You can usually see ghost tabby stripes on “solid-colored” cats.īut the 'non-tabby' gene doesn't work on ginger cats The non-agouti gene prevents the hair from growing in with those stripes of lighter and darker color. The non-agouti genes simply hide the tabbiness. But these genes don’t create non-tabby cats. Solid-colored cats have “non-agouti” genes. If you have a tabby cat, take a close look at a loose hair. The agouti gene gives every strand of fur on a tabby cat horizontal stripes of lighter and darker color. The stripes and swirls that we associate with tabby cats comes from the agouti gene. It takes two Xs to make a girl cat orange (This is putting aside all the special genes that could alter his black or orange genes, of course.)īut the point is that it only takes one orange gene for a boy cat to be ginger. It only takes one X to make a boy cat orangeīecause a boy only has one X chromosome, he is whatever color is on his X. But all cats, underneath their special colors, are really just orange or black. You’re going to say that you have a gray cat, or a cream-colored cat, or a Siamese cat with points.īut all of those colors come from other genes that “do something” to whatever orange or black genes a cat has, or even hide the orange or black.

Now, I know you’re going to tell me that I’m wrong, because you happen to have a pure-white cat, or a brown cat, or a calico.

Those are the only two color choices for cats. You’ll never believe this, but cat genetics say that a cat is going to be either orange or black.

Ginger orange tabby cat