


In the United States, cats with such color combination are referred to as ‘money cats’. Hence, for these reasons and their striking color pattern, many cat lovers have them as their pets. The Japanese sailors often carry Calico cats in their voyage, believing that the cats will protect them while at sea. As per the folklore of some cultures, Calico and Tortoiseshell cats are believed to bring luck to the owner. If proper training is provided in the kitten stage, they make good companions. Unlike the usual Calico coat combination (white, black and orange), if the coat color of a cat has patches of white, blue and cream, then the cat is known as muted Calico.Ĭalico and Tortoiseshell cats, due to their independent and quirky nature, make wonderful pets and are fun to be around. The studied male calico cat had normally descended testicles that had some fertile seminiferous tubules.īesides, there is a rarest fertile male calico cat named Dawntreader Texas Calboy, who has fathered many kittens for the Dawntreader Maine Coon breeders.Calico cats were announced as an official state cat by the state of Maryland on October 1, 2001, due to their distinctive color combination of white, black and orange, which is similar to the state bird (Baltimore Orion) and state insect (Baltimore Checker-spot butterfly). While male calico cats are undoubtedly are sterile, a scientific study of a male calico cat gives hope for the fertility of male calico cats. 8. There Is Some Possibility of Fertile Male Calico Cats A cat with this coat pattern has two X chromosomes and so most calicos will have a uterus too The lone exceptions to these rules involve animals carrying three sexed genes (Stelow et al., 2016). However, a healthy diet, daily exercise, and regular vet checkups can help your calico cat live a longer and happier life. It’s true that the majority of calico cats are female, but in rare instances they can be male.

For any animal to be female, she has to inherit an X chromosome from her father in addition to the X chromosome she automatically gets from her mother.
#Calico cat female code#
Not only sterile, but male calico cats are also susceptible to a series of genetic abnormalities and unfortunately do not live as long as their female counterparts. This is because the genes that code for the calico color pattern are carried on the female, or X, sex chromosome. Because of the sterility of male calico cats, they are unpopular among cat breeders despite their rarity. That is why they cannot be bred to produce calico kittens. It is widely believed that rare male calico cats are sterile as they have malformed sexual organs. White, unlike black and orange, is not found in X or Y chromosomes. The colours black and orange are only found inside of X chromosomes, however, only one colour is usually expressed when a cat is born. Calico Cats Are Almost Exclusively Female Just like humans, female cats have two X chromosomes and males have one X and one Y. Below we have listed the calico cat variations. While most calico cats have intense and bright colors, there can be many variations of calico cats. Male calicos are more expensive compared to females because only one out of 3,000 calicos is male and it is likely to be sterile. Calicos are costlier compared to other cats since they are rare and have unique genetics. Thus they are often called “orange black and white cats.”Ĭomprising around 25 to 75% of the coat colors, white acts as the base color, while black and orange are scattered in irregular patterns on their fur. Female calico cats cost around 400 to 500 while male calicos cost around 1,000 up to 2,000 because they are very rare. To get a calico kitten, the calico mother will have to pass her awesome tri-color genes. In fact, oftentimes, you will get a mixture of differently-colored cats. The resulting litter may not all have the calico pattern. The characteristic calico cat is commonly composed of three colors-white, orange, and black. Since male calicos are sterile, female calicos are bred with other cat breeds to produce offspring.
