Dilute tortie cats have a tortoiseshell coat pattern with one remarkable difference: instead of the striking, dark mix of orange and black, dilute tortoiseshell cats have a muted, almost blue and yellow color. Tortoiseshell markings can be seen in a variety of breeds, including American shorthair, British shorthair. In calico cats there are patches of white fur mixed in with the tortie pattern, but the tortoiseshell and calico are genetically very similar. Both tortoiseshell and calico cats are almost exclusively female because they have two X chromosomes. A calico and tortoiseshell cats main difference is their coat color and pattern. There is no such thing as a tortoiseshell cat breed. This means a female cat can receive both alleles and display a tortoiseshell pattern.Ī separate gene for white can interact with this pattern and result in cats that are calico, a mix of orange, black and white. The nuances make these cats and kittens quite unique. Calicos, tortoiseshells, and torbies can easily be confused by the untrained eye, as their coats come in similar colors and patterns. In cats, black and orange are codominant and located on the X chromosome. Cats are beautiful in all their diverse splendor. Tortoiseshell cats only have two types of colors, black and orange (or gray and orange in the dilute version), with no white.

My students do learn the basics of coat color and more specifically about X-linked genes. The main difference between tortoiseshell and calico cats is the existence of white in the coat. If you want to learn more, this page on cat genetics explores all the ways the genes interact with each other. A dominant dilution gene can influence black coloration, creating cats with gray fur. Calico cats, on the other hand, can be male or female, but they must have three distinct colors. Tortoiseshell cats are typically female, as the gene for the orange coloration is linked to the X chromosome. These genes are responsible for the variety of cat coloration, such as spotting, white, black, and agouti. Genetics: The primary difference between tortoiseshell and calico cats lies in their genetic makeup. The main difference between Tortoiseshell cat and Calico is that Tortoiseshell cat has two colors in her coat, namely, red or orange and black, that resembles the pattern of a tortoise shell while the Calico cat has three colors orange, black, and white. Cats have 19 pairs of chromosomes, with genes for coat color and coat length located on different chromosomes. They aren’t easy to apply to basic Mendelian genetics, like his purple and white flowers were. The color patterns of animals are quite complex.

Calico vs tortoiseshell cats