Color question!

allmycats

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I think it must be a country difference...I've been cruising a lot of breeder sites, mostly Maine Coon..and several overseas ones. Why is it that they call what looks to me like a brown tabby (either Mc or cl ) BLACK tabby classic (or Mc)? If the stripes are black and the background is brown..I thought that's a brown tabby (and black with silver bkgrd would be silver tabby and so on)... is it just a different way of naming the same color/pattern?
 

goldenkitty45

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Yes - and they also call a silver a Black Silver. Brown tabbies range from a dark black-brown color to a warm honey brown color. But IMO they are all just Brown Tabbies.

You could have a Chocolate Tabby (which is brownish color).
 

esme

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oopsie, sorry, I misread your question
 
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allmycats

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I knew the pattern differences, just thrown for a loop by the "black" tabby!
But speaking of patterns, did not know classic was more common than mackerel! Is one more desirable than the other? Personally I like the classic better..just love those luxurious swirls and whorls!
If it's going to be mackerel, I'd rather a silver mackerel; if brown, I just prefer classic. Don't really know why the difference to me!
Just nit-picking really.
 

esme

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I'm so sorry Allmycats! I misread your question. You're right that the mackerel tabby is way more common than classic or patched tabbies and I've even seen it written as 'common mackerel tabby'.... I didn't catch the error until after you posted....super sorry for my fumble
 
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allmycats

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Originally Posted by Esme

I'm so sorry Allmycats! I misread your question. You're right that the mackerel tabby is way more common than classic or patched tabbies and I've even seen it written as 'common mackerel tabby'.... I didn't catch the error until after you posted....super sorry for my fumble
That's okay
Sometimes I read way too fast or answer before I finish reading! LOL!
Okay, I thought mack. was more common. It can be just as nice depending on the cat, but I feel there's nothing like a beautiful classic!
I am going to scan my old childhood cat pictures tonight. I found my old album!!! yay! I have pix of my coon-alike and others; My coon-alike was mackerel. A later DLH was brown classic and white. I've also had my share of black cats, both long and short hair. I've never had a pedigreed cat. I hope to change that....
Dunno when though!!! Now I'm rambling. Pix later!
 

goldenkitty45

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Actually (read recently) that this is the dominance order with the 4 tabby patterns:

1. Ticked (aby)
2. Mackerel and Spotted are about equal
3. Classic

So ticked is over all of them; the mackerel or spotted (that's why you get so many "broken" mackerels in mixes) over the classic.
 

abymummy

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IMO I don't really care one way or the other - classic or mac as long as the markings are clear!
 

ferriscat

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You mentioned you were looking at international catteries, which is where I suspect you're encountering the confusion with brown/black tabbies.

Different registries have different names for the same colors. For example, in CFA there are brown patched tabbies whereas TICA calls the same color torbie. FIFe will call this very same color a tortie-tabby. It's quite important to recognize the difference when researching pedigrees.

In FIFe, a black tabby is the same as a brown tabby in CFA and TICA. And a black silver tabby is a silver in the same way. The terminology has a lot to do with their color system

It can get confusing when registries do not all use the same terminology, but rest assured, you're not looking at a new color!
 
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allmycats

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Thank you for the additional info, Ferris! That's what I thought..that it must be a different way of recording color...still...a little confusing until you know for sure what they mean
Thanks so much for the clarification
 
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