Tortie cats are females only

Do you have a tortie? Most are female, the ones that are born male are due to genetic abberation or development abnormalities. I have 2 torties, one indoor and a stray that adopted me from outside.. they are very prissy and dominant girls, huh?

torite cats are only born female due to the chromosomes, males don't have the right ones to be a tortie. Although there is about a 1 in a 1,000 chance that one will be male, not too sure why on that one!

No I certainly don't know why Margie and I never knew that You should have asked the Vet as it would be Interresting to know

I have always heard that normally only females. Occasionally a male. Here is what I found on Yahoo answers.... For a cat to be a tortoiseshell or calico, it must simultaneously express both of the alleles, O and o, which are two versions of the same gene, located at the same location on the X chromosome. Males normally cannot do this: they can have only one allele, as they have only one X chromosome. Virtually all tortoiseshell or calico cats are females. Occasionally a male is born (the rate is approximately 1 in 3,000 [2]). These may have Klinefelter's syndrome, carrying an extra X chromosome, and will almost always be sterile or they may be a chimera resulting from the fusion of two differently coloured embryos. Hope that this answers you.

No I didn't know that --guess it's another question you can ask your vet next time. I had one and come to think of it, a female!

I remebmer my cousin saying something about that. If they are colored but have orange markings as well as other color they are almost always female. Smething about the pigments.

I have heard that very rarely a three color cat(tortie, or calico) will be male, but will also be sterile. The genetic code for having the three colors seems to be gender linked. That is just like most white cats with blue eyes are deaf. It is just a combination that goes together. In humans it is similar to the fact that hemophiliacs are almost always boys, even though the gene comes from the mother that carries this trait.

I had heard that. I used to have a torty named Sonya. She was a rescued cat and a friend took her when we moved state. I have attached a photo. Also I heard that only males are full ginger cats.

Not all tortoiseshell cats are female .. although it is true that it's normally only females that have the tortoiseshell markings .. It's all in the genes .. the few male tortoiseshell cats will have had abnormal development while still a foetus .. According to the statistics on this web site having a male tortoiseshell born is roughly a 125/1 chance .. http://www.messybeast.com/mosaicism.htm#howcommon

Well now that you have the answer...lol I guess I'll tell you a story. My sister brought home a calico cat when we were kids. She had kittens and one of them was a little tortie. The kittens were about 5 weeks old and since they lived in the garage outside they would play in the driveway. We always had to check under the cars for cats or kittens. One day my stepfather went to work 30 miles away in Boston. He was parking the car and thought he heard a kitten meow. He got out and as he was walking away heard it again. After much investigation he discovered the little tortie kitten had found a rust hole in the underneath of the wheel well and had climbed in...lol She road 30 miles on the highway in there.... she was fine and lived a long life...lol We still have cats outside that live in the garage from the original calico cat.

Wow no i didnt know that , funny cause i hada tortie and yes she was female. Sadly i lost her to a car :( found her on the road when i got home bless. Thanks for that information hun.

The way I understood it is that calico cats are the ones with splotches of different patterns and tortoiseshells are the ones that are like a patchwork quilt with patches that all run together. If there is a male tortie/calico born it is automatically sterile and are very rare. I've had calico cats and every one I met was very good natured.

I'm amazed. No, I never knew that. My only female is a tortie, and she's quite possibly the most loving cat I ever met besides the one I hand reared from 3 weeks old! It's a good story so I'll tell you: My husband was working for a hotel that bordered on some woods where there was a cat colony, and he felt guilty about it all the time, even though the cook gave them tons of leftovers. He wanted the cats to have proper nutrition, so he brought them real food. One freezing, snowy day he was reading the newspaper in his car when he thought he heard a meow. He looked around, but didn't see anything. He opened the door to the car, and there in the snow was a little tortie cat meowing for all she was worth. She looked like her paws were very cold, and she screamed at him at the top of her lungs! He got out, and she did not run, so he he picked her up, and set her on the seat in the warm car. He thought that if she had some time to dry off and warm up that she'd be happy. He even gave her half of his tuna fish sandwich. She ate everything, and settled in to sleep on the chair, when he had to go back in to work. He tried to pick her up and put her out, but she began clamoring again so loudly that she sounded as though she didn't want to go back into the woods. In truth, she didn't act like a feral cat, she was sweet and loving, and obviously wanted attention. It was then that Hubby checked her over and found that she had a big skid mark or abrasion on her left flank. He decide to take her home, and she slept on his lap all the way. Hubby brought her to me to look at, and I nearly cried. She had such a big abrasion, and she had an odd growth in both her ears that looked like cauliflower. I didn't think I could do anything for her. Hubby thought she was a kitten because of her tiny head, but I checked her teeth and spine, and figured she was older, at least eight or nine years. I washed her wound and we brought her to our very knowledgeable Vet the next day. Turns out the wound was fine, and healing, and the cauliflower ear is natural to some cats- it's a mutation and does not bother the cat in any way, Unless you open her ears up and look deeply inside them, you cannot see the growth. It's not cancer or anything like that, it's just..weird. Apparently the vet had tried all sorts of tests on similar conditions and nowadays she could just see what it was, no need for biopsies and costly tests. She also told me that my age estimate was right, and that the cat had been fixed after having at least one littler of kittens, a long time ago. Such a good Vet! Rianne the tortie (named after the sound of her meow) has been a part of our family for over 5 years, and is a loving, adoring, absolutely prissy, queen-like female. You couldn't get a female more female, I'm serious. She's even a drama-queen! Tortie females make GREAT pets. Rianne is a star in our household.

I read somewhere even calico cats (mixture of black white and brown fur ) are females only ! There may be a few males however but they are all sterile.