Nobody knows the true origins of the Calico cat. Moreover, these lovely kitties come in different shapes, personalities and eye colors. Why in the UK and Japan?īecause according to local folklore, they have a bunch of supernatural powers that benefit their owners in various ways. What’s more, they’re quite famous and highly valued in different parts of the world, especially in Japan and the UK. For starters, owning one of these tri-color kitties is just like owning three different cats merged into one. Venus the Two-Faced Cat is not calico, per se, but she is a Chimera, a result of an in-utero fusion of two embryos-black and orange.Calico cats are fascinating creatures for many reasons.
So, in this case, a male calico cat would have a mixture of XY and XX cells. Thirdly, a male calico cat is possible in the occurrence of chimerism, which is the merging of two different embryos. Kari Ekenstedt, Assistant Professor of Anatomy and Genetics, argues that this is how most male calico cats get their tri-color coat. Ultimately, we will have a male calico kitten. This mutation can then trigger mutation in the X chromosomes of other cells. For instance, a male cat, carrying an orange color gene on the X chromosome experiences mutation, thus switching color in the X chromosome. Secondly, we can have a male calico cat if a mutation occurs in the X chromosome of male kitten’s cells during the embryo development phase. This sterility of male calico cats makes them unpopular among breeders, despite male calico cats being the rarest of all the rare cat breeds. With the XXY combination, Male calico cats are sterile as they have malformed sexual organs. If one of the two X chromosomes is carrying a gene for orange color and the other for black, you will have a male calico cat. Such males meet the basic condition for a calico pattern. Cats with Klinefelter Syndrome have two X chromosomes and a Y chromosome, making XXY male. This phenomenon can happen in cats as well as humans. Male calico cats can occur in three scenarios.įirst, we can have a male calico kitten in the case of Klinefelter Syndrome. So, let’s unravel what accounts for that unicorn. But we also discussed that 1 in 3000 calico cats is a male calico cat. Why Is It Unusual For Calico Cats to Be Male?įrom the above discussion, it has become obvious that a normal male (XY) cat cannot have a calico pattern. So it would be atypical for a calico cat to be male. However, as normal male (XY) cats can receive input from only their mothers, they can only have either black or orange color genes. So if a female kitten receives an X chromosome from the Queen carrying a gene for orange color and a gene for black color from their male parent, they would have the calico pattern, according to the Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine. Where females can receive input for coat color from both of their parents, males can only receive it from their female parents. Normal female is XX, and normal males are XY. White is unrelated to the X and Y chromosome, so both males and females can be white. In cats, the X chromosome carries the color-determining gene, and for a kitten to be calico, she needs to inherit two color-determining genes-one of the manifestations of orange and the other for black color-one from each parent. That is, how calico cats get their tri-color coat. To understand why is it unusual for calico cats to be male, we have to first understand calico cat genetics. Calico cats not only have interesting coats, but there are also many interesting calico cat facts that make these tri-color cats even more endearing. There are 19 calico cat breeds-cats breeds that can have calico patterns-according to CFA. If you have any misconceptions or confusions about calico cats, you should continue reading as we are going to discuss it all: Are all calico cats female? Can calico cats be male? How rare are male calico cats? Why is it unusual for calico cats to be male? What is a Calico Cat?Ĭalico is not a specific cat breed but any cat that has a tri-color coat, with white as the base color and orange black dispersed on their fur in different patterns. Male calico cats do exist, but they are quite rare-only one in 3000 calico cats are male.īecause of the rarity of the male calico cats, many wrongly believe that calico cats are always female. No doubt, calico cats are almost exclusively females, but a male calico cat is not an impossibility. Have you ever seen a male calico cat? Probably not, because male calico cats are the unicorn of the feline world.
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