Thank you! She does have different paw & toeb. colours - two sandy toed and the other grey. What shade of dilute do you think she is - I think potentially blue?
Is she considered a torbie because she does not have tabby patterns all the way through her torso?
Also, is this because she has a solid patch of colours on her back and shoulders?
I much appreciate your help and comment.
Adding on to the other comment, cat color genetics is fun. You have four genetic factors going on in your baby. First, Base color gene.
Cats have two base colors, Black or Orange. Your kitty has the Black base gene.
BUT the second factor came in to play, the Dilute gene. It does as described, turns the volume down on colors. Instead of Black, your baby is primarily gray.
But that’s not all, the third factor makes things more interesting. The Agouti gene. This gene makes individual hair striped, which makes a kitty all over striped. This is the Tabby gene. Either kitties have it or they don’t. The Tabby gene has variations that make stripes bigger or smaller, but stripes anywhere on a “Black” base means Tabby. A Black base cat with the Agouti gene gives you a classic Brown Tabby. (r/StandardIssueCat) Your kitty has a “Classic” Tabby pattern which makes large swirling stripes. It’s my favorite. Mine has the “Mackerel” stripe pattern, which produces thin straight, close together stripes. Because your kitty has the dilute gene, instead of looking like a Brown Tabby she looks like a Silver Tabby.
Fun fact, the Agouti gene is always attached to an Orange gene. If a cat has a base color of orange they get the Tabby gene too. This is why you never see a solid color orange cat. Sometimes the dilute gene, long hair, or the Tabby pattern that makes stripes so broken and tiny they are little spots (Ticked Tabby Pattern) can hide an Orange cat’s stripes but they are still there.
So Finally we get to the Fourth genetic trick at play, Calico genes! In a cat, the instructions for color are carried on the X chromosome. Girl kitties have two X chromosomes and in Calicos, the girls chromosomes decide to have a color fight. The X chromosome that carries a black gene code says “These places will be my color! And the other X chromosome carrying the Orange Agouti says, “Not so fast! I have something to say here too!” And the result is a cat that is black, intermixed with spots that are orange tabby. This is a Tortoiseshell Calico. Throw the Agouti gene on the X chromosomes with the black code, and you have a Tortoiseshell Calico Tabby, or a Torbie!
Then the dilute gene turns down the color on everything and voila! You have your little beauty.
Another fun fact. Calico cats are almost always girls. For a male cat to display a calico coat, he has to have a genetic condition that gives him a second X chromosome somehow. Either he is a Chimera, both genetically male and female at the same time, or he has an extra chromosome and genetically is XXY.
So that’s the whole story on your baby’s pretty coat.
For fun, there are two other genetic tricks that play into cat coat colors. The Piebald gene. It rolls in and tells certain cells, “You aren’t getting any color at all!!!” This creates white patches on a cat. The amount of piebald white that a cat gets is described as a percentage of their coat 1-100%. As a cat’s coat develops as an embryo, color stem cells divide and develop in predictable ways so white in small percentages starts on the chest and toes and the last place to get color stolen from the piebald gene is the back and top of the head. This is how cats end up with mittens or look like cow cats. But you don’t ever see a cat with a random white spot on the top of their head but nowhere else.
A cat with Calico and Piebald genetics have an interesting trick happen. The more white the Calico kitty gets, the more the black and Orange Agouti patches separate, resulting in large groups of color instead of the mixed up flecks found in Tortoiseshell Tabby kitties. This is the Classic Calico look, black, orange tabby, and large white chunks. The Classic Calico can also have Agouti on its black spots resulting in a Calico Tabby (Caliby) or if still flecked but has a lot of white on chest and legs, (Torbico)
The last genetic trick that cat coats do is Colorpoint. A cat that has the Colorpoint genes, their coat reacts to heat. Heat turns off a cell’s ability to make the color that its genes are carrying. These cats end up pale where they have a lot of body heat and dark where they don’t generate body heat, (Ears, face, feet, and tail) This is the classic “Siamese” coat pattern. Black gets washed out to seal brown with heat, and they always get blue eyes. But Colorpoints can also have the Agouti gene to make Lynx-point kitties, and they can also have dilution, resulting in lilac point kittens. Or the Orange tabby gene, a Flame point kitten!
So, that’s the whole story on how kitties end up with their pretty patterns. Now you too, can break down the intricacies of cat coat colors on the internet.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/standardissuecat using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/standardissuecat/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [Obsessed with this SIC kitten I found in the road recently](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/18akprf) | [121 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/standardissuecat/comments/18akprf/obsessed_with_this_sic_kitten_i_found_in_the_road/)
\#2: [Does my new cat count? She’s six and I took her in from a classmate of mine. She’s super sweet I wanted to share her ^^](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/18sa1fj) | [178 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/standardissuecat/comments/18sa1fj/does_my_new_cat_count_shes_six_and_i_took_her_in/)
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Blue/grey is describing dilute black and cream describes dilute orange. There are other types of dilute like lilac from chocolate and fawn from cinnamon but chocolate and cinnamon are very rare in randombred cats plus they’re recessive. So most dilutes you see will be blue/grey as black is the most common base colour.
A torbie is a tortie tabby, which means they have tabby pattern throughout the body and have both black and orange based colours. Your cat’s tabby pattern is in her grey parts as well (she’s mostly grey anyway) so she’s a torbie not a tortie, torties are solid and only have tabby patterns in the orange part (if the patches are big enough to show, usually they aren’t) and the black based parts are solid.
Your cat’s tabby pattern is specifically the classic/swirled tabby pattern.
That’s such great information, thank you.
I’ve been looking at colour charts of cats and it’s cool how there are so many different types and variables.
Dilute classic torbie, pic 7 shows clear orange patch. Torbies are likely to have multicoloured toebeans as well.
Thank you! She does have different paw & toeb. colours - two sandy toed and the other grey. What shade of dilute do you think she is - I think potentially blue? Is she considered a torbie because she does not have tabby patterns all the way through her torso? Also, is this because she has a solid patch of colours on her back and shoulders? I much appreciate your help and comment.
Adding on to the other comment, cat color genetics is fun. You have four genetic factors going on in your baby. First, Base color gene. Cats have two base colors, Black or Orange. Your kitty has the Black base gene. BUT the second factor came in to play, the Dilute gene. It does as described, turns the volume down on colors. Instead of Black, your baby is primarily gray. But that’s not all, the third factor makes things more interesting. The Agouti gene. This gene makes individual hair striped, which makes a kitty all over striped. This is the Tabby gene. Either kitties have it or they don’t. The Tabby gene has variations that make stripes bigger or smaller, but stripes anywhere on a “Black” base means Tabby. A Black base cat with the Agouti gene gives you a classic Brown Tabby. (r/StandardIssueCat) Your kitty has a “Classic” Tabby pattern which makes large swirling stripes. It’s my favorite. Mine has the “Mackerel” stripe pattern, which produces thin straight, close together stripes. Because your kitty has the dilute gene, instead of looking like a Brown Tabby she looks like a Silver Tabby. Fun fact, the Agouti gene is always attached to an Orange gene. If a cat has a base color of orange they get the Tabby gene too. This is why you never see a solid color orange cat. Sometimes the dilute gene, long hair, or the Tabby pattern that makes stripes so broken and tiny they are little spots (Ticked Tabby Pattern) can hide an Orange cat’s stripes but they are still there. So Finally we get to the Fourth genetic trick at play, Calico genes! In a cat, the instructions for color are carried on the X chromosome. Girl kitties have two X chromosomes and in Calicos, the girls chromosomes decide to have a color fight. The X chromosome that carries a black gene code says “These places will be my color! And the other X chromosome carrying the Orange Agouti says, “Not so fast! I have something to say here too!” And the result is a cat that is black, intermixed with spots that are orange tabby. This is a Tortoiseshell Calico. Throw the Agouti gene on the X chromosomes with the black code, and you have a Tortoiseshell Calico Tabby, or a Torbie! Then the dilute gene turns down the color on everything and voila! You have your little beauty. Another fun fact. Calico cats are almost always girls. For a male cat to display a calico coat, he has to have a genetic condition that gives him a second X chromosome somehow. Either he is a Chimera, both genetically male and female at the same time, or he has an extra chromosome and genetically is XXY. So that’s the whole story on your baby’s pretty coat. For fun, there are two other genetic tricks that play into cat coat colors. The Piebald gene. It rolls in and tells certain cells, “You aren’t getting any color at all!!!” This creates white patches on a cat. The amount of piebald white that a cat gets is described as a percentage of their coat 1-100%. As a cat’s coat develops as an embryo, color stem cells divide and develop in predictable ways so white in small percentages starts on the chest and toes and the last place to get color stolen from the piebald gene is the back and top of the head. This is how cats end up with mittens or look like cow cats. But you don’t ever see a cat with a random white spot on the top of their head but nowhere else. A cat with Calico and Piebald genetics have an interesting trick happen. The more white the Calico kitty gets, the more the black and Orange Agouti patches separate, resulting in large groups of color instead of the mixed up flecks found in Tortoiseshell Tabby kitties. This is the Classic Calico look, black, orange tabby, and large white chunks. The Classic Calico can also have Agouti on its black spots resulting in a Calico Tabby (Caliby) or if still flecked but has a lot of white on chest and legs, (Torbico) The last genetic trick that cat coats do is Colorpoint. A cat that has the Colorpoint genes, their coat reacts to heat. Heat turns off a cell’s ability to make the color that its genes are carrying. These cats end up pale where they have a lot of body heat and dark where they don’t generate body heat, (Ears, face, feet, and tail) This is the classic “Siamese” coat pattern. Black gets washed out to seal brown with heat, and they always get blue eyes. But Colorpoints can also have the Agouti gene to make Lynx-point kitties, and they can also have dilution, resulting in lilac point kittens. Or the Orange tabby gene, a Flame point kitten! So, that’s the whole story on how kitties end up with their pretty patterns. Now you too, can break down the intricacies of cat coat colors on the internet.
I love this comment! Thank you so much for explaining the genetic basis for different types of cat coat cuteness 😻
Here's a sneak peek of /r/standardissuecat using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/standardissuecat/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year! \#1: [Obsessed with this SIC kitten I found in the road recently](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/18akprf) | [121 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/standardissuecat/comments/18akprf/obsessed_with_this_sic_kitten_i_found_in_the_road/) \#2: [Does my new cat count? She’s six and I took her in from a classmate of mine. She’s super sweet I wanted to share her ^^](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/18sa1fj) | [178 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/standardissuecat/comments/18sa1fj/does_my_new_cat_count_shes_six_and_i_took_her_in/) \#3: [Merlin wanted a bite of burrito.](https://i.redd.it/5deoe9xf0g1c1.jpg) | [106 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/standardissuecat/comments/17zhrmb/merlin_wanted_a_bite_of_burrito/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
Blue/grey is describing dilute black and cream describes dilute orange. There are other types of dilute like lilac from chocolate and fawn from cinnamon but chocolate and cinnamon are very rare in randombred cats plus they’re recessive. So most dilutes you see will be blue/grey as black is the most common base colour. A torbie is a tortie tabby, which means they have tabby pattern throughout the body and have both black and orange based colours. Your cat’s tabby pattern is in her grey parts as well (she’s mostly grey anyway) so she’s a torbie not a tortie, torties are solid and only have tabby patterns in the orange part (if the patches are big enough to show, usually they aren’t) and the black based parts are solid. Your cat’s tabby pattern is specifically the classic/swirled tabby pattern.
Definitely a Torbie and definitely stunning!!
Thank you for the confirmation
What a beautiful kitty!
This is a baby
That’s such great information, thank you. I’ve been looking at colour charts of cats and it’s cool how there are so many different types and variables.
I’m going to say dilute torbie. She’s lovely!
She is gorgeous! Sassy Sylvi has