Mary Allen
A lucky cat is rare, is said to bring luck, and has a very special character. But there is also something special about gender.
Lucky cats used to have one main task: they accompanied travelers on ships to protect them from accidents.
Nansen, Kiddo, Free Thinker, and Halifax: these meaningful names were once given to the cats that were allowed to accompany the great expeditions across the oceans. These sea tigers had the task of protecting the vital provisions from a plague of mice.
No wonder ship’s cats were considered immensely important. They were valued all the more when it came to tricolored cats: the superstition that the spotted, piebald velvet paw brought good luck on the sea lasted for centuries. The terms ship’s cat and lucky cat were often used synonymously.
What is a lucky cat?
By definition, calico cats are cats with three-colored fur. White, red, and black are visible in the coat in various forms and proportions. It is unimportant where and how big the different patches are in the fur. The color white is present in a proportion of one to three quarters. The colors red and black can appear in different nuances and even in dilute colors (lightened) in the fur.
How does the three-colored coat pattern of lucky cats come about?
Here, as with human skin color, only genetics play a role. The pigmentation and strength of the colors white, red, and black are encoded on DNA and are unchanging no matter where a cat (or human) is born.
In the case of a lucky cat, the colors white, red, and black are also coded with the same dominance, i.e. with the same importance. This means that none of the colors cover the other. However, what has a different effect is the proportion of the three colors.
It is also interesting that these are recessive genes. This means that the offspring will only be lucky enough to become a lucky cat if the father and mother carry the genes for this and pass them on to the kitten.
Can you breed lucky cats?
Male tri-colored cats are usually sterile, so they cannot be used for breeding. If you mate a female, tricolor cat with an “ordinary” tomcat, tricolor kittens can only be born if the father is at least a carrier of the gene, as described above. But this is not visible from the outside. The father carries the gene, but it is recessive (to put it very simply: weak). So it doesn’t affect his fur. This complicates breeding success enormously because one would actually have to start breeding “at random” in the hope that the father would bring the hidden gene with him.
Anyone who is familiar with Mendel’s rules of heredity knows that certain probabilities can be calculated in breeding. However, the biggest uncertainty factor in lucky cats is gender. If your female cat only gives birth to male puppies, you will be unlucky in wishing for a calico cat. A three-tone coat is 99.99% reserved for female cats. The more females are born in a breed, the higher your chance of tricolor cats.
What breed has lucky cats?
The tricolor pattern has nothing to do with breed. However, breeding ordinances and regulations prohibit the breeding of kittens in three colors for some cat breeds.
With a bit of “luck” (nomen est omen), a tricolor cat sees the light of day in most common cat breeds and mixed breeds. This is not at all uncommon for our domestic cats, most of which are closely related to the European Shorthair.
But even with cat breeds such as the British Shorthair, British Longhair, and Maine Coon, tricolored kittens can and may be bred according to the Breeding Ordinance. Due to their rarity, these are correspondingly expensive, especially if the color of the eyes corresponds to the color of the coat on the respective side of the head. Cat breeds such as the Persian or Siberian Forest Cat can also appear in offspring in three colors if nature is in a mood.
In Japanese, three-colored cats are given the beautiful name Mikeneko. Literally translated, this means three-fur-color cat. Even in the land of the rising sun, this designation has nothing to do with cat breeds. However, the Mikeneko is a variant of the Japanese Bobtail there, which is evident from its stubby tail.
In Japan, large images of the Mikeneko are placed at the entrance of restaurants or shopping malls. Residents from the Far East also love to give away these lucky charms in private. In order for the little figure to bring good luck, Mikeneko should wave a paw and wear a red collar with a bell. Only then does she get the name Maneki-Neko, which means something like “waving cat”?
How common are lucky cats?
The gene for the red coat color is considered a mutation. It once started its journey from Egypt to the various ports around the Mediterranean Sea. That is why a three-colored coat is common in all cat breeds, especially in the Mediterranean region.
But you will also meet lucky cats on your travels in the rest of the world. However, it is rare that a tomcat in white, red and black makes the area unsafe: only one in three thousand lucky cats are male.
Why are lucky cats mostly female?
Females and tomcats only differ in one pair of chromosomes, namely the sex chromosomes. Just like in humans, this consists of two equal X chromosomes in the female. The tomcat, on the other hand, has an X and, in comparison, a slightly smaller Y chromosome.
In cats, the coding for the three coat colors is only on the X and never on the Y chromosome. The calico cat coloring is recessive, which means that it is only inherited if it is coded twice – on each of the two X chromosomes. A kitten can only be tricolored if it has at least two X chromosomes with this coding. With one rare exception, this is only possible in females.
A male animal can thus pass on the hereditary disposition for a three-colored coat, but he does not normally show this on the outside.
Exception: Although a tomcat can be identified as such by its sex organs, its chromosome set shows one X chromosome per body cell too many. He has two X chromosomes in addition to the Y chromosome. This happens very rarely due to an error in meiosis (sex cell division). This phenomenon is called Klinefelter syndrome. In addition to the beautiful coloring and the reputation as a lucky charm, such a male cat has another “advantage”: It does not have to bother with its masculinity, because it is not capable of reproduction and therefore cannot pass on its genes.
Do lucky cats have a special Temperament?
According to a University of California survey, owners of tricolor cats were more likely than owners of other cats to describe their pet’s personality as “moody, bitchy, or slightly aggressive.” Behaviors such as hissing, scratching, biting, and ranking behavior was compared.
This survey suggests that coat color and character genes are partly inherited together. However, it is not proof of increased aggressiveness in the character of lucky cats.
Most likely, this coat pattern has little or no influence on the character of your cat. As with all our dearest housemates, nature is mainly dependent on three factors:
- Nest warmth, litter competition, and maternal rearing (childhood)
- Socialization and care by humans
- Genetics (cat breeds and breeds)
Even if you do everything for the cat’s offspring, it can still happen that a black sheep thwarts your plans with regard to its character. A kitten can sometimes be aggressive and sometimes shy and scared, no matter how loving you are with him. Nature is never 100% predictable. With a lot of love, knowledge, and understanding, however, each of the kittens can grow up healthy, develop their character and have a wonderful life.
What other names are there for lucky cats?
In English-speaking countries, tricolor cats are referred to as calico cats. Sometimes the term tortoiseshell cat is used incorrectly.
With a tortoiseshell cat, however, experts refer to a coloring that consists of shades of red (fox red, cream, or orange) and black (grey, chocolate brown, or blue). The coat pattern is irrelevant. We sometimes refer to these house tigers as torties (from a tortoiseshell cat: tortoiseshell cat).
In the United Kingdom, a tortoiseshell cat that has a minimal amount of white in its fur has been given the term tortico. This word is composed of tortoiseshell cat (tortoiseshell cat) and calico cat (lucky cat).
In the US and Canada, lucky cats are also simply called tortoiseshell and white cats. The adjective brindle sometimes used to refer to this coloring simply means striped or piebald. The Dutch term Lapjeskat means nothing more than a spotted (multicolored) cat.
In short: this colorful naming shows that people have always noticed the peculiarity of lucky cats. This is how stories, legends, and superstitions developed around the three-colored fur balls.
Which nickname you want to give your lucky cat is of course up to you. You can find names for cats in the linked article and of course, we also have names for tomcats.
Are lucky cats really lucky?
Anyone who is not entirely averse to superstition should try their luck with a three-colored cat. However, lucky cats are more likely to bring good luck, especially when we love them. Like all pets, they are creatures that enrich our lives and are therefore literally lucky charms. A calico cat, like any other cat or dog, bird, fish, and hamster, can make you happy if your heart allows it.
Where can you buy a lucky cat?
Most breeders will offer their cats for sale in magazines or online. You often see offers in classified ads. Among them are often tri-colored cats who are looking for a new home for good money. They don’t come close to the prices of the most expensive cats in the world, but a handsome sum is asked here and there for the specially colored cats. But you can also find a kitten in need of love in animal shelters and farms.
In times of esotericism and spirituality, many future cat owners are looking for a tricolor cat. Please don’t get bogged down in one direction here. If you’re looking for a new roommate at an animal shelter, don’t let the coat pattern or color sway you. It often enough ensures that some cats stay in the home for a particularly long time. Let yourself be touched by the mysterious soul of the wise velvet paw!
Of course, you can have quick luck in your search and you are destined to share your home with a lucky cat in the future. But rest assured: tiger cats or black cats will not make you any less happy. Often it is they who enrich your life. Feel into yourself when making your choice – your intuition will tell you which house tiger suits you and will change your life.
We wish you a great time with your cat and good luck to both of you!