Confused?

Sorry, but I've gotten myself confused on coloring. This can pertain to moggies & purebredsd, so I figured I'd post it here.

What is a what color/patterns fall into each category)
1)Torbie?
2)Tortoiseshell?
3)Calico?
4)Dilute Calico?
5)Dilute tortoiseshell?
6)Tuxedo?

I guess I thought of dilute calicos & dilute tortoiseshells as the same thing & labeled them as dilute calicos, I never knew there was a difference.

What got me thinking is....Damita is black with orange spots...a tortie...so would a grey cat with the same orange spots(instead of being black, the cat is grey) also be a tortie, or a dilute calico?

Damita is a tortie, there is your baseline.
Torties are black/orange blended, or brindled.
A grey cat like Damita should/would have cream or buff instead of orange and would be a dilute tortie.

A calico is large patches of the same colors with at least (I think?) 20% or 30% white.

Now take that cat and make the black blue and the orange cream and it's a dilute.

The next is simply my opinion.
A torbie is a tortie with very distinct striping.
And a patched tabby is a calico with patches of distinct tabby striping.

Tuxedo is a bicolor coat pattern that resembles a tuxedo, black body, legs, and tail with white bib, belly and socks (I call em spats), with or without white on the face.
Not all are black&white, but any bicolor in that distinctive pattern.

I agree with everything you said except the Torbie/patched Tabby. I am not going to say disagree because I don't even know for sure and it is just my opinion too. It just doesn't sound right but when I think of Patched Tabby I think a normal tabby cat with a very little bit of orangish here and there. When I think of a Torbie, this is when I get confused because the discription is the same as the Patched Tabby. So are they maybe two words for the same thing? Or are they two different things altogether? If either one has white on it how does that factor in? Can both have white on them too? How about some pictures from anyone?? Are patched Tabbys female like most calicos and torties are?

Where does dilute factor in here? are there dilute patched tabbies and torbies?

I am quoting GoldenKitty45 here from another post I just found here http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94773

"BTW in case anyone wants to know the difference between a torbie and a patched tabby.

Her kitty IS a brown patched tabby - its basically a brown tabby with red mixed in. A torbie would be a tortoiseshell cat with some striping. Can some of you now tell the difference?"

So now I just wonder how white factors in? A torbie is a tabby torti so what if there is white making it more calico with some striping mixed in? I notice on many calicos, the red color is striped. I believe that is normal because they cannot have a solid red color right? What is it is the black or gray part that is striped?

Is there a dilute Torbie? Is that possible?

The Amazing Dozen litter of MCC cats at Verisimo cattery has some excellent color pictures of Patched tabbies.

Click of their thumbnails on the right.
The Amazing Dozen

Originally Posted by Jen

I notice on many calicos, the red color is striped. I believe that is normal because they cannot have a solid red color right?

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Ruby is a calico and she has solid red patches. There is no striping on her body whatsoever. This whole tabby/tortie/torbie thing confuses the heck out of me, but I know a calico when I see one.

Not really striping, that may have been the wrong word. Splotches maybe? But in the red you will see a little darker splotches. I thought someone said solid red doesn't happen but the person I heard it from could be wrong.

Originally Posted by Jen

Not really striping, that may have been the wrong word. Splotches maybe? But in the red you will see a little darker splotches. I thought someone said solid red doesn't happen but the person I heard it from could be wrong.

Click to expand...

Now that I have more closely examined the subtle nuances of Ruby's red patches, I guess there is some variation in the color. Also, one of the bigger red patches has a once inch streak of white in it.

Originally Posted by laureen227

Java's a calico, & her larger red blotches have tabby striping. there's a great page here about the tricolor gene & its variations.

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That's very interesting stuff. I almost started drawing Punnet squares! Thanks for the link.

hey thanks that is a great link! and a very cute way of explaining it too.

Originally Posted by Arlyn

The Amazing Dozen litter of MCC cats at Verisimo cattery has some excellent color pictures of Patched tabbies.

Click of their thumbnails on the right.
The Amazing Dozen

Click to expand...

Those are some gorgeous cats!

And that second link, I loved the eggs and sperm.

1)Torbie - basically a tortoiseshell cat that has dark red striping in the red spots - has more of a pattern with the stripes. Also there is a "patched tabby" which is basically a brown, silver or blue tabby cat that has red color blended in.

2)Tortoiseshell - black/red intermingled - not patched or spotted but blended together.

3)Calico - a white cat that has patches or spots of black and red. Calicos should be at least 50% white, otherwise you'd call it tortie and white.

4)Dilute Calico - white cat that has patches of blue and cream.

5)Dilute tortoiseshell - blue and cream intermingled like a tortoiseshell.


I think the confusion on torbies/patched tabbies can be cleared up this way. Patched tabbies can only come in brown, blue or silver patched. There is no such thing as a "black" tabby - so a torbie would be black/red with the stripes.

6)Tuxedo - not a color. Technically its a bicolor cat. One solid color (black, blue, red, cream) and white. Ideally a bicolor should be 50/50 but it can range from almost all white with a little color (considered to be a "van" pattern) or color with white on the face, chest, feet/legs.

Many people call black/white cats "tuxedo" but that's not correct.


Also the red color can be solid but its hard to find. Red has a tough time of erasing the stripes. Longhair red cats appear more solid then a shorthair red. Except for the aby (which is not a true red, gene is different) I have NEVER seen a solid shorthair red - they all have various degrees of striping from pale to dark. The palest would be the closest to a solid red. I've seen a few calicos that had more of a solid looking red. And in my first litter of rex kittens I had a dark red classic tabby, a medium shade of mackeral tabby and a solid red (barely any striping).

Thanks all! Goldenkitty...I'll have to print your definitions out & study them until I can remember them!

Here are a couple of pics of different cats.
What color/pattern would this girl be defined as? Is this a patched tabby?

This pic isn't very good of this little girl, but what do you call her?


This is why I like white cats!

That's easy - top picture is a brown patched mackeral tabby with white. Bottom picture is a brown patched classic tabby.

Now you get a picture of a torbie and the difference will be pretty obvious.