Cat Genetics

Tabbies

Note before we begin the chapter: 'Brown' tabbies are called black tabbies. No, their color isn't black, they just have black stripes.
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*takes a deep breath* Tabbies. One of the most common genes found in cats. But I just want to make one thing clear, alright? Here we go. *takes another deep breath*

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Is it drilled into your head now? Okay, good. Now let's begin.

There are many variations of the tabby pattern and tabby cats can be found with stripes, spots, ticks and swirls, and in various colors – brown tabbies, silver tabbies, ginger or orange tabbies, gray or blue tabbies and red tabbies Although there are many variations of each, the tabby pattern falls into four basic classes. A fifth includes tabby as part of another basic color pattern, e.g. the "patched" tabby, which may be a calico or tortoiseshell cat with tabby patches (the latter is called a "torbie").

All tabbies have an "M" marking on their forehead, and on some this mark is very distinct. The 'M' is often referred to as "the mark of the true tabby." There are several amusing legends about how tabby cats got their "M," one being religious.

How did the word tabby get its name? Well, the name tabby is believed to have come from the word atabi a type of silk spun in the Attabiah region of Baghdad. This silk was exported in large quantities to the British Isles where it was noticed how similar the stripped pattern was to the coat of the tiger cat. These tiger cats soon started to be called tabbi cats and later tabby cats.

The hierarchy of dominance for the three alleles is Ta > T > tb. However, Ta allele shows some degree of incomplete dominance since either TaT or Tatb heterozygotes may show faint striping on the legs and tail.

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