Different Types Of Tabby Cats Markings And Coat Patterns Sometimes coat markings are faint or similar in color to the rest of the hair, but they’re there if you look close enough. Sometimes with other colored cats, you can only see the tabby markings if the light hits the fur at the right angle. This is because the gene for those coat colors also makes tabby markings visible.Īlso Read: All About The Majestic Orange Tabby Cats For example, you’ll never find an orange or cream-colored cat that is not a tabby. Without pulling out the punnet squares we learned in high school biology, there are other ways to determine if a cat is a tabby without taking a close look at the coat patterns. Besides the classic “M” marking, tabbies also have thin stripes on their faces and markings around their eyes. Legend says this letter stands for Mau, the ancient Egyptian word for “cat.” Others claim the “M” stands for Mohammed or the Virgin Mary. All tabbies have a distinctive “M” on their forehead. You can start identifying a tabby by looking at the cat’s face. You can’t call every cat a tabby cat, but it is the most common coat pattern among domestic cat breeds (including mixed breeds). Some cats have other genes that mask the tabby characteristics. This doesn’t, however, make every cat a tabby cat. If you want to get technical, all cats possess the gene for tabby markings. Identifying a tabby starts with understanding what a tabby actually is and knowing the different ways those genes affect coat patterns. The term “tabby,” however, refers to a cat’s coat pattern and has nothing to do with breed. You can also breed cats to have traditional tabby characteristics. It’s true that many tabby cats can look alike. It’s a common mistake, however, to use this word to identify a specific cat breed or cats in general. But the genes of some cat breeds hide the tabby appearance.When someone says the word “tabby,” it’s clear they’re talking about cats. But later, other tabby patterns happened because of mutations and selective breeding of the mackerel tabby.
At first, the mackerel tabby was common in all domestic cats. But when those breeds mixed, it made a more distinct mackerel tabby coat. Both of these wild cats have a pale, striped tabby pattern. It is believed to have come from the African Wildcat and the European Wildcat. The mackerel tabby pattern was the first tabby pattern in domestic cats. The tabby pattern is not visible at all in the white portion. As with solid-color cats, tabbies may also be partly white, such as tuxedo or van patterns. Colorpoint cats ( Siamese, Himalayan, etc) that are tabbies are referred to as lynx point. Since the orange gene is on the X chromosome, about 80% of orange tabby cats are male, and nearly all calico cats are female. All orange cats are tabbies, and the orange portion of calico cats will always show tabby patterns. Tabbies may be brown, grey, orange, or calico, including dilute versions of these colors. Both large spot and small spot patterns can be seen in the Australian Mist, Bengal, Egyptian Mau, Maine Coon, and Ocicat breeds. Sometimes, the stripes of a classic tabby's pattern may be broken into larger spots. The spotted tabby has a gene that breaks up the mackerel tabby pattern so that the stripes appear as spots. Some stripes or bars can often be seen on the lower legs, face and belly and sometimes at the end of the cat's tail. These break up the tabby pattern into a "salt-and-pepper" look. Classic tabby is a recessive trait, so these cats are not as common as mackerel tabbies.Ī ticked tabby pattern makes a grizzly color of fur of dark and light bands or bars. Classic tabbies have dark stripes on their legs, tail, and cheeks. There is also a light colored "butterfly" pattern on the shoulders and three thin stripes (the center stripe is dark) running along its spine. The body is marked with a whirled or swirled pattern (often called a "bullseye") on the cat's sides. Classic tabbies have the "M" pattern on their foreheads too. The classic tabby cat (also known as "blotched" or "marbled") has a pattern usually in the colors of dark brown, ochre, and black but sometimes grey. A mackerel tabby pattern is the only striped coat pattern seen in domestic cats.
Mackerels are also called 'Fishbone tabbies' probably because of the mackerel fish. This is what some people refer to as a "tiger." An "M" shape appears on the forehead along with dark lines across the cat's cheeks to the corners of its eyes. A "mackerel tabby" has narrow stripes that run in parallel down its sides. The legs and tail have dark bars as do the cat's cheeks. Mackerel is the original pattern and is by far the most common tabby pattern. The "patched" tabby is a calico or tortoiseshell cat with tabby patches (also known as "caliby" and "torbie"). There is also a fifth pattern that includes tabby as part of another basic color pattern.
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