Anyone who constantly lives with cats probably already knew this. And even if you don’t have so much interaction with the cats, you may have noticed. The three-colored animals, the tricolor cats, are always female. But do you know why the coloring only appears on them?
The answer, of course, is genetics. The big point is: how do only females get this color pattern? To understand this, it is first necessary to point out that the colors of the parents determine the colors of the offspring. Black and orange are determined by sex chromosomes.
Just like humans, male cats have the XY sex chromosome, while female has XX. Both black and orange come from the X. The other colors, according to veterinarian João Motta de Quadros, come from other chromosomes, such as white.
“The intensity of white or gray is determined by how much this other gene is expressed at the time of embryogenesis”, added the veterinarian. As a male cat only has one X gene, he will be either black or orange.
The females, because they have two, can be the tricolor cats, since the white color comes from elsewhere. Or even the famous escaminha, only in black and orange.
But, make no mistake. There are even tricolor and scale males. They, however, are extremely rare and end up having reproductive problems, being considered sterile. This is because it is a genetic anomaly.
“Similar to humans, there are anomalies related to sex chromosomes. The male tricolor cat is an individual that has received three reproductive genes. They are XXY. The first X makes him express the color orange and the other X the color black”, said Quadros.
And the orange cats?
Another detail among the felines is the predominance of orange males. There are even female kittens in this color. But, the overwhelming majority are males. Once again, genetics prevail. “As females have two Xs, the chance of one of them expressing the black color is 50%”, explained the veterinarian.
But what determines a cat’s pattern?
The colors are expressed throughout the fur of the animals. A famous cat on the internet is the French Narnia, who has half of his face in black and the other half in gray, in a perfect division.
“When the puppy is still being formed, the expression of these genes occurs from the paws to the back. In rare situations, it is done horizontally. So, a cat that is black and has a low expression of the white color will only have white on the paws and extremities. As this expression of white increases, it ‘takes care’ of the black color”, completed João Motta de Quadros.
So what color is your kitten?
