male calico cats

Question
My wife's brother in-law claims a male calico cat is extremely rare and very valuable is this true? And if so how many different colors do they have on their bodies, can it be more than three different colors.Do calico's have meantempers.Most of all are they true valuable and worth lots of money

Answer
Ron,

Wow, I hate to burst your brother's bubble, bot male calico cats which are not sterile are not worth any more than any other non-pedigreed whole male cat!

Cats come in two basic colors, black and red, with a variety of color modifiers, patterns, and etc.  A female has X X sex chromosomes whereas a male has X Y sex chromosomes.  The Y chromosome is the same as the X chromosome with one tail of the X missing.  This part of the X chromosome which is not part of the Y chromosome is where the black or the red color is carried.  Thus a male can only carry one color whereas a female can carry two colors.

By the way, a calico is a cat with black and red patches on a field of white.

For a male to have more than one color, something had to go very wrong genetically, which is why, most often, male calicos or male tortoiseshells are sterile.  If a male calico does breed, it will only breed as one color or the other.

There is a myth that calicos are mean tempered, but, in truth, that is a myth.  Yes, there are ill tempered calicos, but for the most part they are sweet tempered.

Best regards... Norm.