Is my cat calico?

ichikuro

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my cat is male white bellied with a black back and he has orange cheeks don't have a picture but maybe someone could still tell me if he qualifies?
 

Willowy

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Sometimes it's just an orange-y brown instead of true red. We'd really need a picture to say for sure.
 

maewkaew

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 There is no way to tell you for sure from the description.  People describe colors and patterns differently,   and sometimes  cats with black based color,  especially brown tabbies ( which are really genetically black tabbies ,  so their darkest markings are black)  have some orangish color  due to rufous polygenes.   but it's not actually coming from the red gene like  a Tortoiseshell .  ( A Calico is a name used in North America for a   kind of Tortoiseshell and White pattern )    A Tortoiseshell cat has to have both  red-based color and  black-based color.     Of course a Tortie and White  ( including Calicos)  has both of those plus white patches.   

 It's very very unusual for a male cat to be a tortie or calico .  but it does happen  occasionally.    If you could take some pictures in good light that accurately show his color,  and post them,   we can at least say if it looks like he has that pattern.   

Now  I am curious,  so I hope you can do that!  
 

nullentropy

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Not true
,   It's EXTREMELY rare, but my understand is that 1 in 1000 can be male (or something like that)

So...almost true
Genetically it's not possible unless the cat is XXY, which is possible, yet very rare. XXY is /not/ male, it's hermaphroditic.
 
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