What colour is she?

catmomma

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I was just trying to figure out the colour/pattern genetics of my new foster cat. I can't decide if she is a brown ticked tabby or a cinnamon ticked tabby. Or is she a spotted tabby because of the spots on her belly? Also, she is pregnant, and I was wondering if all of her kittens will also be tabby because tabby is a dominant gene? Any way she would have kittens with a pattern other than tabby? Thanks for any input!





 

arlyn

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She looks like a brown mackerel tabby to me, just with poorly defined stripes.
One of my foster kittens is exactly the same.

She's very lovely, and doesn't look very pleased in that pic


I'm no genetics person at all, but I believe that all domestic cats are tabbies at the genetic level?

Hopefully a breeder will come answer your questions soon.
 

missymotus

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Looks like a ticked brown mctabby to me. When you part her fur can you see different shades on each hair shaft?
 
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catmomma

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Thanks for your replies! Missymotus she does have different on each shaft of hair. Does this mean she is ticked or mackerel?


Originally Posted by Arlyn

She's very lovely, and doesn't look very pleased in that pic
She was actually totally purring and going nuts for pets when I took the last pic (I think that's the one you're talking about!) She kept rolling on her back to get her belly rubbed
 

sol

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Brown spotted tabby without a doubt I'd say. She's not ticked. Not even a heterozygous ticked tabby will show spots on the body like that.

Agouti (or tabby as some call it) is dominant and non-agouti is recessive. If she's heterozygous for agouti (has one agouti gene and one non-agouti gene) she can get both agouti and non-agouti kittens depending on who the father is. If she's homozygote for agout she'll only produce agouti offspring no matter who the father is.

There's some reading on tabby pattern in cats by molecular biologist Heather E. Lorimer here.
 

abymummy

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IMO Brown mackeral tabby. Her stripes are broken, not spotted - no spots on her shoulders to make her a spotted tabby and the spots on the belly are long, not circular.
 

sol

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Originally Posted by Abymummy

IMO Brown mackeral tabby. Her stripes are broken, not spotted - no spots on her shoulders to make her a spotted tabby and the spots on the belly are long, not circular.
Which according to Heather E. Lorimer makes the cat a genetic spotted tabby. She calls these cats "mackerel pattern spots". Phenotype a mix between mackerel and spotted tabby, genetically a spotted tabby.

We see many of them in our Swedish Devon Rexes since color don't give any points in our standard.
 
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catmomma

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I think you're right Sol, thanks for the great link! It says the following:

The Spotting Modification: (Appears to be a dominant modifier of mackerel and classic patterns)

Mackerel pattern spots: note: spots set into vertical rows perpendicular to spine, sometimes joining together to form lines.
This cat was registered and shown succesfully as a Mackeral tabby, but was a genetic spotted.
So a genetically spotted tabby can have their spots joined into a line, which makes them look like a mackerel, which is what Sienna is.

As for her kittens, I guess unless the father has the recessive spotting gene too they will probably mostly be mackerel tabby's?
 

sol

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Originally Posted by catmomma

As for her kittens, I guess unless the father has the recessive spotting gene too they will probably mostly be mackerel tabby's?
It's probably more likely they'll be spotted since the modifying gene for spotting is dominant over both mackerel and classic tabby.

There appears to be 3 separate genes controlling tabby pattern, a base pattern of classic or mackerel, then two separate dominant modifying genes. One, the spotted gene can brealk the pattern into spots. Two, the ticked gene may break the pattern down even more, producing the even gradient of ticking of the ticked tabby. In the case of the ticked tabby, cats heterozygous for the ticked allele have residual striping on the legs and tail that is substantially reduced or eliminated in the homozygous ticked cat.
 
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catmomma

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Well she just had two beautiful kittens, so that takes the guesswork out of that! Although it's hard to tell exactly what their patterns are. You can see pics of them here: http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...85#post2334885

I think the black tabby might actually be a classic tabby, which would be suprising! I guess the father must have been orange though for one of the babies to be orange.
 

sol

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Originally Posted by catmomma

Well she just had two beautiful kittens, so that takes the guesswork out of that! Although it's hard to tell exactly what their patterns are. You can see pics of them here: http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...85#post2334885

I think the black tabby might actually be a classic tabby, which would be suprising! I guess the father must have been orange though for one of the babies to be orange.
Congratulations! When it comes to color, the fact that you have one red kitten means that momma cat has to be tortie so I'm changing her color to tortie spotted tabby. If she would be brown spotted tabby and the father red of some sort you would get black pigmented males (the mother give the males their basic pigment) and the females would be torties (females get the basic pigment from both parents).

So genetically your female has to be a tortie.


Your brown kitten is definately a classic tabby. The red one is either spotted or mackerel tabby.
 
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catmomma

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Originally Posted by Sol

Congratulations! When it comes to color, the fact that you have one red kitten means that momma cat has to be tortie so I'm changing her color to tortie spotted tabby. If she would be brown spotted tabby and the father red of some sort you would get black pigmented males (the mother give the males their basic pigment) and the females would be torties (females get the basic pigment from both parents).

So genetically your female has to be a tortie.


Your brown kitten is definately a classic tabby. The red one is either spotted or mackerel tabby.
That's interesting that she can be a tortie and look like a tabby. I am in trouble if the black tabby is a classic tabby. When I was looking at all the different types of tabby's I was thinking how beautiful the classic ones are and how I would love to adopt one one day...
I understand a classic tabby is the most recessive of the tabby's, does this mean both mom and dad also had classic tabby genes?
 

sol

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Originally Posted by catmomma

That's interesting that she can be a tortie and look like a tabby. I am in trouble if the black tabby is a classic tabby. When I was looking at all the different types of tabby's I was thinking how beautiful the classic ones are and how I would love to adopt one one day...
I understand a classic tabby is the most recessive of the tabby's, does this mean both mom and dad also had classic tabby genes?
Well, she doesn't only look like a tabby. She is a tabby. A tortie spotted tabby.


The classic tabby is the most recessive pattern so yes, both parents have to carry the gene for it.
 

laureen227

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Originally Posted by Sol

Well, she doesn't only look like a tabby. She is a tabby. A tortie spotted tabby.
she's similar to Firefox, coloring-wise. [Firefox is a mackeral tho]. she just doesn't have as much visible red [Firefox is also a patched tabby].
 

moonandstarkatz

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is the red baby a classic also. I thought I saw the bullseye on the side. Anyhow, they are adorable and mom looks like quite the lady.
Daisy
 
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catmomma

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I don't think the ginger is a classic, looks more like a mackerel to me, here's a picture of him from the side:



I noticed that the black classic tabby has spots on her belly like mom does, does this mean he's something other than classic tabby?
 
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