Confirmation -

[kyburg]

I've won a number of bets, claiming I could sex a cat from across the room. Why? Because color in cats is sex-linked, and more than two colors on the kitty is always...well, nearly always an indication that the kitty is female. The exception? Kitties like this guy...

For the same reasons, a completely orange female cat is also rare - not as rare as a male tri-color, but there you go.

Go win a few drinks in the trivia contest.

Comments

[turandot.livejournal.com]

Actually orange tabby girls are unlikely, but not as extremely rare as you'd think. Between 15%-25% of all orange tabbies are girls. That number surprised me, but it makes sense: if orange coating is a recessive gene then an orange tabby had it in spades, and his orange gene is therefore 100% likely to transmit the orange gene. All this cat would have to do is mate with another cat with a recessive orange gene in her genetic makeup and boom: 2 orange genes pair up for a girl cat. An orange tabby girl cat would, however, require another orange tabby as a mate in order to repeat the feat.

Torties as boys are however extremely rare because their conception usually involves a calico parent. The thing about calico cats (which are almost always female - there are records of the odd calico males, but they're a much rarer genetic abnormality in the cat world - they literally have an extra sex gene, i.e., they're XXY in human terms)? Many of them are naturally infertile (as are some female torties)!

The way I got to reading about this is that the cat who birthed my Boris was also an orange tabby, and since I had never seen any orange tabby female before, I got curious about the odds of certain gender/color combinations in cats.

[lostboydv.livejournal.com]

(Got your voicemail. Too late at night to call. Suffice to say, thanks, I'm OK. Sad, yes, but getting along OK. Not getting all clinically depressed or anything.)

[kiyone.livejournal.com]

When my Mom was working at the local humane society shelter type place, she said they came across one in her entire time there.

[ecstaticlght.livejournal.com]

We thought we had a possible calico male, but his little bit of color faded to pure white, his eyes on the other hand turned 2 different colors (one blue, one green). When the cat was a kitten I could not figure out male or female, although I had the 2 litter mates pegged as girls within days. I named this odd child "Pat", like "That's Pat" on SNL. I took Pat the Kitty in to the vet for a tailoring job. When I went to pick "him" up, the vet got a bit somber and quietly informed me that Pat had another set of smaller female organs, that would most likely be dormant, so she left them. I thought it was cool, cuz I was RIGHT! Pat was indeed a "Pat" :D Pat the Kitty has turned out to be such a cool cat to have around, seems Pat may not only be gender confused, but he's also a bit confused as to whether he's a cuddly puppy or a cat.

Oh and our vet said if we did run into a Calico male, to have it tailored and move on. They are apparently the bottom of the genetic barrel...no branches on the family tree ya know? Too much of a risk of defects in it's system and such. We've had an all orange female by the way! Our cats are kinda the hillbillies of the block..I've tried to grow some branches, but they are shunned, by all of the other cats. We'll be moving back home to the mountains, next to the river in the near future.

[amizadai.livejournal.com]

I've come across a few ginger girls, but never a tortie boy. Still, I didn't think it was that rare!

[dame-of-dames.livejournal.com]

My parents have a female orange tabby. Big, sweet girl.

[chorus-of-chaos.livejournal.com]

I'm curious, I had a male multi color tabby, would that be the same rarity, or is it the tortie pattern that matters? Silver was black, white, grey, silver and had a streak of peach/orange down his chest.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

That likely would be one of those rarities - without genetic testing, hard to say exactly how he came about, but I'd bet he had a lot of hidden talents....^_^

[chorus-of-chaos.livejournal.com]

He could dial 911, say NO to flea dipping, quite vocally (NOOOOOOOO!!!!!) was fat enough to knock the screen out and fall out a window (and he as a big chicken shit indoor kitty, luckily I found him quickly) and he couldn't meow. He squeaked. "reek!"

yeah, silver was something else.