Do you notice tricolour cats are usually female cats?

[shimmeryns]

This is because of the coat colour genetic coding of male (XY) and female (XX) chromosome.

Black or orange color in the coat is found in the X chromosome. The color display is either orange or black. The coding for white is a completely separate gene.

It is still possible for a tricolour cat to be a male but very unlikely.

Yes

No

Updates

+1 y

Other users also pointed out orange tabby cats are usually males. Yes its true, but not as rare as a calico (tricolour) male. A calico male is a genetic disorder of having XXY chromosome.

Female cats are more likely to express two colours due to the XX genetic coding. She must inherit two orange genes from each parent to be an orange tabby cat -- whereas a male only needs one.

[Anonymous]

I've heard of this! Pretty interesting science behind it. Did you know that when there is a male calico cat, they're normally infertile?

[Isten]

The science behind that is that those male cats posses 2 X chromosomes, creating the Klinefelte syndrome (XXY).

[SpiderLady]

My sister pointed this out the other day. Also that most orange tabbies are male.

[Noodle_fan]

yes calico and tortie are usually female , while ginger is usually male , i think..

[girlygirlsweety]

Have also heard tortoiseshell cats are almost 99% of the time female.

[Noodle_fan]

tortie is actually short of tortoiseshell

[Grond21]

Yeah, male calico cats are less than one in a million.

[Grond21]

Thanks!

[Apple1996]

Yeah most are female. I owned one she was such a sweetie🐈🐈🐈

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

Yes we had a cat half of her face color was dark brown color
the other half was light tan color. We called her Shadow Marie

[shimmeryns]

I like her name!

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

Thank you ;)

[JimRSmith]

I hadn't heard that particular example, but it makes sense to me. Some of the things that genetics can do are pretty fascinating.

[genericname85]

yeah. did you know that we humans are the same? if you'd color the mothers x chromosomes and the fathers x chromosomes in a male female (or the y chromosone in the male), you'd see that sort of pattern just with only 2 colors. however our genes typically determine an overall collor that's used in the entire body.

[Anonymous]

I was nineteen years old when the musical Cats came to our town. I couldn't wait to see it. After the show I was asked if I wanted to go meet some of the performers backstage. Man, I was thrilled. But when I got back there, they were drunk and out of control. Rumpus Cat and Macavity kept feeling up my leg. I tried to leave, but, Rumpleteazer held me down, and... I was raped by Mr. Mistoffelees.

[wittymilf]

99% and ginger cats are 99% male 🤷‍♀️

[devilish-cutie]

males are ginger cause they are evil haaha jk

[shimmeryns]

About 75% of orange tabby cats are male

[wittymilf]

Love me an evil ginger 😂😂

[Deathraider]

I’ve heard of that before.

What if you put the gene from bioluminescence on the X chromosome of those cats?

[shimmeryns]

How do you propose the way to put that in their genetic coding? 🤔

[SydneySentinel]

No, I hadn't noticed that! Awesome.

[Justbeyouandbehappy_]

I never noticed that

[shimmeryns]

Now you do 😊

[Jupiter1]

I wasn’t aware of that. Thanks for the heads up.

[girlygirlsweety]

They are so cute! Thanks for sharing the pics.

[TimmahFTW]

No, I didn't know that about cats.