![]() You could get a laid-back, mellow cat that enjoys being around you and wants to be your loyal companion. Like many cats, calicoes will develop their unique personalities according to many factors, such as socialization and life experiences.īecause calico cats are so different from one another, it’s particularly exciting to get one. Personality And BehaviorĬalico cats aren’t a breed unto themselves, so we can’t assign breed-specific personality or behavioral traits to them. Using a sample of your cat’s saliva, BasePaws compares your cat’s genetics against the largest cat DNA database in the world to help you better understand your cat’s breed composition. If you’re curious to know the genetics of your calico cat, we recommend the BasePaws cat DNA kit. Some of the breeds you can find in calico appearance include Maine Coon, Manx, Persian, American Shorthair, Japanese Bobtail, Siberian, and more. The best way to tell is to examine the calico patches.Ī tortoiseshell cat usually has the primary colors (red and black) woven throughout the coat while a calico will have distinctive solid-colored patches (like black patches or white patches). ![]() Because calico cats occur across so many different cat breeds, it’s sometimes hard to tell whether the cat is a calico or actually a tortoiseshell. You can find calico cats across many distinct breeds with the exception of solid-color and pointed breeds like the Bombay, Russian Blue, British Shorthair, Siamese, and Himalayan. They are primarily white in color with patches of light color ranging from blue-gray to cream to strawberry blonde. It is possible, however, to have a calico pattern with shades of cream, red, blue-black, and even chocolate brown.Ĭalicoes with less intense coloration are known as dilute calico cats. ![]() The most common calico is a tri-color pattern of orange, black, and white. The calico is not a breed of cat but a domestic cat with a variety of genetic color variations. After all, they are one of the only cats to exhibit such a wide range of color variations in its coat. This results in piebalding, where skin and fur that would normally be pigmented lacks pigmentation, resulting in a white color.Because calico cats are not a breed unto themselves, calicoes will have unique and varied personalities influenced by a wide range of factors.Ĭalicoes are often described as the world’s most colorful cats. The tri-color, calico (or often called “tortoiseshell-and-white” outside of North America), with the presence of white fur, happens due to a gene unrelated to the X and Y chromosomes. If the cat only has these two colors, it is known as a tortoiseshell cat. Those two colors then combine on the cat’s fur to create the orange and black patches of fur. In both cases, these cells are replicated and the inactivated chromosome will always stay inactive. Other cells use the chromosome for black fur instead. One cell inactivates the chromosome for black fur resulting in orange fur. However, the offspring receives the chromosome for, for instance, black fur from one parent and orange fur from the other. In the case of calico cats, the same process occurs. So, for instance, if the female offspring receives the chromosome for black fur from both of its parents, she will have black fur. Likewise, another cell may silence the X-chromosome from the father and instead use the chromosome from the mother. That cell then creates more cells, each of which will use the father’s X-chromosome to determine the fur color. One cell may shut off the X-chromosome from the mother while leaving the chromosome from the father. The important thing here is that the same X-chromosome does not inactivate for each cell. Each cell only needs one X-chromosome, so early on when the feline embryo is developing, one of the two gets shut off, with the inactivated one supercoiling into something called a “Barr Body.” But females receive an X-chromosome from both the mother and father. A male offspring only receives an X-chromosome from his mother, so that alone determines his fur color. Why is this so important to the topic at hand? Because in cats the X-chromosome determines most of the fur color (with the potential exception of white). This is true for both humans and cats, along with many other animals. Thus, a female receives an X-chromosome from both of her parents while a male receives an X-chromosome from his mother and a Y-chromosome from his father. This allows them to pass down either an X-chromosome or a Y-chromosome to their offspring, determining the genetic gender. Males, on the other hand, have an X-chromosome and a Y-chromosome. As you may or may not be aware, females have two X-chromosomes, meaning that they can only pass down an X-chromosome to their offspring.
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