November 17, 2024, 6:58 am | Read time: 4 minutes
There are various statements and myths about cat coat colors. For instance, tricolor cats are said to bring good luck. But where does this superstition come from? And is it true that tricolor cats are always female?
“Black cats bring bad luck, tricolor cats bring good luck” is an old superstition that persists. Even today, cats with three different colors are commonly referred to as lucky cats. But what else do we know about these animals, sometimes called Calico, Tortie, or Tortoiseshell? PETBOOK explains what makes lucky cats special and whether they are really always female.
How Do Tricolor Cats Come About?
Basically, cats have only two base coat colors: red and black. White fur is not an independently coded color but rather the absence of color. There is no pigment that produces white; instead, genetic markers override red and black, creating various other coat patterns.
This includes markings, bicolored hairs, and striped or tabby patterns. These additional genetic factors can also result in white fur and a colorful mix of red and black patches. You can learn more in this article: Do You Know All Cat Coat Colors and Patterns?
To produce a tricolor cat, a bit of luck is needed. The cat must have the genes for red and black fur as well as the spotting gene for white fur. Many lucky cats also have the tabby gene for wild-type patterns, which results in striped or spotted fur. With their wild mix of information, they have essentially hit the genetic jackpot.
Lucky Cats Have Very Colorful Litters
However, this is true only for females. These tricolor animals are already quite rare, and for males, it’s virtually impossible to develop three colors. The reason lies in the inheritance of coat color information, which is located on the X chromosome. Males have only one X chromosome, while the Y chromosome carries no genetic information about the coat.
This means a male cat always inherits coat information from its mother. A red-and-white male cat can have a red-and-white spotted or red-black-white spotted mother. Since the female can pass only one X chromosome to male offspring, litters from tricolor cats are often very colorful and do not look particularly similar.
Do you know all the different colors and patterns of cats?
Why Kittens from the Same Litter Often Look So Different
Klinefelter Syndrome in Tricolor Male Cats
Despite this, male cats can sometimes show three coat colors due to Klinefelter syndrome, a genetic mutation where an individual inherits two X chromosomes and one Y chromosome. This means they have the genetic pattern XXY instead of the usual XY for males. This syndrome also occurs in humans and often results in reduced growth and smaller reproductive organs.
Klinefelter syndrome in cats is unfortunately not well-researched. However, it is known to occur when the chromosome set of the sperm or egg does not divide during cell division (meiosis). As a result, a fertilized cell contains a double set of chromosomes instead of a single one.
If this happens in a male cat, it carries two X chromosomes and can also develop three colors. “Lucky male cats” are very rare and likely to remain so, as they are usually infertile, as demonstrated by a 2014 study examining tissue from the testis of a lucky male cat.
Why Are Tricolor Cats Considered Lucky?
Since tricolor male cats are so rare, breeding tricolor offspring is usually not possible. Therefore, it remains a stroke of luck when the genetic information of the parent animals aligns to produce red, black, spotting, and tabby genes. The likelihood of a lucky cat being born is not particularly high.
Stories about lucky cats circulate in many cultures. In Japan, for example, there’s the legend of the Maneki-neko, which sailors took on ships. In Ireland, folklore suggests rubbing a lucky cat’s tail on warts. In the U.S. state of Maryland, the Calico has been declared the designated cat and symbol of the state.
In Germany, there were long-standing myths about the lucky cat. Until 1964, the zoological reference work “Brehm’s Animal Life” stated: “A tricolor cat protects the house from fire and other misfortunes, protects people from fever, and extinguishes fire if thrown into it, hence called ‘fire cat.’ Whoever drowns it will have no luck or be unhappy for seven years; whoever kills it will have no luck; whoever hits it must do so from behind.”
Fortunately, this view is now considered completely outdated. It is hoped that everyone today agrees that a lucky cat should not be used for firefighting but cherished as a beloved pet with a very special coat.