6 Fun Facts About Orange Tabby Cats
1. The orange tabby cat is not actually its own separate breed of cat.
Whether you call them orange, red, ginger or marmalade tabbies, orange tabby cats are not a specific breed of cat, rather it is referring to their fur color. Orange tabbies can be many different breeds, from Persian and Maine Coon to your standard Domestic Short Hair!
2. Many orange tabbies will develop little black freckles on their nose and mouth area.
Not only do ginger cats come with perfectly kissable pink noses, they may also develop adorable little freckles! These freckles will normally develop around the gums, lips, or nose area and can continue to appear throughout their life. These freckles are caused by a benign genetic called lentigo which increases the number of pigment-producing cells (epidermal melanocytes) around the lips, nose, and eyes and results in those little black freckles. They're like little sprinkles of joy! These freckles are normally harmless, but any change in size or pigmentation should be checked by a veterinarian.
3. They come in 4 beautiful coat types: Classic (swirled), Mackerel (striped), spotted and ticked (agouti).
- Mackerel: Mackerel tabbies are striped and may be tiger-like in appearance, with a classic ‘M’ shape on their forehead!
- Classic: the classic tabby pattern usually consists of a dark swirl or bullseye around your cat's midsection
- Ticked: Most common in breeds like Abyssinian, ticked tabbies can fool you into thinking that solid ginger cats exist - but they don't! Ticked tabbies have an almost speckled pattern with tabby markings on their heads.
- Spotted: Spotted tabbies appear, well, spotted! Their stripes or swirls are broken up and appear as ovals. This marking is most commonly seen in Bengal cat breeds!
4. Most orange tabby cats are males: 80% male, and 20% female - No wonder they are usually mischievous!
Interestingly enough, most orange tabby cats are indeed male! It's all thanks to their genetic makeup. According to Spruce Pets, the gene O codes for orange (referred to as Red in genetics) fur and is carried on the X chromosome. Because females have two X chromosomes, this means that a female orange cat must inherit two orange genes (one from each parent). But a male tabby only needs one O gene, which he gets from his mother.
5. All orange cats are tabby cats, they do not have a solid coat!
Without getting too deep into genetics (it's complicated, folks!), thanks again to their genetic makeup, all orange cats will have tabby markings of some kind. This is because of the agouti gene. The agouti gene determines whether a cat has a tabby pattern or not. However, when the red pigment gene is expressed, the non-agouti gene does not work. So you can't have a non-agouti gene with an orange cat - meaning they will have some type of tabby marking, whether it is classic, mackerel, or ticked.
6. Orange tabby cats get a lot of screen time!
Beyond the famed lasagna-loving Garfield, orange tabby have graced the silver screen - more than you may have realized! There are live-action kitties like Goose (Captain Marvel) Orion (Men in Black) and Jones (Alien), ... wow, there are a lot of orange tabbies in space, aren't there? And don't forget Orangey in Breakfast at Tiffany's. And you can't forget about Puss in Boots, who melted everyone's hearts with iconic big kitty eyes!
Does your orange cat have particular characteristics? Tell us about them! We love to learn more.
Don’t know why my comments posted twice at 2 different times, that’s weird. Only posted and clicked submit once. You can delete one of them since both look to be identical to me. Again, that was strange and don’t know why that happened….?
We have 3 Orange Tabbies, 1 standard sized striped male {Thor Butterscotch Stargazer}, 1 miniature striped male {Merlin Hoover Pendragon} and 1 female {Ginger Cinnamon Starfyre} because she looks to be ginger or cinnamon colored and she’s an aggressive one too!
Gives all the other cats in the house, including her brother, which is Thor, a run for their money. She’s no lover like most Orange kiities, she’s a growler and fighter! We’re always having to scold her for getting into tifts with all the other kitties in the house. And she prefers to be a loner, but she will play with her brother Thor and the mini orange tabby, Merlin.
And yes, we give our cats unique names, Thor got his because he came to us during a Thunder/lightning storm, then he reminded me of my favorite pudding, LOL. And his favorite thing is to sit at the window when it’s DARK and just Star Gaze at the stars in the sky.
Merlin got his first and last name from King Arthur, since he almost died and literally came back to full vigor from almost having his paws in the grave, so he was put into the “magical” arena, hence the name “Merlin” Pendragon, named after King Arthur, since Merlin was his brother and wizard of the court. Now his middle name came to be because when he rebounded, he sucked up food faster than every cat in the house, taking not only his, but their food too, hence his middle name “Hoover” from the vacuum cleaner company, not from any former presidents. ROFL And he still holds to his middle name today,
Thor and Ginger will be celebrating their 6th Birthdays come Halloween 2018. Merlin just turned 3 on June 6, 2018.
We have a few more different cats in our brood of different colors, temperaments and breeds, but all are of the Tabby variety. We actually have 7 cats of our own which include the 3 Orange Tabby cats I posted about above.. We do LOVE OUR KITTIES! :D
We just lost our orange male tabby which we had for 14 years. He was the sweetest, gentlest most loving cat ever! My husband and I got him just after we were married and he lived with us through 2 babies and was always so patient with the kids when they were young. He let them play with him and carry him around. He was always the ‘life of the party’ and would sit around with the guests when we would have house parties. He will be missed dearly. We will be getting another orange tabby after we have mourned our Breda.
I have a long haired orange female who will be 18 years old in the summer of 2018. She has the beginnings of kidney failure and I have to administer subcutaneous fluids to her twice a week. I adopted her as a kitten when she was less than six weeks old from family who had a Rottweiler and didn’t want her. They said their dog almost ate her! She has always been antisocial and feisty, which I’ve attributed to her early and traumatic experience with the Rottweiler. She is temperamental, crazy and unpredictable, so I named her Axla Rose after the lead singer of the rock band Guns N’ Roses, Axl Rose, who has long red hair like hers and the same personality, and it fits her!
No orange tabbies with solid orange coats?
They may be striped,but I have 2 orange tabbies with solid orange coats!
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