Monetary Value of Male Calico's?

[/font]Hi all. I am new here but I already like this site! Just hoping to get educated a little here. While my kittens are still a bit young to be absolutely certain, I am pretty sure ( 99% sure) that I have ended up with a beautiful male Calico kitten!! Now a friend of mine has told me what some of his acqaintances have told him as far as what it is worth. I'm hoping that you folks can help me out here and give me a rough ball park sort of idea as to what this kitten would be worth. Any advise you can give would be greatly appreciated, THANX.

A calico is a description of a what a cat looks like, not a breed per so unless this calico is valued because he has a job or some other extrensic reason or he is of a certain breed, he is of no greater value than any other calico or any other marking - say totrishell. You did not mention what breed he is - if he is of a particular breed and has won championships in various cat shows, he may be of greater value in the cat world but I really do not know how those values come about. I do know ppl who "own" (not that I am sure anyone can "own" a cat but for legal purposes, of course they do) winners of verious shows - cat of the year for texample - or top Siamese - sometimes insure their cats. But even moggies who win the Best of Pet category are not necessarily valuable according to that evaluation method.

I am sure he is extremely valuable to you and that is what is important!!

I know I have a Show quality Siamese but her value (according to Cat Fanciers) decraesed the moment I had her spayed. I did not want to breed her or to show her. However, she is inordinately valuable and important to me!!

It's a myth that male calicos are worth any more than any other kittens.
First of all, they won't be any good as breeders because most are sterile.
And second of all, what would be the point of breeding moggie cats anyway?
It's not like there is a shortage.

Don't forget that calico doesn't always beget calico.
I've had calico kittens that came from a tabby dad and a black mom.
It's just a recessive, sex linked coloring gene

Since this is about the monetary value of a cat, I'll move this to the Breeder's Corner.

Boy I live in my own little world and would never think a mutt kitty would be priced higher cause of a pattern..lmao

While male calicos are rare (I've only seen 2 in person - 1 pedigree, 1 household pet), they are not worth any more then any other color/cat. In fact most are sterile. If they do breed, they will only breed one color - not two like female calicos.

If you see someone selling a "male calico" at a much higher price then normal for the breed you know they are trying to rip off the general public.

Male calicos are actually genetically defective - instead of the usual two X chromosomes (for a female) or one X and one Y (for a male), they have two X chromosomes and one Y chromosome. This condition occurs in other animals, too. In humans, it's called Klinefelter's syndrome. Affected individuals appear to be normal males at birth but they never mature sexually. They also usually have IQs at the low end of average. However, they are otherwise healthy and usually live pretty much normal lives. For a pet cat, for whom sexual maturity and IQ aren't important factors at all, he'll live a totally normal and happy life - but as nothing more or less than an ordinary pet.

The reason this genetic defect can give rise to male calico cats is because the genes for red and black (or equivalent) fur are found on the X chromosomes. For a cat to have both colors, the cat must have two X chromosomes. This means a normal female can have both colors but a normal male cannot.

Incidentally, this condition is not genetic and is analogous to Down syndrome. It occurs as a glitch when the egg or sperm is forming and one egg or sperm gets both chromosomes from a pair and the other gets none. This can happen in any chromosome but it can only happen in a couple of chromosomes and still produce viable offspring. Down syndrome happens when there are three chromosomes at the 21st pair in a human embryo. In the condition that can result in a male calico, there is an extra chromosome in the pair that determines the offspring's sex.

So in short, anyone who offers you a lot of $ for a male calico is someone to be very, very leery of. Likely they want nothing more than to be able to parade him around as some sort of sideshow. Your cat deserves to just have a normal life as your companion, just like any cat deserves.