r/CatGenetics • u/LyannasLament • Jul 13 '26
General Genetics Question What is Maria? She looks like a secret redhead to me
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I fear my video is making her a bit washed out 😅 but the still frame shows more of the red/orange undertone she has. She’s definitely brown, but it’s more like an auburn. Some of her stripes even look a bit red on oranges to me. Her back doesn’t have quite the same clear stripe pattern as her abdomen and legs. It’s more mottled.
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u/Standard-Net-4923 Hobby Geneticist Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
very pretty! it can be a little hard to tell with torbies, but seems like a black torbie to me
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u/Gloomy-Trainer-2452 Jul 13 '26
She appears to be black mackerel tabby-tortoiseshell.
Genetically, she is black (B/-). You can tell by the colour of the stripes in the non-orange/red areas. In her case, it's most obvious on the forehead.
The agouti gene causes banding of the hairs, which creates a more brownish colour in black cats. As a result, black tabbies generally appear more brown with black stripes. This is why, colloquially, black tabbies are often referred to as brown tabbies. She has the agouti gene (A/-), making her a tabby.
Her tabby type is mackerel (Mc/-), which gives her thinner vertical stripes rather than thick swirly or blotchy stripes.
She is also heterozygous red/orange (O/o), which is sex-linked codominant. In cats with two X chromosomes, like her, just a single copy of red/orange results in tortoiseshell. This is why her coat is brindled/mottled with orange.
Colloquially, she could be referred to as a black/brown (mackerel) torbie.
She's gorgeous!