Calico cats

[puppydoggirl22]

I have been told that all calico cats are Female but i do not see how this is true. because if the calico cat has kittens then it is not for certain that all the kittens with be females. So do you all that answer this have an answer for me? Are all calico cats female? Thank you!!

[AmberLee]

As I understand it, Calico is the description of a coat color/pattern rather than a separate breed of cat. This coloring is genetically linked to female genes. Rarely (very rarely?) there are males born with calico coloring, it seems they are born sterile. (Can anyone confirm this?)

Calico coloration happens in many cat breeds. Offhand I can think of Maine Coon and Ragdoll, as well as general mixed breed cats. It's not a breed.

Usually when calicos give birth, their male offspring are of a different coloration -- usually a tabby or solid version of one of the mother's colors. i.e. a black, white, red, or tabby male versus the calico of the mother. (Sorry, I feel like I'm babbling here. And I used to enjoy genetic studies, too, blast it!)

[The Cat Factory]

From what I've heard it's very, very rare to ever find a male Calico as it is an Orange Tabby female.

my vet told me that almost 99% of all calico's are females . Once in a while , a male is born , but it is very rare !!

here is a pic of my calico MAYA !

[wolflady]

Aren't calico cats an interesting thing?? LOL LOL Amberlee is absolutely right. The calico coat color is caused by a coat color gene on the X chromosome, and needs two X chromosomes to appear. Since females have 2 copies of the X chromosome and males only have one, the calico pattern is seen most often in females. However, male cats have been seen with calico coloring because something goes wrong during fertilization or the early stages of fetal development and the fetus winds up with two X-chromosomes and one Y chromosome. This is very uncommon these individuals would most likely be sterile.

The same is true for the idea that most orange/yellow cats are males. The gene for the orange color is located on the X chromosome. Female cats have two X-chromosomes. In order for a female cat to be orange, she has to have the dominant gene for orange on both X-chromosomes. But any male cat who gets an orange gene on his single X chromosome will be orange. So when you see an orange cat, it is a pretty good bet that it is a male cat. About two thirds of them are male. Only one parent had to be orange, whereas to make a female cat orange, both parents had to be orange.

I'm with you, Amberlee. I find genetics fascinating, and studied it in school too! LOL

[K & L]

http://home.att.net/~k-doyle/Cats/cats3.htm

[margaret]

Very interesting information!!
Calicos are coooool.

[Mitty the Kitty]

Unfortunatly I do not know the answer to that question.
But I do admit, calicos are cute!!!!!

[toughCookie]

from what I have been told, it is rare to find a male orange tabby, but there are some of course, and I have heard something about calico's but now I can't remember which is suposed to be rare, male or female. anyway I used to have a female calico, and Muffin is a tortoise shell calico, female.

[I_love_cats]

I read that calico and tortie are only females. It is very rare to find a male calico and a male tortie. I read it in the catfancy magazine.

[KittenCloudSprinkles]

Actually...It's just more common for cats with MORE than 3 or 3 colors are mostly females. So there can be male calicos but...Most are females. (That is my litte Fritz! )