Silver tabby cats have black markings against a light gray background. Brown tabbyīrown tabbies have black markings over gray or brown fur.īrown tabbies are one of the most common domestic shorthair cat and longhair cat coat patterns. Tabby cats are often described by combination of the markings color and bast coat color. Tabby cats can have a range of colors with a mix of a darker color for the markings and typically a lighter base for the rest of the fur. Agouti is a fur color that has two or more colored bands running across each hair. The agouti gene is responsible for a cat’s tabby coat pattern. Inherited from their wild ancestors, tabby cats all have a type of coat pattern that has the classic “M” forehead marking, thin pencil lines on the face and around the eyes, banding around the legs and tail, and patterned body that can be one of four patterns: mackerel, ticked, spotted, and classic (also known as marbled).
Tabby cats are not a cat breed but a coat fur pattern found on many types of cat breeds as well as cats of mixed breed origin. Many believe that that M on a tabby’s head stands for Mohammed, protector of cats.Tabby cats are the most common type of domestic cats. A variation of this story, tells of how Muezza saved Mohammed’s life from a poisonous snake that had crawled inside his sleeve. In the Islamic legend, Mohammed’s cat Muezza was said to be sleeping on the sleeve of his robe and rather than disturb his cat when he had to go to prayer, Mohammed simply cut off the sleeve. Keeping with the religious theme, there are a number of well-known stories about the Prophet Mohammed’s love of cats. As a sign of her gratitude, Mary stroked the cat’s head, and her gentle touch left behind the initial M on the cat’s forehead. In Christian folklore, a tabby cat curled up alongside baby Jesus in the manger keeping him warm with the heat of his body. Could it be that the M stands for Mau? Mary In Ancient Egypt cats were called by the name Mau, probably because of the sound they made (meow). There are a number of legends which explain the reason for the M which one do you prefer? Mau Tabbies also look like they’re wearing eyeliner with pencil thin lines outlining their beautiful eyes. One thing that all tabbies have in common is a marking on their foreheads that looks like the letter M. Why Tabby Cats Have an “M” on Their Forehead Brenda Griffin at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine.
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If you’re not sure how to identify the coat markings or colours of your cat, check out this easy Cat Identification Guide compiled by Dr. RELATED: Chartreux Cat: Breed Information and Personality Need Help Identifying Your Tabby Cat? Abyssinian cats are a good example of this type of tabby coat pattern. But look closely, and you’ll probably be able to see the tell-tale stripes or swirls.
That’s because ticked tabbies usually have agouti hairs, which have variable colours along the length of the hair. Ticked or agouti tabbies will have the tabby markings on their faces, but at first glance you might not spot any tabby markings on their bodies. Instead of having strong lines on their coat they have spots or patches of colour, usually against a background of lighter coloured fur. Spotted tabbies have similar markings to either the mackerel or classic tabby.
This classic pattern is often compared with a marble cake. Classic TabbyĪlso known as ‘blotched’ or ‘marbled’ tabbies, a classic coat has circular swirls, usually with a ‘bullseye’ design on the cat’s sides. This is also the most common tabby coat pattern. Mackerel TabbyĪ mackerel tabby has vertical, usually non-broken, stripes that come out from the stripe that runs down the middle of the cat’s back like a fishbone, hence the name mackerel. There are four distinct coat patterns found in the tabby cat which are: mackerel, classic, spotted or ticked. This is centred just above their eyes and is the prominent marking that sets tabbies apart from other cats. The most distinctive and defining feature of a tabby cat is the “M” on their forehead.
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Colours include brown, grey (also called blue), ginger, plus white or cream. The tabby coat pattern is common to many cat breeds, and there are different colours too. What is a tabby cat? And why do these cats have an “M” on their forehead? Although some people refer to the tabby as a breed of cat, it actually just refers to the pattern of their coat – those lovely striped, spotted and swirled sections of colour that you see in types of tabby cats.
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