Blue Mackerel Tabby

How rare is it to find a shorthair Blue Mackerel Tabby as a stray/feral?

A few years ago I adopted a feral female that is this color, she is now a relaxed housecat. But i've never seen any other feral cat in my area like her to date, neither has anyone else I know who feeds ferals/strays. Is this color rare or mabye just in my area?

All these years my family kept saying she is gray because she didn't appear "blue" to us as in "russian blue" color. But just recently I saw a page on tabby colors and they had a cat identical to her labeled "blue mackerel tabby"

You learn something everyday.

I just realized I meant to post this in "breeders corner"

I have two girls that would be considered blue and white mackeral tabbies. They are both mixed breeds that were found abandoned in the woods as tiny babies. They are longhaired though, not shorthaired.

My cat is nearly identical to this cat, is this what yours look like?



I cant get an actual picture of my cat because the site the photo is on is down, but if it comes back up i'll post a picture to compare.

I think one of my last fosters would have been one maybe? I don't follow colors that close and just called her a lt. gray tabby

Could very well be, I got my cat as an adult so I dont know what she looked like as a kitten.

Ok finally got a picture of my cat to compare, sorry I couldnt get a side view.

My cat


Show cat


Do they look the same?

Originally Posted by keith p

Ok finally got a picture of my cat to compare, sorry I couldnt get a side view.

My cat

Show cat

Do they look the same?

Click to expand...

OMG! That soooo looks like my (late) Thumper!

Yeah he does! Did he have the peach color on his chest or was it always gray?

What BEAUTIFUL kitties! :

Laurie

Keith - you can ask a mod to move the forum you intended if you want to.

Blue tabbies are a bit uncommon, they have both the dilute gene and the tabby gene. The dilute gene is recessive, so both parents must have it for the cat to be a dilute. Mac-tabbies are the most common tabby in the states compared to the UK, where classic tabbies are the dominant form of tabby. I know that as far as Turkish Vans go, blue-tabby is the rarest color of them all (outside of silver/smoke, which we have not had yet)

There are various shades of blue from dark to light. Its not a rare color; its a recessive color. The dilute or recessive color of black is blue.

I've seen many blue mctabbys in the general cat population. Unless both parents are carrying dilute or one is a dilute, then they would not show up too often in the general population if its heavy in dominate colors of black or red.

Many people call them "grey" but the technical term is Blue. And blues don't have "peach" color unless its a female and its a blue cream. Blue tabbies have "patina" which is a little like a cream/tan undercoat. That's what you are seeing on the checks, etc.

A friend of mine has what I guess you would call a blue mackerel tabby, who was found as a stray. I just call him grey.
They found two stray/feral kitten littermates (born to a feral cat in the area). One was that same grey color as the cats in the photos in this thread, the other was a longhaired solid black color.

Here they are as kittens:



And as an adult:

Many people call them "grey" but the technical term is Blue. And blues don't have "peach" color unless its a female and its a blue cream. Blue tabbies have "patina" which is a little like a cream/tan undercoat. That's what you are seeing on the checks, etc.

Ok i'm a little confused and fascinated at the same time. Are you saying my cat is a "blue" cat or "blue cream" cat?

My cat is Female and has those "patina" colored spots on her cheeks and chest area. I just call it peach I didnt know the exact term for it.

We used to have a male that looked like her, funny thing is he had no peach on his belly or cheeks, seems males lack this?

Also my cat clearly has the "M" shape on her forehead.

Here is my cat again.

BlueCream is the dilute versian of a tortoiseshell - so if she's marked like that then she's a bluecream - otherwise she would be a blue tabby. I'd have to see a picture to be sure.

All blue tabby's have a patina undercoat that sometimes shows in other spots. But they are not blue cream with patches of blue and cream mixed.

LOL, I posted a picture of her above your post.

She's a blue mackeral tabby - the "cream" you see is just the patina undercoat on a blue tabby. Only the blue tabbys have that - not solid blues.

Ok so I was right she is a blue mackeral tabby.

Thanks for the help.

she is a very beautiful kitty and the ones that are babies are ever more adorable there are so many more varieties than i ever dreamed.