Cat coat colours and patterns

Tabby, tortoiseshell, calico, ginger, tuxedo… A coat is not a breed: it is a combination of a handful of genes that turns up in moggies and in almost every breed. Here are the 25 coats people search for most, with their genetics made simple, the myths around them and the breeds where they appear.

Tabbies

The cat’s original pattern: stripes, spots or ticking, and the “M” on the forehead.

Tabby cat Tabby Pattern · Tabby, Striped cat Mackerel tabby cat Mackerel tabby Pattern · Mackerel tabby, Striped tabby Classic tabby cat Classic tabby Pattern · Classic tabby, Blotched tabby Spotted tabby cat Spotted tabby Pattern · Spotted tabby, Spotted cat Ticked tabby cat Ticked or agouti Pattern · Ticked tabby, Abyssinian tabby Silver tabby cat Silver tabby Colour and pattern · Silver tabby, Silver cat

Colours

From black to lilac: the base colours and their dilute versions.

Ginger cat Ginger Colour · Orange cat, Red cat Cream cat Cream Colour · Cream cat, Beige cat Black cat Black Colour · Solid black cat, Black White cat White Colour · Solid white cat, White Grey (blue) cat Grey or blue Colour · Blue cat, Grey cat Chocolate cat Chocolate Colour · Brown cat, Havana Lilac cat Lilac Colour · Lavender, Lilac Cinnamon and fawn cat Cinnamon and fawn Colour · Cinnamon, Sorrel

Tortoiseshell and calico

The coats linked to the X chromosome, almost always found in females.

Tortoiseshell cat Tortoiseshell Colour · Tortie, Tortoiseshell Calico cat Calico or tricolour Colour with white · Tricolour cat, Calico Torbie (tabby tortoiseshell) cat Torbie Colour and pattern · Torbie, Tortie tabby

With white

From the tuxedo’s bib to the van cat, white almost all over.

Bicolour cat Bicolour White spotting · Black and white cat, Ginger and white cat Tuxedo cat Tuxedo White spotting · Tuxedo, Black and white cat Van pattern cat Van White spotting · Van pattern, Van cat Harlequin cat Harlequin White spotting · Harlequin, White cat with patches Mitted cat (white gloves) Mitted White spotting · Mitted, Gloves

Points, smoke and shaded

Colour only on the cooler parts of the body, or only on the tip of each hair.

Colourpoint (Siamese) cat Colourpoint Pattern · Pointed, Siamese Smoke cat Smoke Colour · Smoke, Black smoke Chinchilla and shaded cat Chinchilla and shaded Colour · Chinchilla, Shaded

Colour genetics in six points

1

Two pigments and nothing more

Every cat colour comes from two pigments: eumelanin (black and its versions, chocolate and cinnamon) and phaeomelanin (orange). Everything else is genes that decide how much pigment there is, where it goes and how it is spread along each hair.

2

Orange sits on the X chromosome

That is why there are more orange males than females, and why tortoiseshell and calico cats are almost always female: mixing black and orange takes two X chromosomes.

3

Dilution lightens everything

A recessive gene clumps the pigment inside the hair: black becomes blue (grey), chocolate becomes lilac, cinnamon becomes fawn and orange becomes cream.

4

Tabby or solid

Every cat carries a tabby pattern. The agouti gene lets it show; its recessive version hides it and gives solid colours. Orange always shows its stripes.

5

White is not a colour

All-over white is a dominant gene that masks everything else and is linked to deafness in blue-eyed cats. White patches are a different gene, ranging from a tuxedo bib to a van cat.

6

Temperature and silver

The colourpoint of the Siamese only colours the cooler parts of the body. The inhibitor gene keeps the base of each hair white and gives silver, smoke and chinchilla.

Frequently asked questions

Does coat colour affect a cat's personality?

There is no solid evidence that it does. Some surveys show that people attribute personalities by colour, and one owner survey found slightly more reported aggression in tortoiseshell and calico females, but the effects are small and cannot predict what a particular cat will be like.

Why are almost all tortoiseshell and calico cats female?

Because mixing black and orange needs two X chromosomes, one carrying the orange gene and one without it. Males have only one X; male tortoiseshells do exist, but they are XXY and very rare.

What is the most common cat colour?

In free-roaming cats, brown tabby (the coat of the wild cat), black and combinations with white are the most frequent, although it varies a lot from one area to another.

Is tabby a breed?

No. Tabby, tortoiseshell, calico, tuxedo and ginger are colours or patterns, not breeds. They appear in moggies and in many breeds.

Cat breeds A to Z → Which breed does your cat look like? (Spanish)

Photos from Wikimedia Commons under free licences; the author and licence of each one are shown on its coat page.