Sometimes coat markings are faint or similar in color to the rest of the hair, but they’re there if you look close enough. Sometimes with other colored cats, you can only see the tabby markings if the light hits the fur at the right angle. This is because the gene for those coat colors also makes tabby markings visible.Īlso Read: All About The Majestic Orange Tabby Cats For example, you’ll never find an orange or cream-colored cat that is not a tabby. Without pulling out the punnet squares we learned in high school biology, there are other ways to determine if a cat is a tabby without taking a close look at the coat patterns. Besides the classic “M” marking, tabbies also have thin stripes on their faces and markings around their eyes. Legend says this letter stands for Mau, the ancient Egyptian word for “cat.” Others claim the “M” stands for Mohammed or the Virgin Mary. All tabbies have a distinctive “M” on their forehead. You can start identifying a tabby by looking at the cat’s face. You can’t call every cat a tabby cat, but it is the most common coat pattern among domestic cat breeds (including mixed breeds). Some cats have other genes that mask the tabby characteristics. This doesn’t, however, make every cat a tabby cat. If you want to get technical, all cats possess the gene for tabby markings. Identifying a tabby starts with understanding what a tabby actually is and knowing the different ways those genes affect coat patterns. The term “tabby,” however, refers to a cat’s coat pattern and has nothing to do with breed. You can also breed cats to have traditional tabby characteristics.
It’s true that many tabby cats can look alike. It’s a common mistake, however, to use this word to identify a specific cat breed or cats in general. When someone says the word “tabby,” it’s clear they’re talking about cats.
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