orange tabbys

[L. Wayne]

Our local animal shelter has an orange female kitten with her litter-mate brother who is also orange. I heard that orange females are rare. Is this true?

.........wayne

[Uabassoon]

I'm not sure that I would call them rare like a male calico, but they are uncommon. I've have met very few female orange tabbies, so they do exist but the majority are male.

[jazzcat]

My Scout is a female orange tabby and I was told that about her at the shelter/rescue where I adopted her. I think they are not as many because it takes receiving the orange gene from both parents not just one - or something like that.

[jenluckenbach]

As I understand it 80% of orange are males because it's a genetic sex-linked trait.