The agouti gene, A/a, controls whether or not the tabby pattern is expressed. The tabby patterns are due to 3 distinct gene loci and one modifier: White spotting of any level can also appear in combination with tabby patterns. In cat genetics, pattern is unrelated to color, and so the tabby pattern may occur in any cat color, including tortoiseshell (tortoiseshell tabby cats are often called 'torbies'). The steel-white of the fur is what gives it its name. The Silver Tabby, as it is often known, is a distinctive white/black tabby often in a mackerel or blotched pattern. The uniform or nearly uniform striping around the circumference of the tail indicates feral origins in that particular cat's family tree. The most commonly identified kind of tabby, the Classic Tabby, tends to have a pattern of dark browns, ochres, and black. Tortoiseshell cats sometimes display a pattern where the three-colored tortoiseshell pattern is mixed with tabby markings. White is the only color that does not have any tabby markings.īi-colors can have the tabby pattern show up on the colored patches of their coat. Black and blue are colors that usually show up without tabby markings, but with some cats, a faint tabby pattern can actually be noticed. A cat's coat can be described as red tabby or gray tabby. It can show up in combination with a variety of coat colors. The tabby is not a breed of cat, nor is it a coat color. Rosetted and marbled patterns are found in the Bengal breed. Some are due to the interaction of wild and domestic genes.

A modified classic tabby is found in the Sokoke breed. Several additional patterns are found in specific breeds. Both large spot and small spot patterns can be seen in the Australian Mist, Bengal, Egyptian Mau, and Ocicat breeds.Īll those patterns have been observed in random-bred populations. The spotted tabby may not be a true pattern but a modifier that breaks up the mackerel pattern so that the stripes appear as spots the stripes of the classic pattern may be broken into larger spots. Residual ghost striping or 'barring' can often be seen on the lower legs, face and belly and sometimes at the tail tip. The ticked tabby pattern produces hairs with distinct bands of color on them, breaking up the tabby patterning into a salt-and-pepper appearance. The legs and tail are more heavily barred and the pattern is variable with respect to the width of the bands. Mackerel is the most common tabby pattern.Ĭlassic (or 'blotched') tabbies have a similar 'M' pattern on the head, but the body markings are different, having a whirled and swirled pattern with wider stripes that make what are referred to as 'butterfly' patterns on their shoulders, and usually a bullseye or oyster pattern on the flank.

Mackerels are also called 'fishbone tabbies' probably because they are named after the mackerel fish. Mackerels also feature a 'peppered' nose, where black spots appear along the pink tip of the nose. Often, an 'M' shape appears on the forehead. The stripes are narrow, and may be continuous or broken into bars and spots on the flanks and stomach. The mackerel tabby pattern has vertical, gently curving stripes on the side of the body. A number of other variations are due to the interaction between domestic cat and wildcat genes in breeds such as the Bengal and can now be seen in the Bombay. A fifth includes tabby as part of another basic color pattern, the 'patched' tabby, which may be a calico or tortoiseshell cat with tabby patches (the latter is called a 'torbie'). There are four tabby patterns that have been shown to be genetically distinct: mackerel, classic, spotted, and ticked. The race or breed of them are now almost lost.' Tabby patterns He then claimed that 'I doe well remember that the common English Catt, was white with some blewish piedness : sc, a blew. Some time after the mid - 17th century, the curious antiquary John Aubrey noted that William Laud, the Archbishop of Canterbury was 'a great lover of Catts ' and 'was presented with some Cyprus-catts, i.e. However, one writer believed this to be untrue, at least in England. Since the tabby pattern is a common wild type, it might be assumed that medieval cats were of tabby type. The French tabis 'striped silk taffeta', 'a rich, watered silk,' from Middle French atabis (14c.), from Arabic 'attabiya, from 'Attabiy, a neighborhood of Baghdad where such cloth was first made, named for prince 'Attab of the Umayyad dynasty.

Classic tabby kittens