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. 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. In cats, the X chromosome carries the color-determining gene. That is, how calico cats get their tri-color coat. To understand why it is unusual for calico cats to be male, we have first to understand calico cat genetics. Want to know more interesting facts about calico cats? Click on the link and enjoy some awesome calico facts! Male Calico Cat For example, no two calico cats have the same pattern. Calico cats not only have interesting coats, but there are also many interesting things to their name that make these tri-color cats even more endearing. According to the Cat Fancier’s Association, there are 19 calico cat breeds-cats breeds that can have calico patterns. 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. If you have any misconceptions or confusion about calico cats, you should continue reading as we are going to discuss it all:Īre 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?īut first, a brief introduction to what a calico cat means. They do exist, but they are quite rare-only one in 3000 calico cats is male.īecause of the rarity of 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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