gender of a cat

Question
I know the "NORMAL" way to tell the gender of a cat...but a friend told me if a cat is more than two colors....it is definitely a female...if its a solid color it could be male or female...Is this true ?? Thanks, Julie

Answer
Julie,

For the most part, your friend is correct.  However, one has to understand what is meant by two colors.  First of all with white does not count.

The classic two color cat is the tortoiseshell which is normally a black cat with varying shades of red, either patched or gently intermingles.  If it also has tabby markings, it is called a patched tabby or torbie.  If the tortoiseshell has white, it is called a tortoiseshell and white.  If the cat is predominately white with patches of black and red, it is a calico.

To add to the fun, instead of black, one can have chocolate or cinnamon with varying shades of red (these are chocolate torties or cinnamon torties) and can also come in tabby patterns and with white (yes you can have chocolate calicos and cinnamon calicos).  Now the dilute of tortoiseshell is called blue-cream (a blue cat with varying shades of cream either patched or gently intermingles).  you can have tabby patterns and with white and, yes, you can have a dilute calico!  The dilute of chocolate tortie is lilac-cream and the dilute of cinnamon tortie is fawn-cream.  Yes, they all come in tabby patterns and with white.

So, any of the above tortoiseshell, blue-cream, chocolate tortie, lilac-cream, cinnamon tortie, fawn-cream with or without tabby patterns with or without white are all generally females.

Every once in a while something goes strange genetically and you do get a male of one of the above.  However, that is quite rare and these males are usually sterile.

I know this is way more than you asked, but one needs to be a bit precise when talking about genetics in any species.

If you are interested in why these are almost always females, please let me know in a follow up and I will explain how it all works.

Best regards... Norm.