True that males are always two colors?

I heard that male cats are always two colors, and female cats are always multiple colors. Is this true?
It held for my two kittens; Riley boy is grey and white, Kitty girl was a blend of browns, greys, and black.

Definitely not true. Males and females both can be solid colors, tabbies, or either of the above with white. It is true that only females can be three colors (tortise shell or tortie), accepting a few males that are severe genetic freaks.

Maybe a better way to phrase it would be:

"male cats cannot be more than two colors and female cats cannot be more than three colors".

My proof that they don't HAVE to be two or three colors is my solid black male kitten and my solid orange female cat.

~Julia

Thanks for the answer and clarification, Catfur and jlutgendorf. Now I know that kit cats can be solid colors, blends, or either with white. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Catfur

Definitely not true. Males and females both can be solid colors, tabbies, or either of the above with white. It is true that only females can be three colors (tortise shell or tortie), accepting a few males that are severe genetic freaks.

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Maybe I don't understand what you mean, but I have a male cat. He is a grey tabby cat. He has grey, black, white and a brown/orangish color. The orangish color seems to slowly replacing most of the white on his tummy and feet.

Is that not more then two colors?

No, it's not. The grey/black is just tabby. They are both just the "black" color, it's just a matter of him having the tabby gene. Without the tabby gene, he would be black.

There's basically only three colors: black, red, white. Then there are genes that flip these colors to lighter shades or make tabby striping.

As far as the brown on your cat, I know some black cats will kind of tarnish as they get older. My black female has this, she has brown/red tones in the sunlight that she didn't have as a kitten. However, I've not heard of this happening in the WHITE fur. You're sure he doesn't need a bath?

Well, here is a picture of Lynx, the king of our house.



He was about 4-5 months old when this was taken last February. If you look at his hind leg you can see the color I'm talking about. Now his whole tummy is that color, except for the black spots. I didn't realize it was an unusual thing. About the only white he has left is under his chin.

As you can see in my siggy - Harley is black, light brown and only has a little white under his chin as well

Your cat is very cute!

Thank you. He is a handful! Harley is a cutie too! I guess I never thought of grey as being the same color as black, just a different shade.

Thank you KatKisses. That explained a lot!