a buff male, a yellow male, yellow/white male & a long haired calico female! Nature never ceases to amaze me! Sami has her spaying scheduled for next week and will be my house kitty then. So yes sometimes orange can be a lady but rarely and I do love her.

 

[woodnldy]

I wish I could understand these horses colors as well as I understand cats genetics. There have been very few calico's born that were male. I have never seen or heard of one that was fertile. It is hard to breed for the red shades too. Red is recessive so The tom has to be red or red based and the puss has to carry the red also(tortoiseshell,calico,red , cream ect.) The one thing I do remember is that cats colors are what you see on the animal. They can pass varying shades of those colors but what you see is what you get. lol I am not good at explaining things so I hope this didn't make the whole question worse.

:

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Not sure I understand that as my two black Persians had white kittens, my Mothers white Persian had Black kittens etc.

My Black barn kitty has Tabby kittens, my Tabby Barn kitty has black and blue kittens- my buff Red Tabby tom sired all sorts of blue dilute colours and patterns- I think with cats colour (visible colour) is a "mask" ad you would have to have the cat genetically tested to find out what it carries.

 

[Minimor]

I don't believe there are tortoise shell male cats either? Or if there are, they are very rare.

Over the years we've had quite a collection of cats, most of them coming to us from the one neighbor. I've had enough orange tabby females that I don't consider them rare, but for sure the yellow males outnumber the yellow females.

We've had 2 orange mama cats (both from the neighbors)--Bitsy was tame & moved her 4 orange kittens over here when they were a month old. There were 3 males & one female. The other orange mama cat was wild, very wild--she showed up with 2 yellow kittens initially, both males. She hung around here all that year & had another litter of kittens in the straw stack--1 female and 3 males which I ended up raising on the bottle after mama cat was killed by coyotes. We had another orange female kitten years ago, and currently we have Cameo, who is more tan than orange so I'm not sure if that's the same color family or not? So, that makes....6 orange/gold females compared to, oh, 15 orange males that have been here over the years? Definitely not hard to breed for orange cats around here, judging by how many of them the neighbor has pumped out. I'd be rich if not for the numbers of that guys cats I've taken in, fed, neutered & spayed over the years.

:

One wild tortie cat gave us 2 torties and a jet black kitten while the other tortie moved 2 of her kittens over her--one tortie and one grey with tan mottling....father to both litters was most likely the wild orange tom that was always hanging around the area.

 

[crponies]

I had always been curious about why male cats don't come in calico or tortoiseshell. I finally read something that explained it! It is because the orange or black gene is found on the X chromosome. So, boys only have one X so can have orange or black. Girls of course have 2 Xs so can have 2 orange, 2 black, or 1 of each (making calico for example). The only time a male cat would be calico or tortoiseshell is it is a chimera (2 individuals fused together into one hence two sets of DNA) or if it is XXY (I forget what that is called). This made so much sense to me and I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it myself.

 

[Jeannie B]

:saludando: This is strange for sure!

Is it true that most white cats become deaf?

 

[runamuk]

:saludando: This is strange for sure!

Is it true that most white cats become deaf?

That seems to be breed dependent as Blue eyed white is a persian category and as a rule they are not deaf.

and tortoiseshell is just another form of calico, black/orange/white or blue/cream/white so even dilutes have the same issue.

CRponies thanks for posting that I knew I had read it somewhere but had not remembered where it was ..........that would explain the sterility issue as XXY usually equals sterile

:

 

[rabbitsfizz]

One of our white Persians was deaf and she had orange eyes.

She did have a litter as we were quite ignorant and I was little more than a child at the time- we were not aware of deafness and it took us tow years to accept she was deaf- right after she had the kittens, in fact.

Mother noticed as she had to keep taking her back to the kittens .

In the end Tilly's mother, Charly, took all the kittens into her basket with her litter and raised them and we had Tilly neutered.

All Tilly's kittens were Orange eyed and one was one blue one orange eye- which are supposed to be 100% NOT deaf.

ALL Tilly's kittens were deaf.

Deafness is far more rife in white cats than breeders would have you think, believe me.

We actually had no problem finding brilliant homes for the kittens- we advertised them as deaf and sold them (although we did not advertise them as such) at half price.

All the people that answered actually WANTED deaf cats- they had had one before and had loved it!!

Honesty does pay!

Tortoiseshell is black and ginger (red).

Calico is black, ginger and white, it is as simple as that.

The "Calico" male over here was, in fact, Tortoiseshell.

Exactly the same sex linked rules apply.

 

[Little Wee Horse Farm]

We've got an extremely long-haired pug-nosed orange female cat with round gold eyes who must be part-Persian mixed with who knows what. She is a BIG cat with a white bib & an off-center crooked blaze (must have some sabino too!) She has faint tabby striping.

But her best thing is she has SEVEN toes on each of her front paws. Her name, of couse, is "Seven." She may be pregnant to one of the neighborhood ladies' men. Wonder what her kittens will be? I think the large number of toes only carries to female offspring too.

Had an orange tabby female years ago -- with six toes on each front paw. She had kittens & only the girls had too many toes. Also, any calico I've ever had was a girl.