# You can tell a lot by a cat's coloring. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 16, 2002, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-tell-a-lot-by-a-cats-coloring/143138 "2002-12-16T19:07:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-tell-a-lot-by-a-cats-coloring/143138/1 "2002-12-16T19:07:53Z")
Plunkette is a tiger-striped cat. Someone argued that he’s a tabby. I always considered a tabby to be a female cat-- coloring had nothing to do with it. Searching the internet on “cat coloring” I found a few cat fancier sites that claim 1)White cats with blue eyes are deaf and 2)Tortoiseshell cats are female. Is this true? If so, why would this be? ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-tell-a-lot-by-a-cats-coloring/143138/2 "2002-12-16T19:20:41Z")
White cats with blue eyes are indeed deaf. My old cat Tink (a girlfriend got her in a breakup) is the sweetest cat who ever lived, and is deaf as a doorpost. Calicos and tortoiseshells are almost always female, because the traits for orange and black have to appear on each X chromosome respectively. If you see a male calico, it’s a genetic aberration, like an XXY. There was some speculation that more crimes are committed by these types of cats, but no conclusive studies have confirmed this. ---
**Author:** ![SC\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@SC\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SC_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-tell-a-lot-by-a-cats-coloring/143138/3 "2002-12-16T19:23:00Z")
It comes down to genetics. The gene that results in calico coloring for example, is recessive and on the X-chromosome. You need two X-Chromosomes with that gene for calico traits to express, so when you see a calico, it’s a female (or the ocasional rare mutant). ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-tell-a-lot-by-a-cats-coloring/143138/4 "2002-12-16T19:25:43Z")
In the same vein, aren’t orange cats almost always male? I consider tiger striped cats to be tabby regardless of sex. I have a white cat with blue eyes, however he has developed very faint flame points, he’s not deaf. I have heard that when you see a white cat with one blue and one green or yellow eye (mis-matched eyes) the cat will be deaf on the blue eyed side, only in that ear. ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-tell-a-lot-by-a-cats-coloring/143138/5 "2002-12-16T19:29:43Z")
[Feline Genetics](http://www.netpets.com/cats/reference/genetics/catgenetics4.html), wherein the whys and wherefores of various colorings of cats are detailed. [Another one on cat colors](http://home.earthlink.net/~featherland/off/white.html), with particular attention to white. > [@](#): > > Can there be bad effects from stopping the parade of pigment forming cells prematurely? Yes, and this is what leads to deafness in some white cats and (very rarely) in “van” bicolors as well. As I stated earlier, these marching neural crest cells have more than one function to perform. Another type of cell can be formed from these neural crest cells that is essential for sound hearing. That is why deafness is most common in blue eyed white cats and when it occurs in vans, only in those with VERY little color. [And yet another](http://www.fanciers.com/other-faqs/color-genetics.html), for good measure. > [@](#): > > Deafness in white cats is associated with the white spotting factor (S), and with the dominant white (W), but not with the albino white (c/c or ca/ca). ---
**Author:** ![Bullwinkle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@Bullwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullwinkle)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-tell-a-lot-by-a-cats-coloring/143138/6 "2002-12-16T19:52:35Z")
This is sort of a hijack but it fits with the thread title. Having grown up in a ‘cat family’ I’ve personally known dozens of cats. I’ve never met a yellow tiger-stripe cat who wasn’t a sweetheart, and I’ve never known a black and white cat who wasn’t a paraniod schizophrenic. ---
**Author:** ![Bullwinkle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@Bullwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullwinkle)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-tell-a-lot-by-a-cats-coloring/143138/7 "2002-12-16T19:54:17Z")
“paraniod” is an extremely rare psychiatric condition, similar to “paranoid” but for the spelling. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-tell-a-lot-by-a-cats-coloring/143138/8 "2002-12-16T20:21:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bullwinkle \* > \*\*This is sort of a hijack but it fits with the thread title. > > Having grown up in a ‘cat family’ I’ve personally known dozens of cats. > > I’ve never met a yellow tiger-stripe cat who wasn’t a sweetheart, and I’ve never known a black and white cat who wasn’t a paraniod schizophrenic. \*\* My Stupid (who passed away last year at 17 or so) was a black and white-- black with white mittens and breast-- who was the sweetest, lovingest cat ever. Plunkette-- the aforementioned tiger-striped-- is a little bastard who doesn’t like to get petted and growls if you look at him funny. See, I thought cat coloring depended on conditions in the womb. That cloned cat that made the news recently looked nothing like it’s, um, predecessor even though genetic testing proved it to be a clone. What gives? ---
**Author:** ![SC\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@SC\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SC_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-tell-a-lot-by-a-cats-coloring/143138/9 "2002-12-16T20:53:26Z")
It gets kind of technical, but here’s a decent [webpage](http://schneider.ewald.bei.t-online.de/calico/calicoeng.html) that describes it. Here’s an excerpt: > [@](#): > > Both X chromosomes in the female cell (one from the father, the other one from the mother) are necessary during the embryonic development, at least up to the point in time when gender will be defined. Afterwards the assembly process does no longer need information from both X chromosomes because gender is already defined and each X chromosome keeps the full information for the assembly process. Therefore, from now on one of the X chromosomes will be inactive (Barr-body4 ), because the additional information is no longer required. In some cells the X chromosome passed on by the mother will be inactive, in other cells the one which was inherited by the father. The X chromosomes which will be inactive are chosen by chance. From this point on two different cell lines will be established. One cell line contains the activated X chromosome from the father’s side and the other cell line from the mother’s side. Both cell lines will reproduce themselves, which means growth. During the growth process the pattern of orange and black patches will be visible and their colour can be tracked back to the cell line which originates in each case to the mother’s or father’s not inactive X chromosomes, whose orange genes keep the colour information orange or not orange. While the cloned kitten (named copycat of all things) had the same DNA as her mother, The process where the genetic information on one of the X chromosomes “shuts off” is still determined by random chance. Other things can affect the expression of traits. The fur on a siamese cat is genetically coded to produce a dark pigment, but only below a certain temperature. Above that temperature, it produces a light pigment. This is why siamese coloring is dark on the extremities (feet, tail, face, and eartips) and light everywhere else. It’s also why they’re born mostly light and grow into their fur pattern, kittens run hotter, and being smaller, the heat travels further into the extremities. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-tell-a-lot-by-a-cats-coloring/143138/10 "2002-12-16T21:57:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Biggirl \* > \*\*I always considered a tabby to be a female cat-- coloring had nothing to do with it. \*\* I think the actual question was answered pretty well above, but BTW tabby refers to coat markings only and has nothing to do with sex. There is an excellent treatment of this topic in _The Book of the Cat_, Michael Wright and Sally Waters, ed., 1980, with about 750 words, plus photos and illustrations, on the color of tabbies. ---
**Author:** ![ceyjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@ceyjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ceyjen)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-tell-a-lot-by-a-cats-coloring/143138/11 "2002-12-16T23:08:49Z")
Here’s another funky little fact: IF, by some strange mutation, a tortoise-shell cat happens to be male, it will most likely be sterile. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-tell-a-lot-by-a-cats-coloring/143138/12 "2002-12-16T23:31:26Z")
I’m currently taking care of my girlfriend’s cat, who is white with one blue eye and one green eye. Maybe she’s only deaf in one ear. I’ll have to check. ---
**Author:** ![edwino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@edwino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwino)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-tell-a-lot-by-a-cats-coloring/143138/13 "2002-12-17T00:17:17Z")
A geneticist checks in with another interesting cat coloring tidbit. Himalayan and Siamese cat coloration is due to a heat-sensitive mutation in the tyrosinase pigment gene. Tyrosinase is the enzyme responsible for metabolizing the enzyme tyrosine into dark pigment (melanin). In Himalayans and Siamese (as well as the Himalayan mouse), there is a mutation in the gene which causes it to stop functioning at body temperature. So, the warmest parts of the cat are the palest. The enzyme only really functions on the cooler parts of the cat – the nose, the tips of the ears, the feet, and the tail. These parts turn black, hence the coloration. ---
**Author:** ![SC\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@SC\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SC_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-tell-a-lot-by-a-cats-coloring/143138/14 "2002-12-17T00:26:23Z")
And because Siamese coloring is dependent on temperature, if you shave a pale patch of fur and then engineer a way to keep that spot artificially cold (icepacks perhaps) while the fur grows back in, it will grow back in dark. Not to mention annoy the cat, so don’t try this at home. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-tell-a-lot-by-a-cats-coloring/143138/15 "2002-12-17T00:40:11Z")
My cat doesn’t color because it can’t hold the crayons without opposable thumbs. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-tell-a-lot-by-a-cats-coloring/143138/16 "2002-12-17T01:08:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Boscibo \* > **In the same vein, aren’t orange cats almost always male? I consider tiger striped cats to be tabby regardless of sex.** Indeed. In fact, we have a rareity-a female orange tabby, Buffy. Only one in four hundred orange tabbies will be female. So, my Buffy is pretty unique. As for white cats with only one blue eye-no, they aren’t generally partially deaf. Our Noel has one brown eye and one blue eye and hears just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-tell-a-lot-by-a-cats-coloring/143138/17 "2002-12-17T02:05:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SC\_Wolf \* > \*\*And because Siamese coloring is dependent on temperature, if you shave a pale patch of fur and then engineer a way to keep that spot artificially cold (icepacks perhaps) while the fur grows back in, it will grow back in dark. Not to mention annoy the cat, so don’t try this at home. \*\* And if a Siamese cat has to have a cast or bandage on a limb, the fur will grow in light colored, because the cast holds in the heat. “Himalayan” also refers to a rabbit coat pattern. Robert A. Heinlein used to refer to female cats as tabbies, and you’d think that he’d have known better, as he had Persians. I believe that he bred them, as well. Ask Fenris. But the proper term for an adult female unspayed cat is “queen”, and for an adult male unneutered cat is “tom”. However, my adult spayed cat STILL thinks she’s Queen…of this house, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-tell-a-lot-by-a-cats-coloring/143138/18 "2002-12-17T02:39:53Z")
Now I’m all confused— if having a gene doesn’t mean as much to physical developement as does how (and if) these genes are expressed, what good is a clone? Green eyed white cats are not deaf because their whiteness is not caused by supressing that color gene that also helps you hear? Are orange calicos always male or always female? (Tortoiseshells are almost always female-- or a mutant male. Right?) ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-tell-a-lot-by-a-cats-coloring/143138/19 "2002-12-17T02:48:40Z")
I also have a white cat with one blue eye and one green eye. He’s not deaf at all. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-tell-a-lot-by-a-cats-coloring/143138/20 "2002-12-17T02:51:33Z")
Tortoise shells and calicos always female, if they are male they are a mutational aberration and with decreased fertility (or high sterlity). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-tell-a-lot-by-a-cats-coloring/143138.md?page=2)