Can a male cat have three colors?

Question

Can a male cat be black, white and brown? I thought that only female could have three colors!

Answer 1

Tri colored cats are called calico's. A male calico is rare, but do happen and are usually always sterile...the following is an exerpt from the website listed in the source section. Please check it out:



There's one thing that's clear about male calicos -- they're rare! Even many experts and veterinarians have never met one. "I have not seen any male calicos in my practice," notes Bell. Of the nine veterinarians with practices in different parts of the US I surveyed, four had never seen a male calico, and four had seen only one (and one of those was in a university's breeding colony). One veterinarian, though, had seen "several," and had even owned two of her own! "In the literature," notes Bell, "29 percent of male calicos are Klinefelter's (XXY). 18.5 percent were chimeric (XX/XY) individuals, 16 percent were fertile XY male cats, and the remainder were combinations of mosaic and chimeric individuals."



To read more, visit the website below!

Answer 2

It's the orange coloring in calicos that makes it rare. Multiple colors on a male cat are not rare... it's only rare when 1 of those 3 plus colors is orange. Male calicos are always sterile, though. I'm not sure if this truth applies to your cat as well or not...

Answer 3

It is rare to come across a male calico, but not impossible.

It is not really rare to come across just a male cat with three colors. Guess it depends on the breed. I have a male cat that is white, black, and gray. I know of a couple more.

Answer 4

It is extremly rare, but possible. For every X chromosone you have a color. Females have XX and males are XY. That is why you will see that most calico cats are female. When you have a male calico, that means he is one of the rare XXY cats. This is abnormal, but doesn't mean that he is "messed up" or anything. He will be sterile though.

Answer 5

Three Color Cat

Answer 6

The basic theory is that calico cats are always female. And on the rare times you find a male calico it is sterile. That would mean the calico gene is a sex linked gene and that there is no way to produce calico's on purpose.

Answer 7

Yes. Males can have three colors.

Answer 8

most of the time females are born calico, but on very rare occaisons males are born calico. just like most orange tabbies are boys, but there are a few female orange tabbies.

Answer 9

it is rare to have a tortishell or calico male, but it does happen. They are usually sterile because they have 3 sex chromosomes (XXY) instead of the normal two (XY).

Answer 10

Yeah they can.What gave you that idea?lol sorry



I've seen toms with ginger, brown, white and grey all mixed.

Answer 11

Yes, but it's rare.

Answer 12

no- males can be born calico.

Answer 13

yes they can