18/04/2023
Today is the day we celebrate these beautiful felines! Here's some interesting facts about tortoiseshell cats:
🐱Nearly all tortoiseshell cats are female. This is because female cats carry two X chromosomes (males carry one X and one Y) and these chromosomes carry genetic information about orange and black coat colour.
🐱Tortoiseshell kittens inherit an orange coat gene from one parent, and a black one from the other and are born with interesting patches of each colour which make up their unique coat. A male kitten on the other hand has only one X chromosome, so would be either a black or orange in coat colour.
🐱For this reason, male tortoiseshell cats are extremely rare. They are usually sterile as they have XXY chromosomes, similar to humans with Klinefelter syndrome. As result male tortoiseshell cats are prone to health issues.
📝One 2016 study showed that sex-linked orange female cats (tortoiseshell, calico and torbies) were more frequently aggressive towards humans. However....... We should be mindful not to label cats as this can create a negative bias towards them and affect how we interact with them in both a home and veterinary environment.
🍀Tortoiseshell cats are also considered lucky in many countries
Personally, I think tortoiseshell cats are beautiful 😻
Show me your beautiful torties! 😻😻
References:
13 fun facts about Tortoiseshell Cats (2023) Feliway UK. Available at: https://www.feliway.co.uk/blogs/news/13-fun-facts-about-tortoiseshell-cats (Accessed: April 17, 2023).
Stelow, E.A., Bain, M.J. and Kass, P.H. (2015) “The relationship between coat color and aggressive behaviors in the domestic cat,” Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 19(1), pp. 1–15. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/10888705.2015.1081820.
