![]() ![]() Mark of MauĪncient Egyptians called cats “Mau” (sounds suspiciously like “meow,” does it not?). A curious amount of folklore exists around this particular feature, stretching back thousands of years. One of the most distinctive aspects of the tabby cat is the “M” shape on the forehead. (Important for the outdoor tabbies, anyway!) Tabbies descended with these important physical traits intact. It’s no big stretch to say that these wildcats’ built-in camouflage of spots and stripes helped pave the way for their continued existence and evolution. Tabbies may be the world’s “original” catsĪccording to Catster, feline geneticists confirmed “five genetic clusters, or lineages, of wildcats from various parts of the world (such as Africa, Europe, China, Central Asia, and the Middle East) and dating back some 10,000 years to be the ancestors of today’s ubiquitous domestic tabbies.” These findings likely explain how coat patterns are formed on big cats, too, such as tiger stripes, cheetah spots, and cougar ticks. Remember how the “ticked” tabby pattern is primarily displayed on Abyssinian cats? This happens because mutations in the gene Dkk4 result in shorter, thinner strokes of color. This thick-thin skin variation can be detected even before embryos develop hair follicles! ![]() Thick patches with more Dkk4 expression are later covered with darker fur, while thin patches with less Dkk4 expression are later covered with lighter fur. ![]() Researchers discovered that the gene Dkk4 actually “maps” a pattern of thick and thin skin during fetal cat development. The patched tabby typically features patches of brown and orange tabby patterns, with markings often more apparent on the legs and head.Īssociated breeds: American Shorthair, Birman, British Shorthair, Cornish Rex, Domestic Shorthair, Exotic Shorthair, Japanese Bobtail, Manx, Norwegian Forest Cat, Persian, Siberian, Turkish Van How do tabby patterns form?Ī 2021 study published in Nature Communications answers the question that has puzzled geneticists for decades: how do cats get their stripes, spots, and swirls? What do you get when you cross a tabby and tortie cat, or a tabby and calico? A “torbie” and a “caliby,” respectively. The cat’s coat should be evenly tipped, with the colour on the legs fading towards the paws.Patched tabby - © carolyn.will / Flickr / CC-BY-SA-2.0 Bonus: Patched tabby cat Tippies should not have any strong tabby markings that said, rings on the tail may be acceptable if the cat is otherwise a good specimen of the breed. It’s the evenness of the tipping which is of paramount interest to a show judge, rather than the degree thereof. Colours can be any one of the accepted self-colours with a pale near-white undercoat. The tipping should be even across the whole of the cat’s body, except for the undercarriage and chin. The undercoat is very pale (it can be cream, silver or another light shade), appearing white with a “frosting” of colour. ![]() Tipped British Shorthair catsĪlso known as a “Tippy”, the tipped British Shorthair is a cat with the silver gene but with a colour at the ends of their hairs. Smoke BSH cats with colourpoints are also possible, adding yet another variety to the already staggering range of possibilities. The topcoat can be seal, any kind of tortie, or one of the previously listed self-colours. BSH smokes are characterised by an undercoat of silver that peeks through the topcoat, especially as the cat moves, creating an eye-catching smoke effect. The smoke variant has caused something of a stir in the cat fancy. ![]()
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