![]() All orange cats are tabbies, but not all tabbies are orange. But female cats need fully orange fathers with an orange, calico, or tortoiseshell mother. Meanwhile, males only need red, calico, or tortoiseshell mothers. However, since there are so many possible chromosome combinations, females are less likely to be orange. 5įor female cats to be orange, they need the B gene on both X chromosomes. Ultimately, any cell could end up expressing traits from either chromosome, so it’s rare for females to be orange. 3 This process, called lyonization, is random, so it’s impossible to predict which X chromosomes will be active and express the coat color. 4 Since female cats have two X chromosomes, their body would have to inactivate one of them in every cell to not express double the amount of the X-linked phenotypes, leaving only one active X chromosome in female cats. However, the orange gene must come from both parents instead of only the mother. 3 Because males only need one copy of the orange gene from the mother, they’re more likely to be orange than female kittens. ![]() Males only have a single X chromosome, which can carry the orange or black coat color gene. How males get their coat color is much more straightforward since males have a Y chromosome that can’t carry the orange gene. The B gene is in the X chromosome, where a male only has one, and a female has two. The gene B produces a red pigment called pheomelanin, a dominant trait. The orange color coat is sex-linked and found on the X chromosome. These rare defects usually cause sterility in male cats but not in females. However, calicos can be male and orange cats can be female. Since female cats get two X chromosomes, one from each parent, they could have both the black coat color gene and the orange coat color gene. 2Ĭalico cats are almost always female because of these same genetics. Since the X chromosome has the orange coat color gene, and male cats only need one X chromosome from their mother to become orange, most orange cats are male. ![]() Male cats inherit the Y chromosome from the father and an X from the mother. ![]() Female cats get one X chromosome from each parent. ![]()
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