Are Orange Cats Almost Always Male

Calico and tortoiseshell cats however are almost always female.

Are orange cats almost always male. Well thats not entirely true. While it is a fact that there is a higher ratio of orange tabbies that are male the exact percentage is actually about 80 percent toms to 20 percent queens. However once in a blue moon you get a male.

However they only exist in much smaller numbers and male cats make up the vast majority of all orange tabbies accounting for 80. For a female cat to be orange she must inherit two orange genes one from her mother orange calico or tortoiseshell and one from her father who must be orange. This is because orange and black colorings are genetically inherited from the sex.

As you may recall from high school biology mammals have two chromosomes that determine their sexXX for females and XY for males. A male cat needs only one orange gene which he gets from. A male cat may be either black or orange but not both unless he has a.

So a cat with black and orange fur must have two X chromosomes and therefore be a female. This cat is almost always male despite the extra X-chromosome. Which almost 99999 of the time is sterile.

Since females have two Xs and males have one X and one Y this means that a female orange cat must inherit two orange genes one from each parent whereas a male only needs one which he gets from his mother. The color of a cats coat is closely linked to its gender. Although it may appear that all orange tabby cats are male the truth is that female ginger tabby cats do exist.

The Male Dominant Influence in Orange Tabbies. The gene that codes for orange fur is on the X chromosome. Random X-inactivation during early development results in patches of orange and black.