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"Nortie tortie"

post #1 of 9
10/25/03 at 2:07am
Thread Starter 
Why is it that torties often have this "unruly" nature? I have been told by many breeders that my tortie girl is quite normal for a tortie, but she can be quite a handful! Her gran was also a tortie and was also quite a feisty cat. Is this feisty trait somehow linked to colour inheritence?
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post #2 of 9
10/27/03 at 7:05am
Here's an area that still needs a lot of research, but those trusty lab mice are starting to give us clues!
As I said, genes affect body biochemistry, so genes for color quite often influence other traits. And behavior is proving to be something that color genes can influence.
Behavior is very complex to study as it is influenced by genetics but also has a huge environmental influence, like learning from mom, littermates, hey, even people!
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post #3 of 9
10/27/03 at 11:59pm
Thread Starter 
All my persians have a wonderful laid back temperament, but my tortie girl is so feisty, just like her gran! I wondered what I did wrong raising this girl!
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post #4 of 9
10/29/03 at 6:19am
My torti girl is the alpha in our house!
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post #5 of 9
10/29/03 at 6:45am
Both Lil and Max have definite torti-tude. And I have met many other torti's, both dark and dilute, they all seem to know that they are Queens and Princesses.
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post #6 of 9
10/29/03 at 7:03am
Looks like we're gathering some good data here!!
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post #7 of 9
11/1/03 at 3:49am
Thread Starter 
.....and I just got two more tortie persians in my latest litter....

"Tortie-tude" - I love that saying! Never heard it before.
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post #8 of 9
11/1/03 at 7:00pm
We have three tortis in our house, all are quite different personalities but all are generally easy going. Charm even got her name from the effect she had on the cat that ruled the house at the time, a big (and older) tuxido male. Our bossiest cat at this time is a snowshoe/siamese girl. We have one big male (neutered) and none of the others try to push him around, but he's very easy going himself.

I spent a number of years volunteering at the local shelter and always seemed to find the tortis to be the biggest sweethearts (OK, maybe I'm biased, but they really did seem particularly sweet. Our youngest torti, Kaybe, came home because she is such a special sweetie and after 3 months her time was running out. She's one of the most laid back cats I've ever seen.)

George
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post #9 of 9
11/2/03 at 8:22am
I've seen torties of all kinds myself, but I must say I suspect torties and calicos do have certain character attributes... Some people call it a tendency towards aggression - I say our torbie girl is simply more assertive

On the other side...

I think scientifcally finding a corelation between coat color or pattern and temperament may prove to be quite a challenge. I think we're all biased to some extent and tend to view the same behavior pattern differently when it's a male or a female (yes even with cats ). I know I was guilty of doing the same. When our Mishmish was a young kitten - up to the age of 4 months - even the vet couldn't tell for sure if it was a boy or a girl. Diagnosis changed from time to time and we could actually note how we view her behavior pattern differently when we thought she was a boy. In a way, we sort of accepted and expected the more rough behavior from her as a male, and tended to notice it more (it stood out so to speak) when we thought she was a girl.

This got me thinking that maybe people take notice of rough/fiesty behavior in females more than they would have with male cats. With torties/calicos being almost exlusively females, I suspect that may be one reason why they got the tortie-tude reputation.

Just a thought....
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