I read Mary Ann's very interesting article on calicos and was wondering if there was truth to the rumor that the rare (xxy chromosomed) male calico is sterile? Does anyone know if this is true or not? Thanks.
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Are male calico's sterile?
- Thread starter stephenq
- Start Date
Basically, yes. However, I believe it is 1 in 1000 is not. Interesting someone on another board recently was talking about her Mom's calico that was a hermaphrodite. It had to be both spayed and neutered. However, I imagine that is pretty rare! -kd
In most cases yes they are sterile - I know of only one male calico that can breed successfully. The thing is that if he can bred you will not get the mix of colors like a normal female calico.
The male will genetically only carry one color (either a black or a red gene) even tho he shows both colors in the coat.
A breeding maile would have to be bred to both a black female and a red female to determine which color he does carry. If he's bred to a black female and you only get black kittens and no torties you know he's a black carrier - and vice versa with the red. If you do get a tortie, then the male is the opposite color of the female he was bred with.
The male will genetically only carry one color (either a black or a red gene) even tho he shows both colors in the coat.
A breeding maile would have to be bred to both a black female and a red female to determine which color he does carry. If he's bred to a black female and you only get black kittens and no torties you know he's a black carrier - and vice versa with the red. If you do get a tortie, then the male is the opposite color of the female he was bred with.
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- #4
Fascinating, thanks!
If it's a XXY-male he should be sterile but there are other options to. He can be XXYY and then he can be fertile and another option is him being a "false tortie" which means the male is genetically red and the black color is actuarally very, very concentrated red pigment that appears to be black.
Did you know about the Dutch Birman Dar es salaam's Varsha ? One of his sealtabby grandsons beat my little guy dEUS for the BIV in dEUS' first show.
http://www.voordetover.nl/dar-es-sal...78P1000526.JPG
I do know he passes on seal, don't know if he passes on red too.
The one I knew of was a male calico cornish rex. The one you are talking about needs to be bred to each female color to really find out what he is throwing.
My gosh...how do you all ever figure all of this genetic stuff out??? I`m amazed!
Linda
Linda
Well, you shouldn't try it in the middle of the night like I did last night, LOL.
I said the cat I know about passes on seal, but forgot that it's the mother who determines whether a tom is black or red. This cat throws red.
Nice site about tortie toms:
http://tortietom.nidoba.nl/tortiete.html
I had a calico cat that was a hermaphrodite as well..she/he had 2 litters of kittens then we took she/he to the vet and the vet came out and said "I really don't know how to tell you this but we had to spay/neuter your cat" My mom just about freaked out!!
I worked with a temp last summer who had a hermaphrodite cat, but I bellieve he was gray (I know he wasn't calico)
At least those cats really cannot get themselves pregnant - at least not naturally
