Is this a ticked tabby?

This is Blaze, he's 6-7 months old. I am not sure if he would be considered a ticked tabby? I thought he was but he does appear to have some striping, especially compared to his ticked brother. Some of the other kittens in the litter are ticked and some are mackerel, one appears to possibly be spotted or broken mackerel...

I am thinking of entering him or maybe his brother and sister in a household pet show next month.


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Yes, I think he's a ticked tabby. You can see that he has agouti hairs all over. He looks a lot like my brown ticked tabby, Mony.

Yes - he looks like my Mitten - both are mackeral ticked tabbies. Its an incomplete tabby (part both). Most mack tabbies have darker stripes, but when the ticked coat comes in, it sorta fades the stripes out.

I had a hard time figuring out my HHP Mitten cause his coat was ticked. At the time I didn't know about the different tabbies.

Oci's would be a ticked spotted tabby because their coats are supposed to be ticked like the aby but the ticking forms the spots. If you flip the fur back, its the color of an aby under it. The spots are only on the surface of the coat.

He's quite ticked, but his base tabby pattern is mackeral.

In domestics it is unusual to see a 'perfect' pattern or markings that you would see in pedigree cats at shows and therefore there are a lot of domestic cats with markings that are not quite this and not quite that, I would guess that he has genes for a high-contrast mackeral tabby pattern and just one gene for ticked tabby, as the ticking is not completely obscuring the mackeral barring on his body.

EDIT: Because I didn't compliment his beauty, he looks like a real character too, he's lovely

I used to call Mitten an Aby-Tabby He was a blue/white big boy (about 14 lbs).

Here is Blaze's brother Spot. He's the one that made me wonder if Blaze is truly a ticked tabby or not since Blaze has some visible stripes on his body while Spot has only ticking. A few people have said he reminds them of an Aby... He has a broad black strip down the middle of his back. His eyes are copper colored.

Originally Posted by Nekochan

Here is Blaze's brother Spot. He's the one that made me wonder if Blaze is truly a ticked tabby or not since Blaze has some visible stripes on his body while Spot has only ticking. A few people have said he reminds them of an Aby... He has a broad black strip down the middle of his back. His eyes are copper colored.

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It's perfectly possible for one kitten to be ticked and showing no base tabby markings amongst the ticking and another to be half and half with some mackeral or classic markings showing amongst the ticking.

Genetics is never black and white - the vast majority of genes are not 'recessive' or 'dominant', these are terms we are taught at low level biology studies to clarify the basic idea of how genes work, but in reality it is much more complicated and there is rarely any such thing as complete dominance of one gene over another. The gene for ticked or the gene for spotted does not necessarily eradicate the tabby patterns that they alter, unless there is a long history within certain breeds of selectively breeding out the less desirable unclear patterns that don't fall firmly within one definition or another, in order to achieve a certain result.

At least that is the case for purebreds which have been selectively bred for certain features - when it comes to moggies, all options are possible - ticked, spotted, classic, mackeral, mackeral with ticking, spotted in a classic bullseye pattern, halfway colour between black and chocolate, hint of red or cinnamon in an otherwise brown tabby cat. It's only when we selectively breed for certain features that we get somewhat predictable results, in the domestic population pretty much anything is possible!

LOVE your cat BTW, what a handsome creature

Originally Posted by Epona

Genetics is never black and white - the vast majority of genes are not 'recessive' or 'dominant', these are terms we are taught at low level biology studies to clarify the basic idea of how genes work, but in reality it is much more complicated and there is rarely any such thing as complete dominance of one gene over another. The gene for ticked or the gene for spotted does not necessarily eradicate the tabby patterns that they alter, unless there is a long history within certain breeds of selectively breeding out the less desirable unclear patterns that don't fall firmly within one definition or another, in order to achieve a certain result. )

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I am a biology major so I know about incomplete dominance and all that. I just was not sure whether Blaze would be categorized as a ticked tabby or a mackerel tabby who happens to have some ticking, for example if I were to enter him in a cat show.

Originally Posted by Nekochan

I am a biology major so I know about incomplete dominance and all that. I just was not sure whether Blaze would be categorized as a ticked tabby or a mackerel tabby who happens to have some ticking, for example if I were to enter him in a cat show.

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Can't help with what you need to put on the form for a cat show...

But I am willing to bet the cat is mackeral tabby (either Mc/mc or Mc/Mc, no way of telling without pedigree or DNA test) and heterozygous for ticking/normal, which lets the base mackeral pattern show through.

Here the non-ped classes are not so strictly deliniated, I would enter that particular cat as a non-pedigree tabby and that would be all that was required.

I would enter Blaze as a Mackeral Ticked Tabby
Spot would be a Ticked Tabby.

Spot looks closer to a ticked tabby like an Aby would be. As Epona said, breeders bred out undesirable markings. In the case of an Aby - you don't want stripes. 30/40 yrs ago you would still see a little "barring" or stripes on the legs. This was undesirable and so breeders would select cats with very little to none on barring and these kittens would keep having less and less. Now you see an Aby with no bars or stripes on the legs and better ticking in the coat.

Ok in that case I have one more question... If a cat has well defined stripes/spots but there is ticking/banded hairs in the coat around them is that just mackerel tabby or would that also be called mackerel ticked tabby?

No - technically ALL tabbies have some form of ticking on the coat if you really look at it - just a matter of markings that make them Classic, Mackeral, Spotted, or Ticked.

If the markings are very clear (classic/mack/spotted), then you would just call them by that name. Its when you get a mix or incomplete markings that makes it harder.

And to complicate things - you see many "broken" mackerals that the stripes break up into some spotting and then the person thinks they have a spotted tabby. You have to more/less look at the arrangement of the stripes/spots to tell the difference.

Aren't cats and genetics FUN?????

I think it would be clearer to just determine what (you think ) a cat genotypically is, and stick with that instead of making up names that are a form of compromise because the fenotype shows some variation.

Personally a made-up name like mackerel ticked tabby makes my hairs stand on end

My Rocky is also ticked. From the surface his fur is black, but if you part the hairs, he's white underneath.

In HHP's it doesn't matter what you really call it. Even the judges would disagree...... Now if it was a pedigree cat........then you just call it "pet quality".....

Clpeters - no if your cat is black on the ends of the hair and white at the base - its a smoke - not a ticked cat.

Ticking is banded - the hairs alternate in the color (dark and light) - some breeds like Abys, Oci's, Somali cats will require the banding to be about 3-4 or more alterations in the fur.


Ocicat -

COAT TEXTURE: short, smooth and satiny in texture with a lustrous
sheen. Tight, close-lying and sleek, yet long enough to
accommodate the necessary bands of color. There should be no
suggestion of woolliness.
TICKING: all hairs except the tip of the tail are banded. Within the
markings, hairs are tipped with a darker color, while hairs in the
ground color are tipped with a lighter color.

Aby '

Coat color: warm and glowing. Ticking: distinct and even, with
dark colored bands contrasting with lighter colored bands on the
hair shafts. Undercoat color clear and bright to the skin. Deeper
color shades desired, however intensity of ticking not to be sacrificed
for depth of color.

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

Clpeters - no if your cat is black on the ends of the hair and white at the base - its a smoke - not a ticked cat.

Ticking is banded - the hairs alternate in the color (dark and light) - some breeds like Abys, Oci's, Somali cats will require the banding to be about 3-4 or more alterations in the fur.

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Thanks very much!

If you enter him as a Domestic I would just call him tabby - as a Show Secretary/Entry clark in the Domestic section it doesn't make much difference since we have people entering their reds as gingers their blues as greys, etc etc.

But at least pick the right color - use the terms Red, Cream, Blue, Brown, etc.

Yeah at the HHP type shows I've been to though the judges complain a bit or act like you are a total newbie when they're judging your cat if you put the wrong color/pattern in your cat's entry form. So I wanted to get it right. Plus I was curious whether he was actually considered ticked or not...

Now I just need to decide which kitten(s) to enter in the show in March.

If undecided - put in both