I know that Bengals can be marbled, but can a regular domesticated cat be one too?

Question

A friend of mine has a marble cat. I had inquired to what breed she had, she said that she did not know. I've been looking for this information for the last two days, and have found nothing....

Answer 1

Yes....plain ol' garden-variety domestic shorthair cats can have that pattern. It is officially known as the 'classic' tabby pattern....but 'marble tabby' is more descriptive.

I know this from years of studying cats and practicing as a DVM, but if I run across a link, I'll try to come back here and post it for you.

Answer 2

Other cats can also be marbled. Have you heard of the cat registry organization called TICA? They register all exotic cats. Do a yahoo! search and find their website. My mom and I breed Savannahs, which are part domestic cat and part serval. They are very sweet and they draw lots of attention. Most of the marbled cats like the bengals have tabby in their background. Do some searches and you will find many other cats that are marbled and domestic. Good Luck!

Answer 3

I take it you mean it has a broken tabby pattern (the stripes are broken into almost spots)? Yes, this does happen with domestic (mixed breed) cats, too. Many cat breeds are still being established - from breeding a domestic cat that has some difference the breeder wants to 'set' genetically like a coat pattern (Abyssinian & Ocicat), ear set (American Curl & Scottish Fold), tail length (Japanese Bobtail & Manx), etc. - these all popped up in a domestic litter. Learn more at www.cfainc.org

Answer 4

Let me introduce you to Lucy C. Tabby a DSH red classic tabby. She has some of those thick swhooshy stripes on her sides. The classic pattern is recessive, the mackerel pattern (the one with the thin parallel stripes) is dominant.
http://www.penmarric.ns.ca/Pedigree/catbreeds/tabbycat.htm