My orange cat doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. Actually, not only does he not have a mean bone in his body, he doesn’t really have any self preservation either. Even when pushed past his annoyance limit, he won’t retaliate. Case in point: my cousin’s kid came over once and was giving him nice strokes until the little devil decided it’d be fun to grab a handful of fur. The cat yelped and whipped his head around, but rather than bite or move away, he just gave us a pained look. Sometimes when I’m teasing him, he’ll start licking my hand to say “That’s enough.” It’s like he’s trying to tell me he has a mouth and there’s teeth in his mouth, but he and I both know he won’t use it.
That’s just my orange tabby though. My sister’s orange tabby isn’t exactly mean, but he’s very high maintenance. He hates it when I look in his eyes… his devil-like orange glowing eyes.
I have a male orange cat and he is the nicest cat you could ask for. He flops over on his back so you can rub his tummy, comes when called, and will be on your lap the second you sit or lay down. I actually first heard the “orange boys are nice” theory from my vet: he said that in his experience large (over 12 lbs) orange domestic shorthair males were generally the nicest, friendliest cats you could find. But he admitted to having 2 of them, so I’d hardly call his opinion unbiased.
This sounds exactly like our orange/white guy. He was a rescue cat from a nearby RSPCA. We took him in to be desexed (normally the RSPCA does this but we got him from a rural area and they didn’t have the facilities so they provided a voucher) and the vet staff all wanted to keep him he was so friendly to everyone.
As I mentioned in an earlier thread on a very similar topic, research with French ferals by Pontier seems to show both increased average body size ( and actually greater gender dimorphism with orange females being smaller than average ) and increased average aggression with orange males. This results in differential breeding success relative to other colors under certain circumstances relating to population density. Basically they out compete other cats where pop. density is low enough for them to monopolize mates with their greater bulk and aggression, but get out competed themselves in areas of high density because their aggression works against them ( they spend more time fighting than screwing, but can’t exclude other males due to sheer numbers ). This also has implications for disease in feral populations.
But this is with ferals. With hand-reared pets this assertiveness may translate into more overt friendliness on average.
Honestly, I didn’t use to believe the whole idea that there could be a link between a cat’s coloring and their personality. It seemed ridiculous to me. But over the years, I have been proven wrong over and over and over again. At one point I had 5 orange male tabbies. Two were brothers but the other three weren’t related. Every single one of them was a lover and wanted nothing more than for me to hold and snuggle them. When I was working in the vet field, I’d say nearly every male orange tabby I encountered was the sweetest thing. I have noticed that female orange tabbies are much more uncommon and MUCH less sweet. They didn’t seem to pick up that lovey dovey gene. Right now, I have 2 orange males and 1 orange and white male. The two oranges are just like I expected but the other one is a bit less unpredictable. He does like to be petted but does not put up with the more intense cuddle sessions like his buddies.
Short version, there’s little evidence that there’s an actual correlation between coloring and personality, but people very strongly believe it’s there. Apparently there’s a huge bias against black cats, too. Which makes me sad because my boy (solid black) is the most affectionate cat you’ve ever seen.
The study was regarding how cat color influences adoption rates; it didn’t and couldn’t conclude anything about an actual correlation between coloring and personality. The lead author of the study said that “there is little evidence that these perceived differences between differently colored cats actually exist”, but that could just mean little or no studies looking for those correlations were ever done, not necessarily that any studies found evidence to the contrary.
I’ve had 3 cats in my life time. The female orange tabby could be rather mean. The pure gray male was slightly neurotic.
My current 12 pound short haired orange/white male cat is extremely friendly and vocal. He has big round green eyes. Everyone who meets him comments on his beauty and friendliness.
I have had, probably, 25-30 cats over the years. The three orange males (one is still living) were/are the smartest, friendliest, most congenial of all the cats.
Two long haired tuxedo females were complete opposites of each other. In fact, one was the sweetest cat ever, so when I found another long haired tuxedo female, I took her home, and she has turned out to be a bitch-on-wheels from day one. I’ve had her for 13 years and she will still swat at me (and draw blood).
Currently I have a new black female kitten who is a hellion and is making the sweet orange boy go and hide during the day. He has scars and scabs all over his face where she has scratched him. Even he can’t win her over.
Though personally I think it’s far more likely that temperament has no actual correlation to coat color. There are WAY too many variables involved in personality to think that any substantial amount of them are genetically tied to the color genes. More likely it’s a combination of confirmation bias and cultural associations with colors.
You said that they did a study on this and then commented on what the short version is. That infers you are giving a short version of what the results of the study are. The study did not show that " there’s little evidence that there’s an actual correlation between coloring and personality."
It appears there is some evidence other than anecdotal that there is a correlation between coat color and behavior.
Dude, I literally quoted the article word-for-word, there. I’m not sure what else you want.
I never said the study was about proving a correlation between color and personality. I said that there was “little evidence” of that, YET PEOPLE BELIEVED IT TO BE TRUE. Which is what the article says. Not sure why that’s so hard.
I don’t want anything; I’m explaining to you why your post is misleading to say the least. You said you were giving the short version of a study. You didn’t. What you did was give one statement that came from outside of that study.
That’s exactly what one would believe your message was. You said they did a study on this and said the short version is: “There’s little evidence that there’s an actual correlation between coloring and personality…”
I don’t know why you insist on chopping off the end of that sentence as if it wasn’t relevant to the point I was making. Here’s a hint: it was. I wouldn’t have typed it otherwise.
I was not misleading if you read the entire sentence, with context.
It was misleading to say the least. A short version of that study should not include anything about there being little evidence that there’s an actual correlation between coloring and personality as that was never concluded in the study nor was it even mentioned in the study.
Seriously? Your interpretation of what I said is… interesting, to say the least. If ya wanna parse it selectively, I can’t stop ya. I’ve already pointed out which clause of the sentence contained my point.
