Hi everybody, Kissy here! I’m really excited because this week I get to have the whole column all to myself! As you can see from my photo, I’m an orange tabby cat (which Mama sometimes calls a “marmalade cat”) … and a quite beautiful one at that, I might add.
When Mama adopted me and showed my pictures to the world, lots of people remarked on how rare orange female cats are. Mama says she’s seen quite a few orange girl cats, so together, we set out for some answers. We interviewed Dee Walter Kruleski, a professor of biology at HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, who told us the facts about female orange cats and lots of other cool facts about cat fur color inheritance. So, without further ado, let’s get on with it.
Kissy: I’ve heard that female orange cats are very rare. Why is this?
Dee: Well, it’s not that orange female cats are rare, it is simply that an orange cat is more likely to be a male. For a female cat to be orange, she must inherit two orange genes — one from her mother (orange, calico, or tortoiseshell) and one from her father (who must be orange). A male cat needs only one orange gene, which he gets from his mother (orange, calico, or tortoiseshell). This is because the gene that codes for orange fur is on the X chromosome, and like humans, females have two Xs and males are XY. Genes on the X chromosome are said to be sex-linked.
Here I am striking an elegant pose. Photo copyright © JaneA Kelley, all rights reserved
Kissy: Wow, so that means my father for sure was an orange cat. How cool is that? Is the same thing true for orange tabby (marmalade) cats? Mama says she’s seen a lot of female orange tabbies.
Dee: Yes, although the striping pattern is coded for by a completely different gene.
Kissy: Why is it super-rare to see a male calico cat?
Dee: Because in order for a male to be a calico, he must have the feline equivalent of Kleinfelter Syndrome and he is an XXY male. Because a calico male has an extra X chromosome, he is most likely sterile (cannot father kittens).
Kissy: Can you explain a little bit about how fur color inheritance works in calico/tortoiseshell and orange cats?
Dee: Well, orange fur is due to what is known as dominant epistasis. It actually changes black pigment into orange! This is an example of gene interaction — where one gene changes the expression of another.
Calico or tortoiseshell coloration is the result of something called X-inactivation (also known as dosage compensation). Female mammals (including humans) have one X in every cell inactivated (shut down) as an embryo. In approximately half the cells, the paternal X (one from the father) is expressed, and the other half of the cells the maternal X is expressed. So when you look at a calico cat, where you see black fur –that came from one parent and where you see orange fur, that came from the other parent. Thus all female mammals are genetic mosaics!
Mama says I'm being a ham. I'd like to EAT a ham! Photo copyright © JaneA Kelley, all rights reserved
Kissy: Wow, that’s amazing. And complicated! How many genes are involved in determining a cat’s fur color?
Dee: Many! Here are a few of them:
- Agouti vs. non-agouti: Provides the lighter fur background with striped cats.
- Black vs. non-black
- Color deposition: Determines how pigment is deposited, and also affects eye color.
- Dilute vs. non-dilute: Gray is a diluted form of black and tan/beige is a diluted form of orange.
- Spotting: If two dominant genes are inherited, a cat will have white on more than 50% of their body. If a cat has one dominant and one recessive gene, then the cat will have white fur on less than 50% of their body. If she gets two recessive genes, there will be no white on the body!
- White vs. non-white: Just one white gene and the whole cat will be white! It is called a masking gene. A white cat could have the genetics to be a calico, black or any color cat but the white gene hides the other genes’ expression and the cat appears all white. White cats are not albinos unless they have red eyes. Albino cats are extremely rare and albinism is the result of color deposition and not the white gene.
- There are also genes for tabby stripping, silver tipping and seal-pointing.
This is my new favorite spot -- and you might be able to catch a glimpse of my "tail light." Photo © JaneA Kelley, all rights reserved
Kissy: Wow, that’s cool. I must have one dominant and one recessive spotting gene because I’ve got a little white spot on the end of my tail, and that’s all the white fur I’ve got. Anyway, Mama says some purebred cats are more likely to inherit certain illnesses. Are there any kinds of inherited illnesses or problems that tend to occur more in orange or calico/tortie cats than in the general cat population?
Dee: Not to my knowledge.
Kissy: Are there other sex-linked inheritance traits in cats (other than the obvious plumbing and hormone stuff)?
Dee: Many! Believe it or not, most genes on the X chromosome have nothing to do with sex but how the cells in the body work. Fortunately, there are few sex-linked genetic disorders known to occur cats.
Kissy: Any other cool stuff you want to tell me about orange cats, calico cats and sex-linked inheritance?
Dee: I think it really cool that cat coat color is used in virtually every biology and genetics textbook to illustrate X-inactivation and sex linkage. My students must solve genetics problems, and predicting the appearance of kittens is fun!
Kissy: One last thing: Mama says you run a cat sanctuary. Would you like to say more about that?
Dee: Shawnee Om Shanti Sanctuary is a living memorial to my daughter and only child, Shawnee, who died unexpectedly in 2001. It started with me feeding feral and dumped cats in the woods where I used to live. I gradually had shelters built for them, trapped and had them spayed/neutered and vaccinated. Last year I was forced to move, so we built the cats a swell two-story house, complete with a play yard and fenced to keep them safe. We are continuing to work on it — the “Cat House” has electricity, is insulated and has heat and fans. Soon we will be adding a big porch to the cat house! I hope to post videos of the sanctuary on YouTube in the near future. We are located in South-central Pennsylvania.
*YAWWWWN* Wow, I'm tired from all that science -- but Mama and I both think science rocks! Photo copyright © JaneA Kelley, all rights reserved
I really enjoyed our interview Kissy! And you have GREAT genetics as you are a most beautiful kitty!
*purrrrrrr* Thank you, Dee! Mama and I sure do appreciate your taking the time to answer readers’ questions. You should see the comments on our Facebook page, too — apparently our talk has set to rest some concerns a reader had about the lifespan of her ginger tabby … and you even shared a couple of things that a vet didn’t know! :-)
Very interesting Kissy, and I would love to see pictures of that two-story cat house. Maybe in a future post?
Dee said that she’ll share some videos of the place on YouTube, and when she does we’ll definitely share them here and on our Facebook page.
Great post! One of our daddy cats was orange, and we had orange kittens, many girls, as the moms were either calico, tortie or brown patched tabby, therefore all carrying the orange gene too…and that makes one from each parent. Your explanation is understandable to ‘lay people’ too, which is nice as so many genetics books are way complicated!
*purrr* Dee must be a great professor, too, because it takes a great teacher to help people understand complex stuff like genetics.
wow – thanks for the info.
Mama and I were delighted to write this article because we learned a lot of cool stuff, too.
And here I thought ginger cats rocked because we were linked to the king of the jungle. Now you’ve gone and let the cat outa the bag. What am I gonna DO??? Why’d ya hafta go write such a good article???
Just meowin’…
Aww, Brew– don’t feel bad. We’re still the kings and queens of all we survey! Tee hee hee!
Wow, Kissy, you are a writer and a journalist! We’re so proud of you.
Love, Churchy and Tereza
FaRADaY: MOWZERS! We loves the science stuff too! We give this four paws up – waaay up! (But canz we still call you a redhead, that’s what we wanna know!)
Maxwell: uhh, Miz Kissy, I just gotta say you make a pawesome rePAWter. Are you gonna do morerepawting in the future?
Whew, our heads are spinning and it’s not the heat! We’ve seen about the same number of orange girls as orange boys, but they’ve mostly been orange and white, not so many solid orange or marmalade–and some people call them red and some call them yellow, they must be awfully special to have all those names!
We learned about tortoiseshells years ago, and again when Mimi and the Fantastic Four joined us and they are all black, except JB who has actual white spots; everyone has a few white hairs. But Mimi was obviously careful about an all-black papa for most of her litters, and in fact there were two in the neighborhood in those years.
As an agouti and orange kitty, I was fascinated by this!
Mewsies, Kissy! My Meowmie KNOWS DrDee! She was even at her Wed-wink! AND even got to see the original Shawnee Om Shanti Sanctuary.
Dr Dee is a wonderpurr and fascinating purrson. All mine Furriends at CF2 yahoo group love her and all her kitties. and there a bunch of ‘em!
On a purrsonal note, one of her Kitties, BeanerBoy is one of mine special furriends. He is orange with white bib and feet,
The interview was very insightful and easy to understand. Uhmm, I have a Calico face with white bib, tummy and paws and four white feet, but my back is brindle. I am a happy mix-up of colors!
Thank mew for sharing this with the world!
Purries
AmberRose
Hi, Kissy- you are a rocking kitteh! I have two lovely longhaired orange boys with very fluffy plumes -they were admiring your pics!- and they have a longhaired blue sister, and a shorthaired black deceased sister and their momma is a longhaired tortie, predominantly blue. I’d like to see someone figure out what color that daddy was! Thanks for the info.
Kissy – I’m an orange and white girl kitty. Am I rare too? I have a cousin who is a boy cat colored like me, but he has more orange than white.
I’m also very happy with my new forever family. They rescued me from the porch when it was really cold out. They took me even though I had a really bad infection and two breaks in my leg. It took me a long time to get better, but my human sister tells me that I probably won’t get very big…I only weighed 3.8 lbs at 5 months and now that I’m 8 months I weigh a little over 6 lbs. I hope you have a meow-velous day!
Hi Kissy! I’m a dog and I found your bloggie cuz of Mr. Jackson Galaxy. I just HAD to come over and read it since I have two Angel Kitteh siblings who were orange tabbies. One was Ripley and he was a boy. The other was Molly and she was a girl! They were littermates and my Mom knew that their Momma was orange cuz she met her. But now we know that their daddy was orange, too! This was a super great and Most Informative postie. Thank you ever so much!!
Wiggles & Wags,
Mayzie
Hi Kissy,
Thanks so much for your article. My name is Molly, and I’m a tortie… My real name is Mulligan. Which is a do-over in golf. Since my Man, who loves golf and my Lady lost their tortie, Chelsea in 2005, they named me Mulligan. As I was a do-over of Chelsea. They adopted me and my brother, KiKi (male tuxedo) together in 2006. The Lady wanted another tortie but just couldn’t look at me as it made her cry since I looked a lot like Chelsea. But low and behold, I snuggled up into her lap and KiKi came over and snuggled up with me. I was soaking wet from her tears as she looked down at me, she smiled big and told the lady at Pet Smart that she would take us home… So, I guess one of my parents was orange!!!
Kitty Kisses,
Molly
Great info! My boy is a big beautiful orange tabby. Out of a ltter of 6, with a black & grey tabby mom, there were 5 black & grey kitties….and one orange one! It was such a huge surprise to see him in there with all the others! We’d taken the momma in as a stray (found homes for everyone & they promised to “fix” ‘em!)
But back to my boy! Thank you for the wonderful info. Now I know much more about why he looks the way he does! :)
Soft Hugs!
jo (momma to Pumpkin)
A friend & I were recently discussing the orange/female cat issue. Thank you for providing all of this great info! And thank you for doing what you do for the kitties. Always love to hear about passionate feline caregivers!
Very interesting, Kissy! We’ve had 5 orange females over the years. Right now we have two very orange females (one with many black whiskers!), and a beige/tan female who some say is actually a muted orange.
Dee, I was hoping for some statistics. For instance, what percentage of orange tabbies are male/female? BTW, I had a wonderful orange tabby named Punkin who was AMAZING!
Wonderful temperment!
I was discussing this exact thing with a friend who has an orange female just the other day. Here is something interesting, my black make and my tortie female had a (solo litter) solid ginger kitten, male. I think that goes against what the expert said, if I understand it correctly. (No worries. That kitten has a wonderful home and they have since been spayed and neutered. This happened when they were very young and I didn’t think they were capable yet. I learned a valuable lesson)
Dexter here! Thanks for all the awesome info on us Ginger (orange) kitties! Love your site, gonna stay connected. Visit us if you have a chance!
We have a female orange tabby cat! She was the tiniest of the litter, and we had no idea at the time how very special she was (and is!).
This was very interesting! I had no idea how complex the coloring genes were in cats. We have two orange kitties in our house – 1 male and 1 female :)
Great post! We had a female orange kitty and everyone told us that was rare. She must have had 2 recessive genes as she had no white on her.
Orange kitties rock!
I have an orange girl kitty and she is the best mouser!!! I have 2 other cats a brother sister gray/white shorthair and they just look at the mice and then take a nap!!! Tigger hears just a hint of prey and she is off on the hunt. I once found 3 dead mice under my bed (there was NO smell) Tigger had left them there for a late night snack. She’s a mushie, especially at night when I’m trying to go to sleep!!
Thank you for sharing! I have an orange boy and I always wondered why orange boys were more common than orange girls.
When I took genetics in high school, my stepdad used our calico cat to help explain mosaics to me and how this occurs gene-wise. :)
Hi Krissy,My Kitty Bonesy was all white when we Adopted him with just hint orange on tios of his ears.
now 14 years later he had more than 50% of his Body is orange.
he has Blue eye’s and is the most Bluest eyes I have ever seen.
he’s my Baby and never been 1 day with out me we Travel everywhere together.
your Mama sounds like a wonderful Mama she really loves you .she is so very Lucky to have you as her Baby..
maybe next time she will post more Pic’s of you and Her..
till next time Krissy..
sue and Bonesy…
Wow! Thanks for sharing this. I was told one of my orange cats was a female when I adopted him, and I knew it was pretty rare. Turns out it is a boy though, and I began to wonder if it is possible to have an orange lady cat. Now I know the answer.
Hi, Thank you so much for teaching me why it took me such a long time to find an orange missy cat. A year ago, a friend told me about this neighbor who had kittens (well, not her but her lady cat). One of them was a little orange girl. I just jump on the occasion and got myself a pretty little Fantine that is an adorable compagnon. And her mother was a calico! Anyway, thank you for the info.
I didn’t know most orange cats were male! My cat Sally is an orange female tabby and I also had a female orange tabby growing up named Bets. Sally has a chicken allergy though, is that common to orange female cats? But as long as she eats her limited ingredient green pea & salmon food, she doesn’t scratch. I just love orange cats, they are so beautiful!
Very interesting!!! Makes me see my kitties in a whole different way! Thanks for posting :)