Rare Calico cats?

Question

I just want to know why are male Calico cats rare? I have a female but a lot of people tell me the boys are rare and I should find one for breeding and make $$$. I don't want to breed. I just want to have another friend. I am just curious to know why they are rare though.

Answer 1

It is true that male calicos are rare. However, breeding them isn't going to make you money unless you have baby males... which is rare! So, that is a waste of your time and effort. Calicos are predominately female. This is a result of the way that the feline genetic code accounts for the orange and black colors. The gene for fur color appears on the X chromosome. Therefore, calicos need two X chromosomes, which usually gives them a set of XX. This should result in a female cat. The Y chromosome does not contain any coding for fur color.
Therefore, since male cats are XY and not XX, calico cats are very rarely males. However, this is not always the case. Cells do not always divide correctly, so sometimes instead of an XX or XY sex chromosome pairing, the kitten ends up with three chromosomes. For instance, such a kitten may have XXY. If the two X chromosomes contain codes for different colors, then it is possible to end up with a male calico. This is very rare, as it requires that the correct colors of cats mate as well as that there is an error in the formation of the cat embryo.
.Calico cats are generally considered to be lucky throughout several different cultures.

Male calicos are so rare, and almost always sterile, it is impossible to breed calicos with each other. However, females can be bred by mating orange and black cats. If an orange male is bred with a black female, for example, there is a good chance that any female kittens will be calico. While you may end up with a calico male, however there is not currently any way known to purposefully breed male calico cats.

Answer 2

The gene for the orange color is recessive and carried on the X chromosome. It takes two of those genes to make a calico cat - one from the father, one from the mother. In mammal genetics two X chromosome produce a female of the species. Occasionally there is an aberration and a cat has and XXY combination (not the only one and the best known). The cat is male and a calico and usually is sterile. The same pattern can occur in humans and is called Klingfelter's syndrome.

So a male cat can have one X chromosome and not have any orange coloring and so can a female cat (one with the orange coloring gene, one without it.). When mating cats you cannot predict what color patterns the offspring will have.

Answer 3

It has something to do with genetics. The males are usually only carriers of the gene while the females will actually turn up as calico.

Answer 4

It has to do with genetics. The calico gene rarely shows up in males.