New arrivals

[handrawn]

Calicos are females

not strictly true - calicos need XY chromosomes - ie female as such

but they could be XXY, also female, or XYY, male

I know this because we had an XYY calico cat which we took to the vet and referred to as 'he', no said the vet without looking, its a 'she' - but he wasn't [I can tell the difference ]

after checking, the vet explained about chromosomes

[gwpriester]

I will back off a bit, not being a scientist, and say that most calicos are female and leave it at that. I have never known of a male calico.

For those with longer memories, we moved to New Mexico in 2000 with five cats. Baxter, the Maine Coon cat is the lone survivor. And so we decided it was time to restock.

Chloe, the white calico, is problematic. She does not get along at all with her sister (who is an absolute love). But she does get a long well with humans. She would have been better as someone's only cat.

But we are not going to return her. We will sort it all out.

[iamtheblues]

Calico = female and ginger = male is an urban myth. It is true that the majority of calico cats are female and the majority of ginger cats are male, the ratio is roughly 3:1.
Saludos,
Bob.

[a4hire]

Great looking kids Gary, nice to see them.

[Sammy]

Gary

Good to see your house is full again Have fun

Sammy

[gwpriester]

Rare

Calico is a mix of orange, black, and white fur found on certain cats. Not all calico cats are female, but the vast majority are. Why? Like a lot of life's mysteries, it has to do with genetics. PetPlace.com gives a surprisingly detailed explanation. Half a cat's chromosomes come from the mother, and half come from the father. The gene that determines a cat's coloring is found on the X chromosome.
Female cats have two X chromosomes, and each one can carry a different color. "In calicos...one X has the black gene; the other X has the orange gene." At some point in the female cat's development, one X chromosome becomes inactive. The timing of this determines the amount of calico patches.
So calico coloring isn't that uncommon among female cats. It's just a matter of the right chromosomal combination. In males, things are more complicated because they only have one X chromosome and "it's never inactivated."
A male cat can be calico if it's created with "two X chromosomes and a Y, allowing one X to be inactivated." This is a genetic defect known as XXY, and it's very rare. In fact, only one out of every 3,000 calicos is male.

[zaphodeist]

All this talk of chromosomes is very interesting, but can we see some more pics - of the sisters, not chromosomes - please?

[iamtheblues]

As Gary isn't yet forthcoming, John, I managed to take a halfway decent shot earlier today of the calico that is gradually adopting us.
She is wondering what I'm doing with a camera lens poking through the fly chains on the kitchen door.
Saludos,
Bob.

[zaphodeist]

Sweet!

[handrawn]

Gary - Thanks for that

obviously I remembered the genetic detail wrong, [not a genetic expert]



our calico male cat was big - size of a small dog, XXY then

and XX for female - oops