Tabby Cat Coat Patterns

Tabby cat patterns classic tabby cat.

Tabby cat coat patterns. A tabby is any domestic cat felis catus with a distinctive m shaped marking on their forehead stripes by their eyes and across their cheeks along their back and around their legs and tail and differing by tabby type characteristic striped dotted lined flecked banded or swirled patterns on the body neck shoulders sides flanks chest and abdomen. Brown mackeral tabbies are the most common. This coat pattern is not restricted to any individual cat breed and they re fairly easy to spot. The banded background ground colour consists of hairs which are more than one colour along the hair shaft and is termed agouti.

However some red cats and most cream cats show a fainter tabby pattern when they have no agouti allele to allow full expression of their tabby alleles. A tabby cat will have a distinctive m shaped mark in the fur of the forehead and the tabby pattern can occur in patches or over the entire coat. These terrific tabbies will often have broad stripes streaking down the middle of the back. The mackerel tabby is by far the most common cat coat pattern with the brown mackerel tabby being the one you ll spot the most.

Tabby coat markings tabby coat colors distinct color patterns with one color predominating. Classic tabby chocolate classic tabby aka blotched tabby ticked tabby cinnamon ticked tabby mackeral tabby red mackeral. This is the most common coat pattern in the wild and it has four varieties. There are also flame point lilac point lynx point chocolate point and several other kinds of point coat patterns.

Learn the differences between tabby cat patterns right here. Siamese cats are great examples of this cat coat pattern. This is caused by the transient inhibition of pigment production during the hair s growth. That is in genetically red cats o males and oo and oo females the aa does still have an effect especially in dilute coats when having dd genotype.

A tabby cat is not a breed. Cat coat genetics determine the coloration pattern length and texture of feline fur. The 5 tabby cat patterns. The most common tabby coat pattern is the mackerel tabby.

The classic tabby has a coat that looks like a marble cake or a yin yang symbol. Striped mackerel blotched marbled spotted and ticked agouti. The lines are parallel to each other evenly spaced and resemble the skeleton of a fish. It consists of narrow stripes that start at the dark stripe along their spines and run vertically down towards their tummies.

Tabby m all tabbies have distinctive m on forehead. Tabby coat pattern in cats. Black stripes ranging from coal black to brownish on a background of brown to gray. You can read more about the variations of the tabby coat pattern and see them in pictures in the full guide.

Many tabby cats also have beautiful markings around the eyes and across the cheek sometimes referred to as eyeliner. The stripes are considerably wider than a mackerel tabby s stripes and have a circular pattern on the sides. Tabby refers to a coat pattern in cats which consists of dark swirls stripes spots superimposed on a lighter background of ticked banded fur. The term bicolor.

There s so much more to be said about tabby cats. Bicolor coat patterns in cats. It s actually a coat pattern and there are five different types of tabby cats.