Callico Cats- How created?
Keith
my vet told me that in his 20 years of practice he has never seen a male
calico cat. hmmmpff, go figure !
keith
Gordon G. Blewis wrote:
>
> Is it true that all callicos are female? If so, how are they created? Is it
> a product of the union of a callico and a specific species of male cat or of
> two specific non-callicos?
>
> Gordon
> g...@op.net
--
"Birds sing after a storm, why shouldn't we?" - Rose Kennedy
Gordon G. Blewis
fuzz...@cybercom.net
Keith (keith...@worldnet.att.net) wrote:
: my vet told me that in his 20 years of practice he has never seen a male
: keith
: Gordon G. Blewis wrote:
: >
: > Is it true that all callicos are female? If so, how are they created? Is it
: --
: "Birds sing after a storm, why shouldn't we?" - Rose Kennedy
You will not see male cats with both black and red (orange) fur. Males can
be orange and white, or black and white, but not orange and black
together. Therefore, there are (virtually) no male calicos
(orange/black/white), and no male tortoiseshells ("money cats").
The occasional rare male born with one of these color combinations will be
sterile.
I don't remember my kitty genetics, but I'd guess that the coat color
genes must be sex-linked? Biologists? Anyone remember their Mendel? :)
Erin Miller
There are several FAQ type documents on cat genetics and coloring,
including one specifically on calicos. You can find them all at:
http://www.fanciers.com/general.html (the one specifically on calicos is
called "Torties, Calicos and Tricolor Cats").
But, indeed male cats CAN be calico, it is just very rare because it
requires the presences of two X chromosomes. Some males (cats and people
alike) are born XXY (instead of either female XX or male XY). In people
this is called Kleinfelters Syndrome, and has many detrimental effects. in
cats, the only real noticable effect is that the males are usually
sterile.
-erin
--
Breed Rescue: the best of both worlds!
SABRE: http://www.tezcat.com/~ermiller/somrescue.html
SHELTERS & RESCUE: http://pasture.ecn.purdue.edu/~laird/Dogs/Rescue/
* * *
Erin Miller http://www.tezcat.com/~ermiller/erin.html
University of Chicago / Anthropology Department / ermi...@tezcat.com
curiosity's cat
In article <5a62fi$f...@orion.cybercom.net>, fuzz...@cybercom.net wrote:
>
>You will not see male cats with both black and red (orange) fur. Males can
>be orange and white, or black and white, but not orange and black
>together. Therefore, there are (virtually) no male calicos
>(orange/black/white), and no male tortoiseshells ("money cats").
>
>The occasional rare male born with one of these color combinations will be
>sterile.
>
>I don't remember my kitty genetics, but I'd guess that the coat color
>genes must be sex-linked? Biologists? Anyone remember their Mendel? :)
I know I know!! The gene for red/black is on the X chromosome, and the
white gene is located elsewhere - can't remember which chromosome, but it
is not a sex chromosome. So, the male inherits an X and a Y. The Y
doesn't influence the coat colour, and he may have white elsewhere, but
whatever is on the X (black, red or nothing) will show up too. The
female will inherit 2 X chromosomes. One may hav ethe red allele and one
may have black. Then a process called mosaicism (or Lyon hypothesis)
occurs - what this is is that in each cell in the body, one X chromosome
is "turned off" and becomes a Barr body. So, in some areas the balck
will be expressed, and in some red will, along with the white. This is
why women generally (big word in biology :) aren't colourblind - the gene
is on the X, so even if some of their eye cells get it, enough will be
"normal" that vision isn't affected. This also explains why male calicos
are sterile - XXY doesn't properly segregate.
Hope this helped, i'm not sure how clearly i wrote it,
Robyn
Miss Heidi M. Evans
Along the same lines, I've heard that female cats are almost never
yellow, and my grandmother was once offered a considerable sum of money (she didn't take it) for her beloved yellow female.
"We are painted. Fear us."-----Grimly The Invisible