6 Facts About Tabby Cats

Tiger pattern cats are very popular with many cat owners. But did you know these 6 facts about tabby cats?

Tiger cats are beautiful and each one is unique in its own way. Find out more about the popular cats here.

The Tiger Pattern

The tiger pattern is a coat pattern that belongs to the umbrella term “tabby”. In addition to the tiger pattern, there are also spotted, brindle, and ticked.

The tiger pattern forms the “wild type”. A tabby cat has a dark dorsal line down the spine from where narrow dark stripes run down the body. Tiger cats have curled tails and legs. The other tabby drawings have developed from this:

• The brindle pattern is a mutation of the tabby pattern. The stripes are wider, and tabby cats have butterfly markings on their shoulders. There is a dark spot in the middle of each flank.
• In the dabbed drawing, the tiger stripes have dissolved into dots.
• In the ticked drawing, the cats appear more or less monochromatic. This is due to the fact that with this coat pattern almost every hair has multiple light and dark bands. So the pattern appears as dissolved. This is typical for Abyssinian cats, for example.

Most probably associate the grey/brown tabby cats with the tiger pattern. But the tabby pattern also occurs in other coat colors, for example in red cats. In addition, the tiger pattern can be found in many different cat breeds: from the European and British Shorthair to the Maine Coon and the Norwegian Forest Cat.

Monochrome or Mackerel?

Genetic locus A decides whether a cat is monochromatic or tabby. Allele A stands for the tabby coat pattern, allele a for the monochromatic one.

Since each gene is duplicated, they can be composed as follows;

• AA (homogeneous)
• Aa (mixed)
• aA (mixed)
• aa (homogeneous)

The allele A, which stands for tiger coloration, is dominant over allele a. This means that only cats with the combination “aa” are monochromatic.

Depending on whether the parent cats are homozygous or homozygous, this influences the pattern of their offspring. Homozygous means that both alleles are the same (AA and aa). In heterozygous cats they are different (aA and Aa).

If one parent cat has the allele “AA” and the other “aa”, these two cats can only have tabby babies, even though one of the two is monochromatic. This is because there is always one gene from the mother and one from the father, and the dominant tabby gene is always present in this case. This is Gregor Mendel’s “law of uniformity”.

On the other hand, if the parent cats are heterozygous, both monochrome and tabby kittens can be born, even if both parent cats are tabby. In theory, the ratio of the offspring is 3:1 (three tabby cats to one solid cat). This is Mendel’s “law of division”.

Risk of Confusion With the Wild Relatives

Gray tabby domestic cats look almost confusingly similar to their wild relatives! The European wildcat also has a tiger pattern, although this is usually not as pronounced as in many domestic cats, but rather more “washed out”.

The African wildcat, the ancestor of the domestic cat, is also slightly mackerel.

The First Mass-Produced Stuffed Animal Was a Gray Tabby Cat

One of the first mass-produced cuddly toys was the so-called “Ithaca Kitty”. This was a stuffed tabby cat inspired by the gray tabby cat Caesar Grimalkin. Ithaca Kitty was designed by her owner Celia Smith and her sister-in-law Charity Smith from Ithaca (USA) and it was manufactured in 1892.

The cuddly toy sparked a fad for stuffed animals and was sold successfully until after the First World War.

The “M” on Tiger Cats’ Foreheads

Tabby cats have an “M” on their foreheads. Virtually all tabby cats have this in red or black unless it is hidden by white patches on the face.

In Christianity, it is said that the “M” is a sign for Mary. Since a cat is said to have laid protectively on the baby Jesus, according to the legend, Mary gave her an “M” as a protective symbol. In Islam, the “M” stands for Mohammed, whom a cat is said to have protected from a snake, which is why he gave it the “M” as a sign of protection.

The Personality of Tabby Cats

It is said that tabby cats like to be alone. They prefer to roam around alone in nature and look for new adventures. In addition, tiger cats are considered fearless, risk-taking, curious, and open.