Different Tabby Cat Patterns

Tabby is a common coat pattern among domestic cats which features an agouti pattern of alternating dark and pale bands of colour along the hair shaft with contrasting darker spots stripes or sworls and a prominent m on the forehead.

Different tabby cat patterns. This type is often called a blotched tabby because the swirls look like smudges. Why do tabby cats have an m on their forehead. Classic a classic tabby has wide swirling patterns around its sides. It is no surprise the tabby cat is ubiquitous.

Tabby is a coat pattern and not a breed it consists of four patterns mackerel spotted classic and ticked. Ticked sometimes called a abyssinian tabby this patterned cat doesn t have the signature stripes on its body. A fifth includes tabby as part of another basic color pattern e g the patched tabby which may be a calico or tortoiseshell cat with tabby patches the latter is called a torbie. The gene for the tabby pattern can be found in all domestic cats.

Within their calico spots they may have tabby stripes. They are not a breed but rather a coloration variation that pops up in almost all breeds of cats. What colour is a tabby cat. Classic tabby cats have a distinctive m marking on their foreheads and a whirled or swirled pattern on the sides of the body that is also knowns as a bullseye like the mackerel tabbies classic tabbies too have dark rings on their legs and tails and stripes on the cheeks.

Some pointed breeds also allow tabby points within their color standards. Tabby occurs in several colours the most common are brown tabby silver and orange tabby. White orange and black. Grey tabby orange tabby and brown tabby.

See if you can figure out which tabby your cat is. Tabby cats feature distinctive strips lines swirling patterns or dots with a wide variety of patterns and colors. The classic tabby has bold swirling patterns along his sides much like a marble cake. American bobtails persians scottish folds norwegian forest cats and munchkins are among the most likely breeds to have tabby.

Although there are many variations of each the tabby pattern falls into four basic classes. Calico cats have three colors. The tabby cat is not a breed but a coat colour which can be found in both mixed breed and purebred cat populations. The term calico much like tabby refers to a pattern of colors rather than a breed.

The most common tabby coat pattern is the mackerel tabby. If a cat has three colors and the distinctive tabby forehead marking they re a calico tabby. Tabby cats are some of the most common cats in the world.